Relief-Work

I finally got my report done on the lessons I learned while working for Radio Response after Hurricane Katrina. Hopefully it will be useful to anyone contemplating starting a group to do work like this.

I got a letter from MSF today informing me that they have reviewed my application and I won’t be getting an interview, and won’t be working for them any time soon. I’m disappointed, but not deterred. This simply means I can’t get off easy and fill in only one application, as I was hoping to do. I now have a huge amount of work in front of me as I research other organizations and chose some to apply to. ...

A development worker in Kabul made an interesting post today. The final paragraph was the most insightful, I thought. And a little bit scary for what it will be like. When I started telling people what my goal is, I was afraid they’d think I lost my mind. Instead, almost without exception I get good feedback about what I’ve set about to do. The other day a woman I really like told me, “We’re all really proud of you.” Which made me feel really good, and made me confident I was on the right track, and I need to keep my eye on the prize and land my first job. ...

I’ve just (barely) beaten my self-imposed deadline of “before Christmas” for turning in my MSF application. They say that I should hear back from them in 3 or 4 weeks. The next step would be an interview. Don’t know how soon it would happen. I haven’t sent out an update in a while, so here’s where I am… I am visiting my parents in Roseburg, Oregon. While house-sitting in Redwood City during December, I worked a week and a half as a consultant. I also refinished the bathroom of the place I was staying. (Here’s where it gets complicated: it was actually the bathroom in a building I partly own, but I was there as a housesitter, not an owner. Get it?) I couldn’t mention in my updates that I have been refinishing a bathroom, because it was a surprise gift for Karl (my fellow owner). ...

Guys, here’s the real reason to do humanitarian aid work. Ladies, fear not, I’m on my way, as soon as I get around to putting my MSF application in, and they realize I’m the perfect candidate…

Another snippet from the other side of the looking glass: If you need to have a car that you own towed from your property, contact your insurance company. If you need to have a car that you don’t own towed from your property, contact a local towing company. If you need to have a house that you don’t own removed from your property, contact the Army Corps of Engineers. Such is the power of 30 feet of salt water driven by a storm 300 miles wide. ...

This afternoon and into the evening I was working on the Waveland water tower. (Yes, on the water tower, 100 feet up.) We put in a long day of debugging in the lab before we went, then working on the tower when we got into the field to install the equipment. So when we got off the tower, I was looking forward to dinner. We’d worked too late for dinner at Waveland Cafe, and Don had already declared tonight Pizza Night. We’d noticed that the pizzaria had won the “first restaurant to reopen” contest, and were looking forward to spending a little money in Hancock County. Turns out, it is a lunch place that closes at 4pm, so we missed dinner there. We came back to the completely remodeled Sonic drive-in (complete with girls on skates!) and had dinner. I ordered a large Coke, which might explain why I’m wired and not asleep right now. ...

We are streaming live music from the New Waveland Cafe over the Radio Response network: Live from the New Waveland Cafe: Wailin’ Wally and the Killa Sharks (The Last Band Standing in Waveland) Tune in! (Until 8 or 9 pm, CST).

I’m nearing the “end” of a long week here. I put “end” in quotes, because despite my best intentions, my “weekends” (one day breaks) seem to be separated by increasingly long “weeks” (my last break was last Monday, so I’m only a day late this time, assuming I manage to get away tomorrow, which seems unlikely). Talking about breaks like this sometimes feels indulgent, but when I got here I could see that the project needed some continuity. Since I was in a position to offer some, I decided to take care of myself so as to be able to provide a lot of energy over a long time. ...

The New York Times wrote about us. I’m in the picture!