Haiti

Remember when 9/11 was just a day on the calendar?
2,973 deaths later it will never be just a day on the calendar.

Remember when Haiti was just that country somewhere over by Florida that you couldn't really pin point on a map?
Upwards of 100,000 with bodies lying in piles in the streets and mounds in mass graves.
I cannot fathom the number.
I cannot imagine the scene.

Cataclysmic: a momentous and violent event marked by overwhelming upheaval and demolition; broadly : an event that brings great changes.
God willing, we will only be witness to these events once or twice in a lifetime.

I don't think it's fair to say that the news coverage is sensory overload - as I watch it from my comfortable seat in my heat controlled room with my high speed internet access.
I don't think it's fair that I had a hunger pain earlier tonight because I'm on semi-failing day 4 of Weight Watchers. Fat American eating Taco Bell while reading stories about catastropic death and tragedy in a place that is only 680 miles away from the bustling, neon city of Miami. If that catastrophe was in San Diego, I could be there in a matter of hours.
I don't think it's fair that people have been saying that it's making them too sad so they're turning it off.
Watching horrific scenes of bodies being dumped by the truckful into mass graves, I think back to a few days ago when I was wandering through the snow covered National Cemetary in Greenville, TN reading the names behind the carefully placed Christmas wreaths on perfectly lined rows of military headstones. What a stunning contrast.

I'm not one to blame God for what happens here on Earth, but I am struggling at the thought that the humanity's opportunity to prove itself across the globe seems to come on the backs of one of the poorest nations in the world.

It's supposed to rain here well into the end of next week. We've prepped ourselves on how to monitor the creek levels and where to direct people to pick up sand and bags to protect their homes from all the water. The politically demanding calls have already begun to come in..."When are you people going to come clean these storm drains? Am I going to have to sue the city again to replace my carpets when you let the water wash up into my house? So this is like Katrina then, we're left to fend for ourselves?" Infuriating.

I'm an 40+ hour a week emergency specialist and a chaos organizer...but these aren't real emergencies and this is hardly close to the definition of chaos. In times like these, my job is especially hard.

Sifting through the pictures online, it amazes me to see rescuers from so many nations in the world: Bolivia, Israel, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, France, Mexico, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Columbia, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia, and the US working together to preserve life in a tiny country that can't seem to catch a break.

Sitting here glued to CNN, hiding tears from my partners, I found myself thinking about how I would tactically approach the relief effort in a country I just became geographically accquainted with early this week; and then...I find myself searching the job openings for the Peace Crops, the World Food Program, the Red Cross... I think I'm really starting to feel a great change in terms of my desire to help those people who are really in need. I'm just not satisfied with sitting back and watching events unfold through a camera lens. I think I'm starting to see a new path being laid out in front of me.

God be with the people of Haiti and all those men and women who are in the service of saving them.