This blog thing is not working out...

Clearly this blog thing is not working out for me.

Blogs are for recording personal stories and sharing them with strangers and the rest of the world. I don’t do that. I barely have time to communicate with people I know and like, let alone the world. Besides, it is too time consuming and the way I work leaves little time for personal stories.

Maybe that will change after the one year anniversary of the Tsunami when presumably things will slow down a bit. Or maybe it will have to wait till I am 70… at any rate, I am slogging through the work here in Sri Lanka and loving being back with the Red Cross.

Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that non-profits are somewhat dysfunctional and so are governments.

These organizations are great at building consensus but less than efficient when it comes to product development and delivery.

Personal efforts do make a difference but it can seem incremental. Maybe it is all those committees and group decisions. Profit making industries are better at product delivery but lack the community involvement and buy-in that consensus brings to the equation. It is a trade off.

Apart from the complexity of the relationships and the on the ground reality in Sri Lanka, the Red Cross has rarely if ever been in a position where we have the funds and people to do such a huge job as we are no doing. We are the largest single funder of recovery work in Sri Lanka.

We are about to enter into a working arrangement with none other than World Bank - to co-fund $25 million of grants to home owners to rebuild their own houses through a government defined reconstruction program. Red Cross is also negotiating another $37 million arrangement to build houses with Sri Lanka Red Cross Society and UN Habitat. Throw in a Red Cross project to build 61 health centers and hospitals for $49 million and another $100 million in rural and municipal water system re-development projects. This takes a lot of maneuvering through government and bi lateral donor systems and dealing with construction consulting firms, international suppliers, lawyers and others. All of which we have never done to this scale before.

No wonder this blog thing is not working out for me.

A Red Cross Volunteer

Then there is a story about a young man who works for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Mohadin Muzammil. He is typical of many Sri Lankans.

Last year he returned to his village having spent six years working in the Middle East so that he could support his family with a decent income. He worked as a waiter at the Dubai Sheraton where he saved up enough money to build a four roomed house close to the beach near Pottuvil on the East Coast. Tragically his new home was left in ruins when the tsunami struck. Two weeks after the tsunami he was at the ruins of his house and he noticed one of our delegates looking into his well.

The woman was Katarina Ortfeld, a Swedish Red Cross water and sanitation delegate. Katarina had been having difficulty finding a translator so she hired Mohadin on the spot. Eight months later, Mohadin is still with the Red Cross. Now, he heads up a team of volunteers who can go from house to house with their buckets and ladder, checking the water quality and cleaning the wells along Pottuvil’s coastal area.

In January he will be heading off to Germany for 2 weeks to take a mass water treatment course. He is very good and says that even though he lost his house the Red Cross gave him an opportunity to start a new life. Great Red Cross story isn’t it.

About Coffee Tables and Art

I finally got a coffee table worth talking about! When I lived in Nairobi, my friend Rachel tried to talk me into buying a 250 pound coffee table made out a very old piece of wood from the Congo. I’ve kicked myself a hundred times for not buying that piece of wood, but now, the kicking has stopped.

Robert and I bought a 100 year old 4’X5’ camel cart with the wheels removed and it is sitting in the living room. It is from the Rajastahan Desert in India. Weighing in at about 750 pounds, it is an awesome addition to the growing list of new/old posessions. Found it in an antique shop where they were asking $500. I ended up buying it for about $360.

Also, found some interesting oils painted by students and shown at a Colombo City park. Actually, the art is strung along the outside fence aong the sidewalk. Some very unique pieces can be found. So far we are up about 10 oils and bought them for what posters sells for in the USA…