Yesterday I spent the day installing QuickBooks Not for Profit and trying to setup the new chart of accounts. Not my typical Hands On Disaster Response work but it feels good I am helping them. The office here is more active than my office in Minneapolis! There are lots of us working hard on many different projects. Architects are designing, people are discussing current and upcoming projects, people are entering data and of course answers questions from folks in the field and locals looking for help. After our dinner of rice and beans and a few mini hot dogs left from lunch we had our nightly All Hands On meeting. These are always entertaining and provide us with stories and discussion points. Last night one of the teams discussed how they felt unappreciated by a homeowner. Others pointed out that no matter where you are in the world you will always come across people that don't appreciate what you do. I think the fact that this same rubble team had worked at another house the day before where the homeowner was helping them and bought them cold cokes throughout the day was the other extreme so it was easy to feel unappreciated. It was interesting to learn that houses here are what people invest in and are handed down for generations. So the fact that the homeowner had a nice or large house, does not mean he will be able to rebuild it or that he has the financial power to be able to pay someone to clear the rubble. In this case it was a man who lost his wife in the earthqauke and is trying to support 5 children.
HODR is planning on rolling out a local volunteer program on Monday. We had one in Gonaives as well. It does help to get local people involved. They help us with some language barriers and can help explain to other people that we are not getting paid. The volunteering concept is not well understood here.
The volunteers here are all great. It has been fun getting seeing some of the same folks from the Gonaives project and meeting new folks. I feel more comfortable and welcomed than I did at in Gonaives. There are close to 100 of us here on base. It is a lot of people, but the space is so large that in a way it does not feel like there are that many people here.
I hope to take some photos today and post a link to them. Hope everyone is doing well.
1 comment:
Your volunteering this time is different but just as important. I hope you get many local volunteers. It gives them an opportunity to learn, help, take pride in what they do and share with others. Keep swatting! Mom
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