Thursday, March 11, 2010

On the Road - Taking Initiative


(Photos: Top - That's me showing the Japanese military around the Terrain Acra settlement. At one point, they were going to help us with the site's drainage issues. Bottom - Terrain Acra from the hill above. The blue you see in the background is just some of the tarps we've distributed to help people create shelter in the camp.)

It’s a great sunset going out in front of my eyes.

I started the day really tired because of the lack of sleep that I have been suffering since my arrival here. But the good thing is that we are all running on a good dose of adrenaline, meaning that we could not function back home, but here it's just different.

It is good though, when, at the end of the day, you can say you brought home some results.

Since Monday morning, I have a new assistant to work with. His name is Mission, and his mission is to make sure I don’t get lost in translation. He's a great guy who has a lot of initiative and self confidence, despite his brief experience in the humanitarian sector. There has been only one thing, so far, I had to correct him on.

He had never worked before in Camp Coordination and Camp Management. When I threw him into the crowd, the "lions" rejoiced.

Mission came back to me saying: "there is a big problem! People wanted something from him... they knew what they needed...and they made a plan for how to get it. But they needed our help. What do we do now?"

I told him, it's not a problem. It's a good thing: it's initiative! The problem comes when initiative doesn’t find a way to be addressed.

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