waiting

Sitting in the Santo Domingo office. There are problems at the border - B is running around madly trying to ensure that the right documents get to customs so the trucks can be released and moved on to PaP. Because of this, there's no knowing when 

Mike Charlie Lima greeted me warmly at breakfast today. It was really welcome. I knew she was in DR, but hadn't thought about it this morning, and wasn't really expecting to see her anyway. I was struggling, in hideously broken Spanish, to explain that I was meeting a colleague whose name I knew but I had not met before, but B came up and saved me, and introduced me to the right people.

So, I'm awaiting news and watching B work. She's impressive, organising hundreds of things at once. I can't do much but be here to support if and when she needs a dogsbody. Logisticians amaze me. I flick between thinking its just an incredibly boring job, and thrilling. For just a taste of the challenges that B is facing at the moment, read http://morealtitude.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/why-aid-is-slow-getting-in-to-haiti/ and http://michaelkeizer.com/humourless/2010/logistics-questions-around-the-haiti-earthquake/

I've made several mistakes already. I left my water bottle in my bag in the hotel, rather than bringing it to the office. I locked my wallet with the hotel key in the room. (Well, actually I hadn't. I'd had it with me in my bag, but had them give me another key to be able to go back in and get it.)