6 RYAN KAMPHUIS UTSAV GANDHI campus@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, March 8,2011 IPRO 335 in Haiti - Day 3: spiders and solar panels By Simon Brauer TECHNEWS WRITER We woke up comfortably the third morn- ing. With our goal seemingly completed the day before and no clear agenda for the next day, we all took a much-needed rest after the long car rides. We gathered down in the out- door cafe area. With no time restraint, the gradual build-up of the meal seemed like a re- ward to yesterday’s hard work. Eventually we were greeted by the Haitian OLPC team and they surrounded us at the table. We discussed what we had seen at the schools and the con- clusions we had come to, that there was one school that stood far above the rest. But, of course, it wasn’t going to be so easy to convince ourselves. Missing from this con- versation were the three heads of the project: Dr. Hosman, who is leading the IPRO, Guy Serge Pompilus who works at Haiti’s OLPC organization, and Bruce Baikie who helped initiate the project. After much discussion between the IIT and Haiti teams, the oth- ers joined us. Dr. Hosman related to us that Guy Serge, who had a much closer relation- ship with the schools, had advised us to look deeper. He had expected us to make the choice we had made, but from his own experience he knew that structural capacity isn’t the only fac- tor in installing new technology in an under- developed country Hand it to a group from an architecture and engineering university to only look at the physics of the situation and be completely blind to the social and interper- sonal aspects - and we might have a problem. In fact, Guy Serge informed us that his percep- tion of the most supportive schools, the ones who would be most willing to work with us, was the exact opposite of how we had graded the schools structurally The other team mem- bers from Haiti weighed in and agreed that there was more information to be gathered from the school oflficials that was imperative to a successful implementation. Clearly, our work wasn’t done in Haiti. Our plan, then, was to spend the day in Port-au-Prince to see where we could purchase Just your friendly neighbourhood Haitian spider [ Image courtesy Simon Brauer] solar panels, then head back to Mirebalais to spend the night. From there, we would drive to Lascahobas the next morning to talk more with the school oflficials to see how willing they were to work with us in achieving our goal. We could then take both the physical constraints and the social hindrances into account in our decision for a trial installation. We split up and headed across the city so that we could see the stock at four different stores. To our surprise, several did actually have solar panels, though the prices tended to be situated on the expensive end. Other stores, however, turned out to be less fruitful; despite our contacts insistence (and they reaflcirmed this after we returned empty-handed). One store turned out to be more of a furniture and appliance store, with couches and love seats from wall to wall—one was even placed on the unreachable outcrop above the door. There were certainly options in Haiti, though, and it was surprising to see what the Haitian people actually have at their disposal for powering their homes. With our work done in Port-au-Prince, we headed back over the mountains to our next hotel, which was the same place we had eaten at the day before. With palm trees, peacocks, and a resort-like feel, we were truly look- ing forward to a relaxing night in Mirebalais. With no dinner, we headed back to one of our rooms to further discuss the project. But unbeknownst to us, Haiti loves to surprise its visitors with guests of their own. As we all sat there talking, one of us jumped and pointed to- wards the door. A large, long-legged spider had crawled in, and another was waiting just out- side for that lucky individual who would try and escape. With no one brave enough to try and crush it, we simply grabbed a coffee cup and covered it for the night, leaving a picture on a post-it note for the clean-up personnel in the morning. Needless to say, when we left for our own rooms we checked every corner; luck- ily, we only found cockroaches and small liz- ards... luckily. Unsurprisingly, we slept lightly that night. For more information on IPRO 335, please check out http://iiternpoweringhaiti.org/ and the II T Empowering Haiti facebook page for up- dates, events, and pictures of our work. 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