Peanut Butter and Cheese Puffs

yeah I know - not what you expected the title of the next blog to be!  That is why I came up with it.  I have to keep you readers guessing as to what might come next.  That is the sign of a good writer :)

I realize I haven't posted anything since yesterday and that seems like a lifetime ago.  I have been very busy since then....they put me right into working on the 90-day budget and breaking it out by sector.  Let's just say its a very extensive budget and there are at least 9 sectors if that gives you any idea of the complexity of the task.  Updates are constantly coming in.  Anyway enough of that boring finance stuff we can move on to other things!  

I have one word that keeps coming to my mind as I've driving around and talking to the Haitian people:  Resilience.  Even our Response Director has said that the Haitians are among the most resilient people he has ever seen (and this gentleman knows what he is talking about he gets deployed to every humanitarian disaster anywhere in the world).  They are selling artwork on the streets, there is all kinds of fruit for sale, people are pulling their lives back together again.  One colleague lost a daughter and was in here yesterday working.  I could see the pain in her eyes b/c I recognized it.  Yet she stoically has kept working.  I know for a fact I wouldn't have been able to do that after my mother was taken from me so quickly.  Resiliency. 

This group of co-workers are really a great team from all over the world.  They are working literally all the time it seems.  The pace is very intense.  There are various teams doing various things.....you've got people out doing the food distributions and then others working in the Child Friendly Spaces and many others doing assessments and going to UN meetings, etc.   I am sure I don't even know everything that is going on right now!  There are media/communications people here in addition to Program Staff and Finance Staff....basically you name it we've got it deployed as part of this Response.

Speaking of a sense of community, the international group here is quite impressive....folks are here from just about every country you can imagine.  They are all a part of an extended network...and in an ironic way they all know each other from past disasters. 

So the conversation goes something like this :  "Where are you from?"  "Canada".  "Do you know so-and-so?"  "Yes, I worked with her during the Senegal Locust Invasion" or "yeah, she and I did XYZ during the Tsunami in Aceh".   These people have forged their friendships in the most difficult of circumstances.  


Because we have staff dispersed in various buildings in PaP, I went over to our main office today to drop off some cards from the staff in the DC office.  They were very appreciative.  The main office is still standing, but it was damaged.  They are getting 3 different engineers in there to figure out if they can move back in or not.  It looks like they will be able to, but there are deeper wounds.

The staff still see cracks on the walls and don't want to move back in until those are fixed....remember the office was full when the earthquake hit and everyone here is expecting another very large aftershock.  Perhaps this reaction will diminish over time, perhaps after a while the staff won't notice the cracks.  After the Tsunami, it took a few weeks for the fishermen in SE Asia to get back into the ocean, and this is kind of the same thing.  All that being said, if the building is deemed safe then I'm sure they will get in there w/some plaster and cover up the cracks. Appearances do matter. 

Isn't that a great illustration of the pains we experience in life??  We know when something happens that hurts us deeply and yet people tell us we can move on.  So we find some kind of way of dealing with things (i.e. the "patch") and we pretend like the crack isn't really there.  But the crack is still there.

I digress.  I'm good at that eh??  How do you people keep up with me anyway? :)


Speaking of crashing, I said on FB we are all in one big team house.  I'm just shocked that house is still standing....it is located on the side of a steep hill.  It feels like a strong house, but then again so does every house I've ever been in so I don't know the difference I guess.  I'm on a cot next to a colleague in the middle of the living room on the 2nd floor (this house is rather large by the way - its has a few different levels).   All the windows are open, there are no screens and so in terms of the mosquitoes, well let's just say I was covered in bug spray immediately after taking a cold shower. Nothing like a healthy dose of pesticide when you don't have any moisturizer, eh? 

So, there is a kitchen but no gas.  Electricity comes and goes about 20 times a day.  There are all kinds of snacks on the counter top which is why I titled this blog peanut butter and cheese puffs. I'm surprised to find these things here, but then again what else can you eat when there isn't any way to cook "real" food?

Speaking of health, we've had three colleagues get sick today - they don't know what it is.  They are guessing it is the water (there are those jugs that are supposed to have purified water but I guess it is tap water).  I'm sticking to the small bottles and hoping that since those were bottled in the DR that they are OK.  I really don't want to get sick while I'm here. 

Tomorrow = more work.  I'm not sure what I will be doing.  I hope I get to go out to do a food distribution or some other activity like that but we will see.  Probably more budget stuff though.  

It is day by day around here.  There is a very good sense of hope in the air I have to say. 

I'm finding myself grateful for all those little things.  Gratefulness is one of those good "patches".