Stay tuned...

Are you ready for the next cycle of Haiti-earthquake stories on CNN?

The next headline will read this: millions without shelter as rains begin.

Yes, the rain is coming. This mad dash for food you currently see is going to pale in comparison to the mad dash for shelter. WFP will smile as the attention turns from "how many people were fed today?" to "how many people received shelter?" The agency who will take the heat is IOM. Be prepared to see IOM spokespersons talking about camps and tents and tarps and... oh jeez.

Its coming but no one is talking about it. I wonder why journalists don't look at the forecast and do the math? Anyways, I've got a source for shelter and we'll begin rolling out distributions the day after tomorrow. I just need to find a way to clone myself.

Today I could have shot someone. At our distribution we almost lost control. It was tense. No security came. No one. I was promised UN military, I was promised Haitian police. No one showed up. Then they said patrols will come by. None came. We had about 6 or 7 spoilers trying to stir things up. They'd sneak in the line-up, pester people, distract our staff and then steal a voucher. I swear I might have shot them if I was armed. They got away with a half dozen sacks of rice. At the end we were short a half dozen and I had to tell the families to come back tomorrow. Security better show up tomorrow cause bet your ass those guys will be back, and I might be armed.

PS - The director of an organization that works to end forced child labour in Haiti came by to ask for food commodities today. His assistant is the most beautiful Haitian women I've seen yet. She carried herself well and spoke beautifully too. He'd been calling me for a week with his request and I wanted to help him but was just busy. I could tell he was slightly irked that I'd put him off for so long. Why he didn't have her call me I don't know--he could have sped things up rapidly. I suppose that makes me sound shallow, but its the truth. Sitting there in the office listening to him go on and on making his case all I could think was 'shut-up and let her do the talking and I'll get you whatever you want'. She just politely smiled whenever I looked at her, then another appointment showed up and before I knew it she was gone.
And yes, I still provided them with all they requested... for the kids, of course... for the kids.