Sitting on the ground while considering options, Kevin hears new voices. He looks up and is sees an old Haitian man climbing the hill, followed by a young boy. Panielle is already watching carefully. When the man arrives at the tower, he begins telling a lengthy story. Kevin can’t follow it, but Panielle is nodding along and translates, “He claims he’s the caretaker for this site but hasn’t been paid by the pastors in years.” At this, the old man interrupts and announces “Mwen se, Guardian Joseph”. Panielle looks expectantly at Kevin, who just shrugs and replies “Tim never mentioned a caretaker or guardian for this site.” The man begins a heated exchange with Panielle, gesturing at Kevin saying, “blan” and “tout sanble”. The old man gets increasingly agitated while Panielle looks back at him without expression. Finally Panielle gestures in the direction of Kevin’s tool box on the ground, shrugs, and looks away as if finished with the conversation.
Guardian Joseph sees the Radio Protestant logo on Kevin’s gear and relaxes slightly. Kevin introduces himself, reassures the caretaker that Tim sent him, and then asks about the sand in the fuel tank. The old man looks surprised and shuffles his feet nervously. He looks at the young boy beside him and mutters something. The young boy begins speaking with urgency as Panielle translates, “He says some zenglendo came up here a few weeks after the other engineers left and tried to get into the transmitter building. But when the locks were too strong for their bolt-cutters, they filled the fuel tank with sand and gravel and took the fuel filter with them.”
Guardian Joseph says something sharp to the young boy, who flinches and then steps away from the conversation. Kevin looks directly into the guardian’s eyes and says to Panielle, “Ask him why the boy was up here and not him.” Panielle snorts, “Let’s not make this worse.” After sighing deeply and looking at the sky, Kevin turns back to the caretaker who is watching him carefully. The wind kicks up just then and everyone starts shivering. Kevin has a warm jacket with a hood. He’s already grown accustomed to the warmer temperatures at sea level, so he’s glad he brought extra gear. He notices that the young boy is off by himself, wearing nothing but shorts and t-shirt and is shivering so much that his teeth are chattering and his face is streaming with tears. Kevin takes an extra sweatshirt out of his bag and gestures to the young boy to come get it. Instead, the guardian grabs it out of Kevin’s hand and tells the boy to sit back down. The older man pulls on Kevin’s sweatshirt and thanks him profusely.
Kevin is about to insist that Guardian Joseph give the sweatshirt back to the boy, when Panielle leans in and mutters in his ear “Don’t waste your time. Until that boy turns twelve, he’s a liability and his family won’t do anything to help him. He’ll need to toughen up and take care of himself, before his family will give him anything other than food and water.” Kevin’s eyes are wide he takes a deep breath, “The kid just did that bastard’s job for him. Maybe we should hire him instead of a lazy old man who can’t even climb up here without help.” Panielle steps between Guardian Joel and Kevin and waits for Kevin to exhale, “Kevin. We need this guy to be OUR friend.” Kevin’s shoulders slump and he nods once. “Merci,” he says to Panielle, assembles his biggest, toothy smile and turns back to the caretaker, “Merci, Guardian Joel. Bon nom!”. Then he shakes the caretaker’s hand.
It’s getting late in the afternoon now and Kevin expects Henri’s team to be returning from the Catholic radio transmitter. Convinced that the diesel generator is useless, he tells Guardian Joseph that no more help is needed. With Panielle’s assistance, Kevin explains that he’ll add a few more solar panels to the array. That will keep the transmitter functional for at least a few hours a day. Kevin promises to give an update to the pastors in Cayes when he’s finished. He’ll ask them to send his back pay and an advance for the next year. With that, the guardian beams brightly and shakes Kevin’s hand. He shouts something at the young boy, who quickly runs to the old man’s side. Kevin sees Henri’s team making their way down the rocky path from the neighboring peak. Not wanting the caretaker to have more faces and names to recount later, Kevin walks and talks with him until they’re far enough down the path that Henri is no longer visible. Then Kevin shakes his hand again, pats the young boy on the shoulder, and slips him a candy bar before climbing back up to the transmitter site.
Henri soon arrives and tells Kevin that the Catholic transmitter has also been sabotaged. Kevin asks, “What kind of damage?”. Henri replies without much elaboration, “The bullet kind.” He fishes out a large glass tube that is one of the amplifier vacuum tubes. “This was the only tube they didn’t shoot up. Used a shotgun, so there’s not much more than cosmetic damage to anything else. But they knew what mattered.” Henri sighs, “Any chance you have some spare amplifier tubes in your pack?” Kevin looks closely at the markings on the tube and laughs darkly. Seeing the annoyance on Henri’s face he quickly adds, “This is the exact model of amplifier tube that this transmitter uses. Turns out someone stored a bunch of spares up here and forgot about them. I think we can get Ti Legiz radio transmitting, courtesy of Radio Protestant!” Henri and the men start laughing and clapping Kevin on the back, the word fou sounding like praise instead of criticism.