Bondeau 2015 Water Project Journal
Verrettes, Hait was the first project undertaken by our founders before WFSV was created. Steve, Rick and Aimond along with help from many friends, family members and locals installed a water system for the Good Samaritan School on Verretttes. Over 5 visits to the village they:
  • Cleaned the existing well
  • Repaired the hand pump
  • Drilled a new well
  • Installed a solar panel array, battery bank & power station
  • Constructed a pump house with chlorinator and pressure tank
  • Installed sinks in the clinic and school
The Verretes project inspired Steve, Ricka and Aimond to form Water For Small Villages in 2012 and earn a 501(c)(3) charity incorporation from the IRS. Sadly, Bondeau Haiti was the last project they would work on together. As the organization grew and more people tried to steer the organization, the focus started to change. It was the end of the Rick and Steve show as it was plainly put in the last board meeting Rick would attend. Achieving the most possible with the donated funds people donated was also not a top priority for some. The organization underwent significant changes in 2016 and Rick parted ways with hopes of remaining friends with Steve and Aimond and he formed Clean Drinking Water Team in December 2017. these are the last journal entries on the Bondeau Haiti project. as of 2018 Water For Small Villages was still working hard in Bondeau trying to make a difference.

Solar & Septic | The solar panels have been installed installed on the Guest House June 12th and we understand they are now enjoying reliable electrical service 24x7. The final work is being completed on Kay Timoun and they will also enjoy having reliable electrical service which they have long been waiting for. The septic tanks at Kay Timoun and one teachers tank were cleaned out on June 6th.
We have identified the best location to install a new well and will now make final preparations to ship our well equipment to Haiti. An order for pipe and tanks has been placed and we expect the container to arrive in Bondeau on July 29. Generator repairs were completed during the last visit. We installed a new muffler, exhaust pipe and an oil change. We chlorinated the tanks on the guest house and Kay Timoun orphange. See our photos...| 2015-05-10 |

Packing the Shipping Container | We reached a milestone today, the well supplies arrived and we re-packed the shipping container. Thanks to some fantastic team work, and being watched over by the Holy Spirit, the rain held off, an unexpected volunteer showed up and everything was completed as planned. After waiting for a thunderstorm to pass our team (Mike, Nancy, David, Richie, Lillian, Evioun and Rick) unloaded the container, and organized the boxes under a tarp to keep dry. It took less time than the estimated 2 hours and we even had time for a rest under the tent while we waited for the delivery truck to arrive. The truck arrived at 3PM exactly as promised and we loaded 10,000 lbs of sand and pipe into the container. Then we had the difficult task of re-packing the 73 boxes, buckets, cabinets, bags and bins back into the container. Nancy and Dave were the puzzle masters as they directed the team on how to best stack the items and maximize use of the space. By 5PM we were finished as we had hoped. We are now waiting for the last of the supplies and will ship the container to Haiti very soon. See our photos... | 2015-06-26 |

Shipping the Container | After a long wait our shipping container has finally left for Haiti. In the last few weeks we had to move the container from St. Paul's in Delray Beach to Epiphany Lutheran in Lake Worth because we went beyond our allowed time to store the container in Delray. The 19,000lb. container was moved by Sheehan Towing. TOday Sheehan returned to lift the container onto a truck and transport it to the Port of Miami. We are extremely grateful for our new partnership with Food For the Poor(FFTP). FFTP will help us ship the container, receive it in Port-au-Prince and truck it to our project site in Bondeau. What a relief! The container shipped and we are now preparing the ground location for the container due to arrive between Oct 12-30.
View Photos | 2015-09-19 |

Preparing for Arrival of Container in Bondeau | Oct 2-5 Rick and Cordella traveled to Bondeau, Haiti to prepare the site for delivery of the shipping container. Rick and Cordella departed for Haiti at 3AM. Rick's mom and dad drove to the FLL airport where the adventure began almost as soon as they arrived. They could not check-in at curbside because they had two one way tickets on different airlines and the departing airline insists on verifying you have a return flight before they will let you leave. The best arrangement we could make was Spirit Airlines going down from Ft Lauderdale and Jetblue coming back through Miami. The 1hr50min flight was very pleasant and we soon landed in PAP. Aimond picked them up at the airport, they rented a pickup truck from Avis, purchased supplies in Port-au-Prince and then drove to Bondeau. Upon arrival in Bondeau they were greeted by Pastor Phanord and Deacon Anita. They discussed plans for the next day, ate a good dinner and then they visited the children Kay Timoun. They now enjoy reliable electrical service from the solar array but they are anxious for a reliable water supply. The children held evening prayer and sang hymns in English and Kreol. Shortly after nightfall everyone turned in for a good nights rest.
Saturday was a full day of work rounding up supplies, overseeing the workers and seeing digging and pouring five cement footers for the container. By night fall the work was completed. After a good dinner Aimond, Rick and Cordella went into town looking for ice and ened up at a Digicel event were they finally received Digicel t-shirts they have long been looking for. They returned to the guest house and turned in for the night.
On Sunday morning everyone attended service in the newly constructed church. The choir sounded wonderful, the pews were full and we sat with the children from Kay Timoun. After service we enjoyed lunch, final clean up of the site for the container and we had to leave for Port-au-Prince. Along the way we stopped in Fouche were we enjoyed some ice cold Prestige and fresh fish prepared by one of Aimond's friends. He runs a small private beach area with tables set under shade trees right near the water. We even went for a swim after we ate. After a relaxing lunch we continued on to Port-au-Prince and arrived at Aimond's house before dark. We marveled at the progress Aimond has made constructing his house. We relaxed, drank some Prestige and watched the sunset as we prepared to leave for FL the next morning.
View photos of the footers. | 2015-10-06 |

Steve will depart for Haiti and travel to Bondeau with Aimond. They will meet with the drill crew in Bondeau and inspect the container installed by Rick and Cordella. Then they will travel to Gonaives in northern Haiti to inspect the next project site.

Hurricane Mathew Damage Assessment | Steve made a quick trip to Bondeau to assess damage from Hurricane Mathew. There was some damage to the tin roofs on the cottages on the property but the main buildings fared well. Here is a link to photos from the visit and Steve's complete assessment.

BOX Photos
| 2016-10-17 |