I think I need an early night tonight. A lot happened today.
We were able to talk to the electricians that walked out of our camp on Monday because they felt unsafe working there. One of our committee members had pushed their driver and it went downhill from there. We've talked them back to work, arranged security for them, and hopefully will see them fixing the camp lighting on Friday. This is critical for overnight security.
We had some Dutch folk visit the camp today. Six of them are from the NGO "Church In Action" (Kirk in Actie) which coordinates church NGO's from the Netherlands, including The Salvation Army, in terms of fundraising and overseas support. They are looking for ways to help us in Haiti on and ongoing development basis. I will meet with them again on Saturday for further negotiations.
Unfortunately they brought with them some ignorant journalists. Before we entered the camp I provided a briefing, including an instruction on the appropriate use of their cameras (e.g. photo activities or objects - not individuals). The people here already feel like they live in a zoo. I couldn't get the photographer to put his camera away. Ironically and painfully he even took photos of a lady complaining to us about a photo that had been published of her in a local newspaper. I couldn't get him to quit - even though he spoke English. My dutch IES colleague almost physically removed him.
We mediated a meeting with our partners and committee who were frustrated over a poorly conducted distribution earlier in the week. Also started to organise security for next week. We ordered some extra security gear from the US, and another 67000 condoms from UN/IOM. (Our health people tell us that's a three month supply for a camp population our size).
In the end a tiring day. Disappointing though that my hairdressers appointment got cancelled... moved to Friday.
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