Ethan Goes To Haiti
Last week while most of us were working here in the tristate area, Rich-Tomkins’ Ethan Musselman was working to make a difference in Haiti. Musselman, along with a handful of others from Ephrata, Pa., traveled to Saint Marc, Haiti to build houses with Youth with a Mission (YWAM).
Musselman had traveled to Haiti before for mission work. In fact, he was on the island in 2010 when the world witnessed the devastation a 7.0 earthquake could cause to a small island nation. Since then he had been looking for a chance to get back and continue to help in the rebuilding.
It was a little over a month ago when holding a Delta Faucet Company meeting with Glenn Weaver at Lanco Mechanical that the bug was put back into Ethan’s ear about making his return to Haiti.
Weaver let Ethan know he was looking for two more contractors, plumbers or skilled laborers to join him on his upcoming mission trip. After a little more discussion, Mussleman knew right where to find one of those people needed to fill the void- himself.
After getting vaccinated up and packing sawzaws in his carryon bags, Ethan was off to Haiti on Feb. 28th.
Mussleman and the rest of the group arrived and got settled in for a long week of work.
The group stayed on a base 90 minutes from the community they were building. The daily trek back and forth to the community was taken in the back of pick-up trucks and dump trucks with all of food, tools and water they would need for the 12 hour day.
Those on the trip worked hand-in-hand with Haitian contractors and community members on the houses. The interesting part is Ethan doesn’t speak Creole and the Haitians he was working with didn’t speak English. Ethan did find a way to communicate effectively with his Haitian counterpart, pictured here, and the two worked with a group 20 masons.
In total, the group completed one home, poured the foundation and footers for a second house and helped alleviate a key issue for the community to be sustainable.
A draught has left the Saint Marc community rice paddies dry. YWAM used one day to dig irrigation canals from the nearby river to existing canals and then installed an irrigation pump so the water could be pumped from the river into the paddies as needed.
Ethan was even able to catch a day at the beach before returning stateside.
The Rich-Tomkins team saw him on Monday, March 7, and he was still riding high on his experience. The RT team could not be more proud of his efforts to use his time, energy and skill to give back to a community that needs so much.
