June 10 - Meeting

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Apparently Henk is intent on giving me a broad range of experiences here in Haiti. He asked me to attend a meeting on Recovery for Haiti at the Ministry de Planification' (say that with a French accent please). Since we were uncertain if the meeting would be in French or English, I went with an interpreter. We found the government office easily, passed through security, found the conference room and waited. Others came for the meeting and we had interesting conversations with a group from South Korea, a lady from Brazil, and also a man representing an Islamic humanitarian group. At 20 minutes past the appointed meeting time (even in Haitian time), we decided we needed to find someone to question about the meeting. The Brazilian lady left and came back about 5 minutes later with an apologetic gentlemen in tow. Apparently, the meeting had been postponed until next Tuesday and no notifications had gone out. This happens a lot and is very frustrating as members of NGO's do not want to waste valuable time that could be used more productively.

Image from this non-meeting: The building is newly built as the government buildings were destroyed in the quake; the meeting room was air-conditioned (almost to the point of being chilly); we set in wonderful, comfortable chairs around a large, beautiful wood table. Keeping this image in mind, we exited back to the real world of PaP - the rubble, the poverty, the struggle. It was difficult to reconcile these two images in my mind and in my heart.

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