finding my feet

So, it was pointed out that I didn't say why my blog when from relaxed and casual to hectic very rapidly. 

I'm currently in Haiti, working as an advisor on the shelter strategy for one of the large organisations. I received a contract at 3pm on Friday, and left at 6am on Saturday. It's been a long trip.

Well, I should be an advisor for shelter, but it turns out I'm the only one here doing it. We have a specialist watsan person in a remote site who also does shelter, but that's it. It's gonna be a very steep learning curve. Thankfully, I know a lot of much more experienced people out here doing shelter for the other organisations, and they've all been understanding and offered support. 

[Pause whilst everyone looks up and there's clear consternation in the office. Turns out I just sat through an aftershock without noticing it at all. There was another last night, 5am local time, too. That one was big enough to cause those sleeping inside the building to get up and run out. Thankfully I'm in a tent outside and the worst that could happen is a flysheet collapsing.]

Half of our office is out of bounds, because it has yet to be structurally assessed. We're lucky, though, that we can use the other half. UN Base is filled with temporary tents used as meeting rooms, people crammed under a tarpaulin sheet because that's where the wifi access is. 

Food is a problem. The pipelines normally providing food in emergencies all seem to have problems. This is a challenging response, certainly - see the links in my previous post about logistics. But that food is such a difficulty means other forms of response are set back too. People given any other forms of assistance (clothes, blankets, cooking equipment, medical supplies - there are many, many forms of aid) just sell anything they're given in order to buy food. This means that when they do get food, they won't have blankets. 

It's 20.30 now, and I just got back from UN base. Coordination is vital doing this, but it has its drawbacks. With our office a while away from UN base, getting there and back takes time. I went for a meeting at 8.30 in the morning, and by the time that that was over, it made more sense for me to stay there for a meeting at 4pm. 

I was actually awake for the trip from the office to the UN base today. I wasn't, yesterday, having just arrived over land on a 12 hour minibus ride. That was the first time I really decided the aid community, in its desperate desire to only use large 4x4s even in urban areas, is very justified. The roads in places are strewn with rubble, tarmac folded up, in places just impassable. Houses look like someone's instantly magicked away all walls, leaving the floors and ceilings to collapse, and a roof sitting a couple of metres off the ground.

There's lots more to write, but I still have to work out what I'm doing for an 8.30am meeting tomorrow morning. I used the excuse of having 'just got here' at lunchtime today, and I was scoffed at - 24 hours is plenty of time. I'm now an old hand. More when I can.