Day 2 - first meetings

5 part day (Excellent. The only alarming part was that it was stated that this is “easing into it”. Not sure I’m ready to meet the full blown days yet).


1. Free morning. Found myself walking around the village at 7 AM after 2-3 hours of waiting for it to be late enough. Night watchman (we have a private security guard in a near by apartment) accompanied me in a walk to the school and then village (it was not a security measure. He was just being hospitable). I can’t wait to be part of the scenery instead of the village spectacle. Frankly, I can’t even imagine how that would be.

2. Stopping by to say hello at a children rehabilitation center that includes autistic, mentally retarded and some ‘normal’ kids and babies that were found uncared for after the earthquake and picked up by a health organization. Have mixed feelings about this place. But – clean, provides food and shelter which lot given the alternatives.

3. Attending a meeting at the Corails camp. This is a camp built outside (and not very close) to the city. There’s a weekly meeting open to any organization that has a stake in the camp. The general purpose is supposed to be coordination between the various organizations. In reality this was a 2 hour tent sauna with ~20 participants that was mainly dedicated to repeating the summary of the last meeting and some blame throwing at stuff that doesn’t work as expected. There’s a new and energetic camp manager (3rd in 3 months, the previous one lasted only a few weeks) that seemed as shocked as I was at the lack of visible purpose / progress.

Our small errand and reason for attending the meeting: try (and not for the first time) to get the “camp” to allocate an alternative place for a library that was operating until the “camp” decided that is was poorly positioned and asked that it be taken down. Progress made: we were promised that the issue will be discussed at a Monday meeting.

The main things that concern most of the camp organizations there are:

- Getting ready for the hurricane season (progress made: everyone showed concern and agreed that it was very important to address this as soon as possible).

- Security (lighting at nights, having a community watch patrol)

- Health (is water contributing to disease spread? Water official: NO)

- Getting water in the infirmary (!)

- Controlling camp residents vs. visitors that come for the free utilities

- Permanent buildings. Progress and concerns.