So, I’ve been in Haiti for two weeks now. Two weeks. It seems like a long time, but I have to keep reminding myself that it really isn’t, that I can’t expect myself to know everything, and be able to do everything, instantaneously. Frustrating though. But booooy am I ever sure now that this is going to be (and already is!) an ego shattering and growing experience.

For the time being I have been exploring and learning about our different projects, learning the ropes, figuring out how things work at the UN compound where the different agencies and NGOs meet in their so-called “cluster” meetings to network, coordinate and discuss on-going action and strategies, to demand or offer funds, services, goods. Although I find it extremely interesting and there are some good things going on and good connections to be made, it is also striking to me that although the common website is called One Response, the over-riding feeling and culture is corporate and kind of competitive rather than giving a feeling of cooperative collective action.. A shame, but oh well.

My job is to be the liaison between AMURTEL (and also to a certain extent AMURT) and the UN clusters that deal with issues relevant to our work in the camps, and with the children, and to our plans for developing ecovillage-type sustainable community models outside of Port-au-Prince (e.g. the food cluster, shelter cluster, agriculture, child protection, camp management etc) It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride so far since my contact persons on both the AMURT and AMURTEL side have been out of town for a week, and a lot of work is needed now within AMURTEL, now that the immediate emergency phase is over, to rethink, identify and clarify our medium to long-term strategy, our resources, areas of assistance and each person’s role. And because representing the organization requires good knowledge of everything we are doing, ensuring a good flow of information is important and facilitating communication within the AMURTEL team has proven a bit of a challenge. But things keep getting better, so I’m positive. Although I have to come to terms with and accept the fact that total clarity on what is going on will perhaps never occur.. Oh the joy of working with people! People of all sorts, with their own styles and alternate universes they seem to inhabit haha

Also, because the UN provides free helicopter flights for NGO as well as UN staff within Haiti and to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and because I spend a lot of time at the UN log-base anyway, I have become a sort of travel agent dealing with the bureaucracy of fixing flights for both AMURTEL and AMURT … Fun, fun! Haha. Nah, although it can be tedious, it is actually cool because it is one of the few areas in which you get little tangible results rather quickly, hehe.

Ok, I feel like I maybe ought to write more concretely about what AMURTEL has done since the earthquake, and what we are planning now going into the post-emergency phase, but that’ll have to be next time. Also in the “coming soon” category you should hopefully soon be getting some pictures and descriptions of this quite extraordinary place and people…