An Ambulance/Transport/Fishing Boat!

Since coming to Ile A Vache, we have had medical needs come to our doorstep nearly every day. Mostly, the help needed is for first aid, headaches, etc. But occasionally, people have come with more serious problems that make a doctor or hospital visit necessary and that means a trip to the mainland seven miles away.

Taxi boat arriving from Les Cayes

There is one taxi boat a day from IAV to the city of Les Cayes and there have been times when the need couldn’t wait for that taxi boat. People have died because they couldn’t get to the mainland for medical care. JUST MERCY has long wanted to help with this situation and the construction of a wooden boat has started!!

Mssrs. Sonet, Ashlomme, Obli, Yvon, and Bill

The wooden sailboat is being built by Haitian boat builders here on the island. Brothers Mssrs. Obli and Ashlomme and Bill are building it. Their father was a wooden boat builder as his father was before him. Mssrs. Yvon, Sonet,  and sometimes Jureau are helping them.  They are teaching Bill how to build the boat and he is teaching them how to do finer woodworking on it and providing employment for the men which is so desperately needed on the island.

It has been exciting to see the boat take shape the last three weeks.  The tool of choice for nearly every task is the machete, but with the tools JUST MERCY has brought to the island, the quality of the woodworking is greatly improved.

Often one man will be using the hand electric plane while behind him, another uses the machete. Watching the craftsmen use their machetes to cut crooked branches into just the shape needed for bottom bracing has been amazing. They shave off edges with their machete just as Bill uses a spokeshave.

The boat is the talk of the village.  Everyone loves it and is so impressed with how we are able to smooth up the planks with the thickness planer that Bill and Aaron Hymer took apart in Missouri and packed into two suitcases, reassembling it upon arrival in IAV in early March, just in time for this project.

Using the new planer

The worksite is cleaned up of nearly every scrap and shaving of wood each night by the workmen’s families who live near by and come to pick them up for their cooking fires.  Ladies, how would you like to have to scrounge for wood every time you wanted to cook a meal?   We are blessed to have two propane burners to cook on and usually feed more than just ourselves at every meal.  Sherlie and Estane nearly always make extra food and neighboring children who often only get one meal a day (or less) receive food out of the kitchen and leftovers from the table.  Nothing goes to waste.

The boat will also take local fishermen farther off shore enabling them to catch larger fish than they are able to locally.  It will serve as transport for JUST MERCY as “chartering” a Haitian boat to bring our gear and visiting groups over to IAV is expensive.  More importantly, it will open up another world by enabling us to visit small villages around the island, letting us get close enough to remote areas to hike inland.

We hope to complete the boat itself this month (more photos below) but raising funds for the motor is another story. Though we are checking into other options, the best and fastest one is to buy the 25 HP motor new in Port au Prince. Buying out of country and shipping in has it’s own set of problems.  If you can help with the cost of the motor (over $5000 for a new one, less if we can find another viable option), please do.

Bill wrote the following to Aaron and Emily Hymer who were here with their children Mackenzie and Mason to serve in early March.

Hi Aaron and Emily and M&M. I expect thing are back to normal at home after a pretty crazy 10 days. It sure was good to be together and get to know each other better. 

Been busy on the boat since you left. Working with the guys has been great. Discussions with my very limited Creole and their nonexistent English on the nature of wood, joinery, physics of nautical engineering, and if beauty and utilitarianism have a common denominator has been….,what shall I say?….I’ll leave it to your imagination. 

She’s coming along great however and we hope to paint her later this week. 

Been thinking about all the possibilities this shallow draft boat will open up. Reaching many of the villages around the island with aid and the Message will become a practical possibility. Excited about the prospects!

The ladies in the kitchen sure miss you all. Especially Mason who kept them laughing!
A lot to tell, a lot to think about.

“We and the world, my children, will always be at war.  Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves.”
Leif Enger

“Surely I come quickly”
Jesus of Nazareth. 

For King and Kingdom!
Bill