First day in our new apartment (late by Jimmy)

by Jimmy (I wrote this post the day after our first night in our apartment, and did not post it. So here it is...)

Friday, Aug. 19, 2011

We are in Haiti! And we spent our first night at our apartment. The first two nights spent in Haiti we stayed in the Heartline Guesthouse, graciously served by new Guesthouse managers Ryan and Melissa. Though the stay there was quite enjoyable, both Becky and I were ready to move into our apartment. The property, and our front yard in particular, is beautiful. I am writing this on our patio, as a light breeze blows through the early morning mango tree filtered sunshine.

We were only able to move in yesterday due to Aaron and Troy's hard work. We had to run new electrical wire to our apartment from the main breaker box, since our batteries were not being charged by EDH. (Glossary term EDH: Haiti's national, not-so-reliable, but much appreciated when it is on, power company.) It was also a night of learning. EDH turned off about 9:00, so I was watching it fairly closely every time I woke up, which just happened to be just about every hour. The battery percentage slowly descended through the night from 100% to 50% where I was awakened by an F08 error at 3:00 AM. Not knowing what an F08 error was, I hit the reset button, and the power stayed on. Knowing not to let the batteries get too low (20% by Aaron and/or Troy's advice) because they are bad for the batteries, I turned off our apparently energy hungry fan which lowered our usage by half, and I figured we would be good well into the day, where hopefully EDH would return to recharge. Well, promptly at 5:00, as the sun was coming up, the inverter peeped loudly again with an F10 error, I checked the percentage, and it was suddenly at 10%, I hit the reset button, which shut the whole thing down. With light we could get up, and I could check the owner's manual. Apparently F08 is the warning that the batteries are too low, and should be shut down. And here I was letting them continue too far.

(Sidenote: My mango tree filtered sunlight, just turned to mango tree filtered smoke as the neighbors apparently are burning trash.)

I also made the mistake of not setting up the mosquito netting yesterday. We figured we would just keep the doors closed, and have the three fans blowing directly on us. We sweated heavily throughout the night even with very good air movement. When we opened the doors outside, it felt almost cold. So for tonight I set up the mosquito netting and open at least the windows, and with the fans is should be so much cooler. Haiti lessons are coming on fast.

And here is the completed castle... Another lesson learned is that you actually have to tuck the sides in between the mattresses, or the mosquitoes will still find a way in.

Every day is a new lesson.