Mountains Beyond Mountains

Have you ever read the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder? Its an account of Paul Farmer's work in Haiti. Its a good story and short primer on Haiti.

Spent the early AM putting the finishing touches on the distribution training I held at 9AM. Started the training by debriefing (used SWOT which worked okay) the national staff on the previous days distribution (the day I flew in). That distribution got ugly because... well, it wasn't planned. The team literally showed up with a truck full of food in an urban neighborhood. I was sympathetic of the national staff when I heard that their participation was minimal. They were likely afraid for their lives.

Nothing surprised me in debriefing: no plan, no uniforms, no security. I listened to them for a half hour and then gave them a pep talk on the mentality we needed to adopt in order to safeguard our work. I promised some uniforms and then set to work training them in roles and responsibilities. Security begins with the right mentality. Its hard to tell whether our staff is suffering from PTSD or whether they are just pissed off about one thing or another. Check that--they're all sleeping under tarps (if they're lucky) in the street. Given that they show up for work is remarkable.

Spent the afternoon performing assesments in the mountains overlooking PaP. Beautiful area. Mountains beyond mountains for sure. Lots of nice villas built by rich families perch over the edge of cliffs. Most seemed intact, though structurally they might have problems. Beyond the nice villas the paved road ends and you go up higher, into a region called Bellevue La Montagne. There we pulled over and walked.

Local community leader took me on a tour of his village. Small 12 by 12 houses built by cinder block cost a family around 6k to build. Almost all are destroyed. The families are farmers. Their wives sell the produce in the city. They all smiled and offered me some coffee.

I didn't stay long--just enough to get some data on the area. I was back at the office by sundown. After dinner we had a marathon meeting regarding our program proposals to the powers that be. I have fears that too much emphasis is being placed on relief. This is a common mistake post-earthquake. The emphasis needs to be on recovery. Its a tough sell though--people want to respond to what they see right now, not what the situation will be in x amount of weeks out. That and the fact that what you see on CNN is not what you see here. Markets are open, food is available. Assist people in recovery--that's what they're already doing.

Anyways, near the end it bogged down into smaller issues. I faked a phone call and snuck away to type this. Its midnight. I'm going to bed.