So about two weeks ago, Georges casually drops into the normal "Hi honey, how was your day?" after-work conversation, a small bomb-shell: He was going to Haiti, for a week (which turns out to be 9 days including travel days) for his job.
When the earthquake first happened, I already knew that Georges' employer had some people based in Haiti. (He works for a non-profit agency that supports education initiatives in French-speaking countries or universities around the world, with over 700 member universities, many in developing countries. One example of the type of support they might provide is a program my husband developed for distance learning.) One of my first questions to Georges, after "Is everyone OK? And their families?" was: "Will YOU have to go there?" And he said no, he didn't think he would have any reason to go. But of course, Life has a sick sense of humor sometimes, and some business circumstances arose recently that require the presence of a higher-up, and as Georges' two bosses were unavailable to make this particular trip (one of them has already been to Haiti in the past month anyway), Georges was elected.
At first, he wasn't entirely convinced himself that the trip was strictly necessary. I won't go into the details of why he "had to" go, but in a business sense, I suppose it was something that was required. It's just that the timing of this trip for us, personally, totally sucks. We are packing and moving at the end of this month, and I can't do it all on my own. We haven't even chosen a mover yet, and we need to scope out a self-storage place. And of course, these are things I will find it very difficult to do on my own, given the gaps in my French skills. But in addition to the bad timing, I really didn't want him to go there for safety and health reasons, if this trip was not really for any humanitarian purposes.
And in the beginning it wasn't. That changed on Friday.
It was Friday when Georges learned that several of his 13 colleagues in Haiti, and their families, are still sleeping on the street in open air. While they and their families survived the quake, some of their homes did not. And the rainy season has already begun. It appears they HAD asked if anyone in the organization could get them such critical necessities as tents and bedrolls, but somehow or other, some fucking bean-counter (and yes, I did say THAT WORD again, because the situation merits that level of outrage and so much more) had decided that either the tents and other things that were requested were either "too expensive" or that it just wasn't a priority or that "it's not MY job, that's someone else's job". Whenever the subject of "what do they need" was brought up, assurances were given that everything that COULD be done WAS being done. But it wasn't, not by a long fucking shot. Even the HR guy had not even bothered to think beyond the BUSINESS NEEDS. Because Georges wasn't even aware that these people had asked for but NOT received what was needed for their survival and well-being, and maybe if he wasn't the one going there this week, he would STILL not have known about it.
But now he knows. And heads are rolling. On two continents. Even though it's not HIS job, either. Tents are now being shipped from Canada and should be at the airport in Port-au-Prince by Friday, along with bedrolls and at least one inflatable double mattress... which just yesterday, said bean-counter had the NERVE to say to Georges that he didn't think was really necessary, that the thin little bedrolls should be fine for them to sleep on! Excuse me? Have YOU ever survived an earthquake and been left with nothing? Have YOU ever had to live on the streets for months on end, with no immediate prospects of it being any different? FOR SHAME! THIS is the level of asshole my husband has been dealing with in the past 5 days as he has been preparing for this mission.
Because, now, it IS a mission, a humanitarian mission. Georges is making sure of that. As he began to prepare for the trip, the first thing he asked himself and others was, "What can I bring to them?" And he was thinking of personal needs as well as work-related ones. He was astounded to discover that seemingly, NO ONE else in his organization had even THOUGHT to ask the 13 Haitian colleagues what they needed on a PERSONAL level; all their "what do you need?" questions were around WORK things. Oh, do you need some USB keys? Sure, we can send those. Oh, what about some posters to stick on the tents? (They managed to get the Haitians some tents to WORK in, given that one office building was completely destroyed and the other is partially unusable -- but no tents to LIVE in.) POSTERS? WTF? Sure, we've got posters, and books, and disks, and blah blah blah who gives a shit. Do those people have enough to eat? Some soap to wash with? Clean water to drink? What really matters here, people? I'm nearly as pissed off and frustrated as my husband, and when I heard about all this, I was so upset I nearly threw up from rage and sadness.
Yesterday afternoon, at 5:30pm Paris time as he was trying to finish up his prep for the trip, someone passed along to Georges a message from the Haitian group asking if he could bring 13 first-aid kits. That message could have been handed off hours earlier, but it wasn't. Another instance of people simply NOT thinking of how critical these things are to people who have NOTHING. So focused on themselves that they don't even have any sense of urgency. So at 5:31, I started roaming my neighborhood stores and pharmacies, looking for first aid kits. Which of course, this being France, are NOT typically sold "complete". You cannot just walk into your corner drugstore and pick up a first aid kit off the shelves. Some pharmacies stock the plastic boxes for the kits, but they don't stock them filled with band-aids and the like. You have to fill the boxes yourself with whatever you feel is essential in a first-aid emergency.
Ultimately, I found 13 boxes of discount band-aids at one store, 13 packets of anti-bacterial wipes at another, and at the pharmacy where I usually go, the pharmacist ( a lovely woman who speaks excellent English, although I am speaking more often in French with her now) had the boxes and enough of the essentials for me to build 13 kits. Except the boxes were too big for Georges to be able to fit 13 of them in his baggage. So, conferring with Georges by phone, we decided to skip the boxes (he is going to have them sent over from here along with other camping-type supplies NOT being sent with the tents and bedrolls from Montreal), and last night we built 13 first aid kits using plastic ziploc bags upon which I had drawn red crosses. In each bag, we included:
- band-aids (100 assorted)
- the antibacterial wipes
- antibiotic creme (large tubes)
- sterile gauze pads
- rolls of gauze
- small scissors
- sterile eye wash
We also got 3 packages of water purification tablets, which they can share out among themselves, and there were extra gauze rolls and eye wash ampoules they can also allocate as needed. It seems so little, not nearly enough, but it was something they asked for, something they need (given that medical care is now being left to individuals as the doctors and hospitals are already overwhelmed and under-supplied) and something we are SO happy to have been able to give. Georges also got a last-minute email from one guy there, asking if possible could Georges bring some books for his 4 kids, ranging in age from 13 to just 1 year old. Books? Did he ask for BOOKS? He came to the right place: Georges having just broken down the library, and our youngest already having decided which books he wants to donate elsewhere, he knew exactly where to locate books for young girls and boys. So we are even happier for Georges to bring something that will give some joy to some very traumatized young people.
Because it is not yet possible to easily ship necessities to Haiti and to ensure they will ever find their proper owners, it's not a matter of being able to say, Hey, let's just Fed-Ex them some more tents and a camping stove from Vieux Campeur! Oh, can't we box up some clothing and canned goods, and send them to Haiti? It just isn't working that way; there is still no such infrastructure. Although it's not part of his official job, Georges intends to be the one who is following up with these people AFTER the trip, because clearly, other than continuing to PAY the colleagues there (which is VERY important, as so many Haitians lost their income as well as their homes), no one else has thought to look into what these people need for their safety and survival. Of course, the organization is not responsible for handling everything for its employees, but from a moral and solidarity perspective, how could they NOT do SOMETHING materially to make the living conditions just a little bit easier and more bearable?
I am so proud of my husband. I am proud that he is the kind of person who is so outraged at the complete thick-headedness and self-interest that have caused it to go unnoticed (or un-cared-about) for two and a half long months that several of these poor coworkers have been sleeping outside, with children (some of them) exposed to all the elements. That none of the colleagues had the most basic medical supplies. That there are children without books or toys to provide a break from their long, stress-filled days of just trying to survive until the next day. I am proud that Georges is still so angry that his attitude is "this ain't over yet", that when he gets back he's going to do whatever he can to make sure there is some kind of ongoing follow-up and outreach for the Haitian team. The organization can't fix all their problems in Haiti, of course, but they can do more than they've done to date, and they can KEEP asking "What do you REALLY need... not just for work, but for YOU? What can we do to help make things a little bit easier, a little bit more humane?" And Georges is someone who can make sure this will happen.
I am stressed out to no end about him taking this particular trip (he called me from the airport just before his flight took off for Guadeloupe, and then he changes planes there for Haiti). I never like it when he has to travel, and this is the longest business trip he's taken since we've been together. And this time, it's not just the fact of him being gone (i.e., NOT with me), there is the very real possibility of danger or illness, given that the conditions are no where near normal or acceptable (he's lucky to be staying in some sort of private guest house -- no more hotels in Port-au-Prince of course -- but who knows if there is running water, safe drinking water, electricity or even regular meals), and that makes me very concerned for his well-being. If he gets hurt or sick, it's not like he could just go see a local doctor every easily. So I will not sleep well for the next 8 nights and this will be a very difficult week for me, as well as for him.
But when I remind myself that, by making this difficult trip, he has the opportunity to do something really good for some really good people who have so little in the way of support right now... it makes it easier for me to give them my wonderful, compassionate husband for a week.
It's the least I can do. And the most.
