Welding in Haiti

[wroughtn_harv]

Some place we can send some money to help purchase lenses? Do you have a PayPal account?

I think that is a great idea and would like to support it.

I will pm you more information as soon as we get things firmed up.

If this one thing doesn't work out then I will add this project to my other one when I go to Haiti hopefully next month for another thirty days. Once I am in Haiti then I can interact with the community leaders and the people working in the medical clinics to get the lenses out on the street and free to the welders.

Here's some photos taken by a friend who represents an NGO in Haiti. https://picasaweb.google.com/105651084973979044096/September32011

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I thought I would post some updates for my friends on TBN.

I am going back to Haiti 2/29 and I will be there until 4/3. The goal is to train fifteen to twenty women, funding, current 15, hope to get more for 20. We will train the women to process the plastic trash into the blocks and then make a model home with the blocks. The funding isn't from American charities btw.

One of our TBN members is a real deal hero. He found this thread and contacted me. He has been teaching welding to Haitians for the last couple of summers. He is a shop teacher in Wisconsin at a high school.

He contacted me and we discussed the lenses project. His students have made some hoods using lenses, cardboard, and duct tape. They are awesome.

His students is making up a how to video to share with the Haitians that I will be working with. He is also putting together some kits containing bolts, wingnuts, pattern, etc.

I ordered two hundred lenses yesterday to take with me.

If you are in north Texas and you want to have some fun and are free Friday the 24th you are invited to a rock and roll party in East Plano, TX. At 1:30 the house we built for SMU will experience a simulated 7.0 earthquake. There will engineering students and professors from the universities and the press. The only caveat is you have to be an American citizen to attend because it is a government approved facility and foreign nationals have to have some paper work in by this afternoon to be approved in time to go. Call me if this is an issue for you and you want to be there. 972 442 3987.

NTS labs
1701 E. Plano PKWY
Plano, TX

Google shake table tests on you tube, two days preparation, ten seconds of mayhem.

 

[jake98]

I fwd'd that to my southern tribe members, thanks Harv.

 

[Lowntown]

Hello all. First time poster i have been to haiti and have seen first hand what harvey is talking about. He will change the world for the better. We are putting together a kit with a paper template. Directions in english and creole. On building a helmet. Designed by high schoolers in shop class. I am starting a not for profit called global groundwork. Like us on facebook and i will post pictures and updates

 

[bindian]

Harvey and Lowntown,
God Bless Y'all for all Y'all are doing for the folks down there and elsewhere.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Lawnman TX]

Sounds interesting, I may try to be there.

 

[rsewill]

Great stuff. Thanks for the postings!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Probably ten years ago a friend told me about welders in China using hand held shields while welding. The shields were made with a welding lense and some cardboard.

After thinking about the street welders in Haiti a plan came together. Welding lenses, cardboard, duct tape, etc.

Mitch's kids have put it together. Notice they automatically started individualizing (customizing) their hoods.

Welders are arrogant badwords. I know because my wife married one. They like to stand out. I figure the welders in Haiti are the same. They will make the hoods their own, a statement about themselves and what they do.

This is a good thing. When all you have is your pride then it is all you have.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It's time for some updates.

I leave for Haiti in 5 days. 5 days from right at this moment I will be as nervous as I can be because I will be worried about what I'm forgetting to take. I will be at the local welding supply when it opens this morning picking up the lenses. Mitch has in the mail his package for me to take to Haiti.

I'm up to my butt in alligators with the Ubuntu-house project. I imagine my days will be pretty doggone full in Haiti. I will be having tons of visitors and I will be engaging a lot of interested and interesting people. But we never know what direction a project like these lenses will take us. I can see us spending months of legwork before it gets legs of its own and takes off. I can also see the potential for it becoming a very big thing.

I will be posting from Haiti here and Mitch will be posting here, on his facebook page "Global Groundwork". If you want to participate in any way you can reach me via facebook, or ubuntu-blox@gmail.com. PM's here work too.

I'm posting some photos for Mitch here from his Global Groundwork facebook page. He can comment on them.

 

[bindian]

God's Speed.
hugs, Brandi