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Thoughts from The Well

2011-04-04 · documentary visit · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development · mode: Documentary visit · tags: fundraising ask, heavy topic, recurring series, on location

Hank narrates the Savann Tabak villagers' walk to their water source, past a broken well, a sugar cane mill and storehouses on stilts, to a muddy spring, and reports that about six villagers recently died of cholera. He says they need a sustainable well, which Water.org will provide, and asks viewers to follow and give.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; Hank 'rotating through my posters'

00:00:03 — Back to Savann Tabak: the villagers lead Hank on a walk to their water; the broken well and the argument over when it last worked

  • ★★★ Hank says that right after he first met the people of Savann Tabak, the village he visited in Haiti, they took him on a walk to where they currently get their water. — 00:00:03
  • ★★ Hank says the walk first passed the broken well, built at some point and broken who knows when; older villagers argued about when it last worked without consensus. — 00:00:16

00:00:38 — Along the walk: the sugar cane mill (juice, syrup, rum sold in Port-au-Prince) and storehouses on stilts against rats

  • ★★ Hank explains the sugar cane mill: cane is squeezed for juice, boiled in vats fired by spent stalks into a thick brown syrup, barrelled and shipped off to be fermented into rum sold in Port-au-Prince. — 00:00:43
  • ★★ Hank says he was told the houses on stilts in Savann Tabak are not homes but food stores, raised on stilts to block rodents. — 00:01:09
  • ★ Hank likens the food stores on stilts to a squirrel-proof bird feeder with four poles, human food and rats. (playful) — 00:01:19

00:01:28 — Sugar cane shared with kids, Hank's misplaced worry about sugar, teasing about his teeth, cactus fences

  • ★★ Given sugar cane, which tasted like honey but wetter, Hank followed his guide and shared it with kids, then worried about their sugar intake and felt like a douche: childhood obesity is not among Haiti's problems. (playful) — 00:01:28
  • ★ Isaiid teased that Hank's teeth must be rotten like his if he didn't want all the sugar cane for himself; Genna defended Hank as just a nice guy. (playful) — 00:01:50
  • ★ Hank says everything in central Haiti is fenced by cactuses. — 00:01:59

00:02:07 — The spring: a warm, muddy hole in the ground where the village gets its water

  • ★★★ Hank says the spring was not what he pictured: a warm, muddy hole in the ground where the village gets its water, minutes after he had worried about the kids eating too much sugar. — 00:02:07

00:02:24 — No Carnival this year: about six people in the village died of cholera; cholera comes from dirty water

  • ★★ Hank recounts that the translator pressed Jan Baptiste about what the village did for Carnival, Haiti's biggest, funnest time; she said they did nothing and avoided the subject before explaining. — 00:02:24
  • ★★★ Hank reports that Jan Baptiste told the translator that around Carnival about six people in Savann Tabak, a village of sixty households, had died of cholera. — 00:02:51
  • ★★★ Hank says cholera is not a nice disease: without a doctor or hospital within a couple of days there's a really good chance you die, and people get it from drinking dirty water like the water he saw. — 00:02:59

00:03:08 — What they need is a sustainable well and infrastructure; Water.org will get it; follow and give at my.water.org/vlogbrothers

  • ★★★ Hank says what the village needs is a well plus community infrastructure to keep it a sustainable water source for the community's lifetime, and that Water.org is going to get them that. — 00:03:08 · Savann Tabak well, aid effectiveness
  • ★★★ Hank points viewers to my.water.org/vlogbrothers to see Savann Tabak's progress toward a sustainable water source and to give Water.org money for them and others like them. — 00:03:25 · Savann Tabak well

00:03:40 — Hank will make one more Haiti video, on how Water.org changes the model of charity; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says he will make one more video about Haiti, on how Water.org and its member organizations are changing charity from creating dependence to creating independence. — 00:03:40 · aid effectiveness

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: cholera · Savann Tabak · Savann Tabak well · water scarcity · Water.org

Also: aid effectiveness · childhood obesity · Haiti · Haitian Carnival · Port-au-Prince · sugarcane

Only in the description or credits: Thoughts from Places

Also centred on cholera: The Causes of Cholera

Also centred on Savann Tabak: Helping Haiti · We Built a Well in Haiti

Also centred on water scarcity: Looking Away

Also centred on Water.org: Helping Haiti · Horatio, the Newest Member of our Family · We Built a Well in Haiti · Looking Away

Replies to

  • continues · Helping Haiti — “So a couple of weeks ago I introduced you to some of the people of Savann Tabak”

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 4 videos, 2011-03-21 – 2011-04-06.