Lost weekend

But what do I have to complain about?  Shelter, food, water, family? 
 
Been working this weekend on Haiti, trying to help where we help best, to get the story out, to see if we can help communications to Haitian people.  It's a pretty desperate, dire situation, as you all have seen on the television.  Someone asked me how we can direct people to get to the nearest relief distribution site.  I figured out you don't send text messages.  But I thought you could call up a radio station.  No phones.  Actually e-mail is working, so we sent a message via e-mail to radio.  Then we heard that people don't have radios, or cannot get to their houses to listen to the radio, or don't have electricity to turn their radios on.  We take so much for granted. 
 
I was on the second shift of the task force.  I showed up a little before 7am and ten minutes later it was 5:30pm.  No lunch, unless you count Altoids.  So many details.  And in the midst of it, we learned we lost a colleague, the cultural affairs officer.  But we barely had time to stop and reflect.
 
I did break away Sunday to come home for a brunch with a Pakistani/American family, a college friend of Mary's from her year abroad in the U.K. who teaches in Delaware, and whose wife works in the children's cancer ward at NIH.  Joe came up and we talked about Haiti, the Middle East, Pakistan and Joe's future plans.  I then dropped Joe at Jeffrey's where they were going to help Melodie root for the Vikings.  And they had help from Sean and Amanda who had come down here for the weekend and stayed at Joe's bachelor pad.  I think all the support made the difference, as the Vikings crushed the Cowboys.  I finally won a post-season game this year.  Or rather one of my teams.  Hard to tell the difference.
 
We were supposed to go to Pittsfield this long weekend, and stop in to see Grandma on the way up and back.  Too bad as we heard there was great skiing up there from John and Marilyn.  They are heading on a long trip in February to Egypt.  Our trip to NJ will have to wait until the end of the month when David and Paula are coming down for the weekend.
 
Mary has talked to her brother Tim a couple of times.  He has moved to Mexico, south of Tijuana and is settling in and living the good life, it sounds.
 
Most of the snow is gone, as temperatures climbed and we had rain.  That's one thing that those poor people in Haiti don't have right now is rain. 
 
Love from down here.

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