My new saying

"It beats a tent in South Sudan."  

When I interviewed for my current job, the interviewer asked how I felt about team houses or team housing.  For those who don't know, team housing is pretty self explanatory.  To save costs, NGO's like my own rent entire houses or hotels and everyone who works in the office or base will also live together in the shared house/hotel.  This usually means team meals prepared by cooks, roommates and if you're lucky, a shared common room/ TV room.  So my response in the interview was "It beats a tent in South Sudan."  They laughed and we moved on the next question.  (It also beats sleeping on a mattress on the floor of your office  i.e Mozambique)

"It beats a tent in South Sudan" has kind of become my modo for living here in Tacloban.  Do I want to live in a hotel?  Do I want to live 100 yards from my office.  Do I want my desk neighbor to be my roommate?  The answer is "not really" to all of these, but a better answer is "It beats a tent in South Sudan."  

The Philippines is a pretty lush gig.  Great weather, beautiful scenery, super nice short people (I am a giant here), $2 hair and beard cuts, $5 60 minute massages, high prevelance of English, great churches and functioning governments and logistics/transportation systems.  

It's not that I hated my tent in South Sudan.  Yes, it was a million degrees, I was sweating by 7am and I had diarrhea for 3 months but it wasn't that bad.  I could have been there longer but God sent me somewhere else.  

I think it's healthy to have perspective and to observe your circumstances and environments and rather than find the faults, find the positives.  I think in our lives, we've all had our "South Sudan's" and we've all had our "Philippine's."  No sense in longing for the "Philippines" when you are in "South Sudan" but when you do get to the "Philippines,"  don't forget about "South Sudan."  Keep perspective because you could always be in "Syria, Crimea or Central Africa Republic."

Unders.

Despite being 29 years old and being what most would describe, a grown man, I do not do my own laundry.  I only do my own laundry when I am in America for a few weeks a year, and even then, a machine does my laundry.  In the Philippines, I drop my laundry off to a lady at a desk, eat my breakfast and go about my day and 2 days later, my clothes are clean, folded and ready to be soaked in sweat again.  Well, this week, the a lovely laundry ladies took a bit longer.  I have a very carefully rationed out clothes wearing plan- basically I run out of key clothing (underwear) at exactly the same day my laundry is due to come back.  This week I am in Cebu for a training.  I was going to take my clean laundry on Saturday- throw it in my bag and catch my flight.  Only my laundry wasn't ready.  So I did what any bachelor would do; I bought more underwear once I got to Cebu.  I went to the mall to have lunch and to meet my boss but in between said events I swung by a department store.  I hate shopping overseas for a variety of reasons. I hate the unknown brands, the unknown materials and the unknown prices requiring my to crunch the currency conversions.  So in my post-burger coma and overall culture shock coming from a disaster zone into a huge asian metropolitan, I settled on some new underoos.  Wierd name brand, weird material (bamboo fiber?) and a weird price.   What really blew my mind was the number of sales associates at my beck and call in the man underwear department.  I swear it was a 10:1 ratio.  1 being me.  Why does a man need such assistance in buying a fairly well known item.  I'm not getting fitted for a suit here.  It also didn't help that Filipinos are borderline aggressively friendly.  So I got the "can I help you" and the "hellos" from all 10 lady sales associates.  And why all ladies?  Were all the dudes? Probably assisting the women in their bra selections.  Philippines.  I'm just a visitor here, but now a bit more local with my local underwears. 

One Month in.

This week I “celebrated” my one month anniversary in the Philippines, but really it’s my second full month since I was here for a month last year right after Yolanda struck.  This month has gone by really fast. I’ve been stretched and learned so much.  I’m frequently uncomfortable in my work assignments and constantly find myself pushing myself to do something I have never done before.  Give me a truck full of relief supplies and a few thousand people and I am golden.  Give me a vague assignment to design a recovery program and tell me to budget half a million dollars, not so golden.  But, God is gracious, I am a quick leaner and my brain is slowly remembering grad school material from 5 years ago.  In the spirit of appreciative inquiry, here are some positive reflections from the past month.

1. Being the only American.  Up until this week, I was the only American on our team.  That has never, ever happened. I found myself seriously outnumbered by Austrialian and their funny words, Indians and their affection for spicy foods and Canadians and their dang politeness.  However, last night as I sat at dinner with a Swede, Chinese, Canadian, Australian and Korean I realized this is exactly what the kingdom of God will look like.  All tribes, all colors, all nations, worshiping the Lord and living in harmony.  It’s beautiful and I get to practice the Kingdom here on earth every day.
2. I have spend dozens of hours staring my a computer screen.  That’s not really a highlight but I am writing constantly and learning to be a better communicator, that’s the highlight.  It feels  good to turn thoughts to words and a blank white .doc file to something unique and purposeful.    I suppose that writing has somehow replaced my photography but I hope to get pictures going soon.  I haven’t really taken any in the past month but that will change. 
3. Navigation.  I tend to have a pretty good sense of direction.  I can look at a map once and generally remember it and I usually remember how to get back from where I came from- unless I am in New Jersey but even GPS’s don’t want to navigate in the Garden State.  Anyways, I am slowly learning a new city, where my coffee shop “Brew Tea Full” is, where church is, where that place with the awesome cinnamon rolls is, where the UNICEF office is, where the best French fries can be found, etc.  Notice the food locations are retained quite easily.  Don’t ask me where my project activities are- just ask for the Dunkin Donuts that just re-opened.  3 blocks down, 2 over. Not far from the blown out McDonalds.
4. I’ve settled into a bit of a routine, as I should since it’s been a month already.  I run 3-4 times a week and I may not be fast, or light on my feet, but I sweat and my legs move and I like the time to pray through the day or jam out to some tunes.  My times running the golf cart paths bring me back to Karamoja with Sully keeping up and chasing after goats on the marrum roads of moroto.  I may do a 5K on the 9^th to benefit the fire department.

I break my deployments into chunks.  I’m one month into 6.  I’ll take a week break in 2 months, then push through the last 3 but hopefully I will have many more months in the Philippines. 

Today I stepped in crap

It's Sunday morning and we leave base @ 9am and get to church at 9:30 but the service doesn't start until 10am.  Why we leave at 9 I do not know, just one of many advantages of living in team housing, relying on team transportation and having little to none liberties.  So rather than sitting for 30 minutes, I walked around the city of Tacloban looking for breakfast.  I found a great little shop selling cinnamon rolls and bought two (for .50 cents!) and I was enjoying them so intently I didn't notice the mound of freshly laid dog excrement.  I caught my right heel right in it.  "Did I just step in crap?" I wondered to myself.  The laughter of a local boy sitting across the street confirmed that yes indeed, my shoe was now covered in crap.  I looked back to confirm but really the over the top loud laughter was all the confirmation I needed.  I was embarrassed., then annoyed, then I wanted to punch that kid in the face, then I realized that it was actually hilarious and I would definitely be laughing too if I saw someone step in crap because they were two fistin' cinnamon rolls like an American who eats rice 12 times a week.  Truth be told, it's good to hear laughter coming from a city full of despair and sadness.  This week I read a report that 30 more bodies were discovered this month.  Still, 100 days after the storm, bodies are still being buried.  If stepping in crap bring laughter to some punk kid, show me where the next pile is.  Actually scratch that, that's gross.  It is good to hear a kid laugh though- even if it's at my own expense. 

New Beginnings

It's Sunday and technically the first day of my first full week in the Philippines.  I've been in country for a few days now.  Here's some random thoughts facebook status update style:

1. I love the Philippines already.  I loved it when I was here in November/December.  The people are infectiously joyful and I hear outbreaks of laughter by the hour.  
2. Tacloban got smashed by the Typhoon.  I'm fortunate to be staying in a slightly damaged hotel outside of the city, but still 2 months after the storm hit, the city and its surroundings are still pretty badly off.  Lot's of work to be done over the next few years.  
3. I still hate mosquitoes and delight in slaying every single one I can.  Maybe this time around I can avoid the mosquito spread tropical diseases.  
4. I'm kind of tired of rice already.  I've had rice every day since I arrived.  Chances are good I will eat rice every day for the next 6 months.  Get used to it I guess.  
5. Even in the midst of a disaster, beauty can still be found.   We had a tropical storm pass through the region this week bringing high-ish winds and rain.  The following morning I witnessed one of the best sunrises I have ever seen.  Coincidentally, Steph was witnessing that same sun setting on her in West Africa.  Despite the distance, we had a moment. 
6. God has blesses me abundantly and delivered me from a long period of waiting.  Each day I am joyful, grateful and appreciative of how God has brought me here.  
7. I've started running again.  Slowly and only a few days a week. 
8. I may or may not be inheriting a dog from a co-worker that is leaving soon.  He's ugly and wild and can never replace Sully but he's got 4 legs and will make me smile.  Stay tuned.  

This week I will continue to settle in, try to figure out my new job, write a few proposals, stare at a laptop for 40-60 hours, run a bit and eat some more rice.        

Yida

Yida.  Where do I even begin?

I’ve been here 6 days now but it feels like 6 weeks.  I had seen photos of Yida before.  I have worked with people who had been here before.  I’ve read news articles and development press releases about it.  None of that really prepares you for a place. 

It’s hot, like 118 degrees a day hot.  A colleague said April and May are the worst months.  I picked a great time to start but I guess it’s worth it to get the hot season out of the way.  The ground is covered in inches of dust.  It’s impossible to keep anything clean.  Thankfully we can wear shorts and footwear is pretty casual as well.  They say you get used to the heat and in some ways I am acclimatizing but they also say it takes about a month.  I drink about 3 gallons of water a day so I’ve avoided the dehydration/ heat stroke that affect some here.  We have a freezer on the compound so I froze a bottle last night and I’m spoiling myself with cold water on this Sunday morning.

Our compound is actually pretty nice. Far nicer than expected.  We have wireless internet with pretty good speed, 24 hour electricity, fans for our tents and usually 3 meals per day.  Good food too and fresh vegetables and fruits are flown up weekly.  I’m actually eating better than I have in the past. 

The office is decent and my coworkers seem alright after just a few days of working with them.  It’s a very diverse crowd: Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans, American’s, Canadians and of course Sudanese. 

The food program is pretty massive.  Feeding 70,000 refugees a month is no easy task but the team is doing a great job.  Honestly, I’m not fully sure what I am doing here.  There is some work I can help out with, but largely the program is under control.  I’ll continue to settle in and get plugged into the work over the next week and see where I can best help out. 

I’ll try to write once a week, tell stories, share photos or rant.  Stay tuned.         

South Sudan

In a week's time, I head back to East Africa, not to Uganda as I have for the past several years, but to it's northern neighbor South Sudan.

I'll be serving with SP once more, this time on a food distribution program.  I'll be living in a refugee camp along the border with Sudan and managing dozens of food warehouses.  My prayer and hope is that I can quickly move from food programs to a more management focused position.  As good as I am at project management, I'd like the chance to lead a larger team and manage managers.  I turned down a position in Mozambique to pursue this gamble, so I'm trusting and praying it works out.   

This will be one of the most difficult assignments I have ever accepted.  I take it very seriously but feel very confident and I know that I go with God.  I'm excited to be fully dependent on him and to be a part of his work, helping his children in South Sudan who have suffered so much, largely due to their christian faith.  

As always, I'll bring my cameras, hammock and sense of adventure.