It's been a frantically busy last few days, with all the team working long hours. However it's paid dividends and this weekend we've moved into new offices (with our own generator to provide electricity and a newly installed internet connection). It needs some work doing before it's finalised but well on the way. To complete a good couple of days for the team on a personal level, we've now secured leases on two guesthouses, so that all of us will be living under solid roofs. A far cry from the first days of the emergency when the first arrivals camped out on the streets. I must admit it feels a little strange being in housing when so many are not, but the reality is quite simply that with Mercy Corps and other NGO staff working 15 hour days plus, we do need to make sure the team are fit enough to do this for a long time to come - and if they were sleeping rough it would be harder.
We've also been continuing work at the weekend on our programme activities - more WATSAN work, planning a major distribution for early this week of non-food aid for families (tarpaulins, kitchen equipment, bedding etc), and a big focus on recruiting local staff to help us in our work. With so many NGOs now active in Haiti good staff are in short supply, and so they are able to demand a premium. Those few young Haitians with strong experience, who also speak good English & French in addition to Creole can earn as much or more as for similar positions in the US. It's amazing to me how such a post-disaster situation can so massively distort the economy, but of course most such people share their good fortune with an extended family
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