Deployment diary day 13: Saturday 30th January

Situations such as these help frame your sense of values, I think. We take so many things for granted at home - running water, food, shelter and a bathroom. Many people are denied these basic things - even without being in an emergency situation. Life for some is just lacking in dignity.

One of our biggest challenges for the emergency team here in Port au Prince is how to care for those living in the camp behind the corps compound. It has become congested beyond description and the small team trying to move things forward are facing many challenges.

One of these is the need to install latrines. The 'rule' used by NGOs in disaster response is that there should be one toilet for every 20 people. We have a camp population of 15,000 - so our goal should be 750 toilets. The limited space we have means we are struggling to hit the 100 mark. Today one of our partners who is helping us came to start the process of installing more toilets. When we went to the site we discovered the space planned for them had been taken over by new arrivals. We sent a small delegation out to negotiate with them - they have nowhere else to go. We expected serious trouble. Instead, when given the choice of moving somewhere else or preventing the installation of more toilets, they willingly agreed to move. They know that for the whole community, having even the most inadequate toilets is better than none at all.

Today just 2 of our team have been in the worst part of this city working with the 82nd Airborn to distribute around 174,000 meals. That's an incredible achievement - particularly in view of the highly volatile community.

Other team members were busy receiving the next supplies of food at the airport and also transporting team members back and forwards to the airport as we said farewell to existing team members and hello to new ones. The medical team changed as usual - the pic shows some of the team. The new team have got straight to work - it amazes me how quickly folks plug into their new responsibilities.

Tomorrow a small group of us will try to make it over the mountains to Jacmel in the south of the country. We want to assess the situation and the possibility of setting up a satellite operation there. It will be a very long day - so keep us in your prayers as we travel.

Deployment diary day 12: Friday 28th January

Today was another one of those days when I was really proud to be a Salvationist. We have a great team here - but the official team is only part of the force moving The Salvation Army's programme forward. We have a whole host of volunteers who work alongside us. Links with the corps in the Island of Turks and Cacos resulted in a team of fire fighters and an engineer coming to work with us. Shona, their engineer, has worked unstintingly - particularly in recent days since we were appointed as the official managers of the camp. She is using skills learned on an emergency site planning course (with RedR) to help us plan out the camp. It's a huge challenge and she never stops working.

Our logistics guy, Craig, is an American Salvationist who works for UPS. His company has released him to run our logisitics operations. When he starts talking of 'skids' (that's pallets to the uninitiated!) and other technical things I'm reminded that there are so many skills needed to make a team. I don't have his skills - but he has made them available to us and we would be the poorer without him. Today he announced a project that he and UPS have put together to help us. We have 3,000 families registered in our camp. Each distribution means issuing a ratio card and then checking eligibility when they line up for food. UPS has offered to take our family register and produce Family ID cards with a bar code. So in future, as each person comes through the line, their ID will be scanned and the software will track exactly what they have received and when. Talk about hi-tech relief work - makes me feel a bit of a dinosaur!

The best bit of today was when the Colonel from the 82nd Airborn visited (along with his team of rather imposing officers and NCOs). He congratulated TSA for our work and distribution of around 400,000 meals to date. It was amazing to hear such a high ranking officer speak so highly of our efforts. He talked of the importance of getting food out and then asked for our help. As far as he is concerned, TSA is really doing the business. While others are talking about supplies in the pipeline - we are up and running. He asked if we could possibly help get urgently needed food into areas that had not yet received supplies. Of course, our immediate response was, 'Yes, Sir!' As a result we will be going with the 82nd to distribute 174,000 meals tomorrow. They are desperate to get rations out to help reduce the need. I have confidence that they will provide the security and our distribution team of 4 will help the 82nd make sure food gets where it's needed.

I was so proud of the team and their ability to step up to the plate. I was also thrilled by the response of our support team back in Washington. When we gave them the news that the food stored for this coming week was being given out tomorrow and that we would need more they simply said, 'don't worry - we'll get more to you'. Thanks, folks!

Tonight we welcome new team members - including 4 Hatian officers from other parts of the territory and a couple of new folks from the USA. We pray they quickly feel at home in the team.

Deployment diary day 11: Thursday 27th January

As I reported in the blog yesterday, today we went to Petit Goave (which means 'Little Grove') to conduct our first distribution of food there. From a personal point of view, I was really looking forward to it as an opportunity to get out of the Command Centre on the SA compound and take a look at the country of Haiti. My role keeps me very much within the Command Centre. Others are out and about around town and get to see a little of what is going on - so today I had my chance. Plus, Petit Goave is a 2 hour drive, west along the coast road - so I would have chance to see how the towns and villages along that route were affected.

The team started work early in the morning. A work team of 6 went to the airport at 3am to load the trucks in readiness. At 8am a few more of us joined them there to await the arrival of our military escort. While we waited the lead car set off for Petit Goave to check out the site and make sure that was ready. Just before 9am our convoy arrived - UN troops from the Philippines - and we set off. We were a little nervous driving through the city. There have been reports of looting from convoys and, although these have not been substatiated, they leave you a little anxious. All went well and we soon found outselves on the outskirts of the capital. Even though this is a major city there are still sections of road where tarmac ends and gravel sections begin. These are difficult terrain and slow progress down. The other thing that hits you as you drive is that every section of the town is damaged - the whole capital city is suffering.
About an hour after setting off we were beginning to leave the captial and for the first time getting a view of the coastline. It's a beautiful country here - and the contract between natural beauty and the effects of natural disaster and stark. The journey, which would normally take 1 and a half hours, took us 3. In many of the mountain roads large boulders were dislodged from the hills blocking the road. Eventually we arrived in PG at about 12noon. We have driven 3 hours yet every community we passed had been devestated by the quake - few homes remained intact. Every few miles there were hastily made signs saying 'help us, we need food and water', errected by villagers hoping to catch the eye of passing convoys.
On the outskirts of Petit Goave we waiting to pick up our military support group - this time UN troops from Sri Lanka. Nice guys, but not large in stature and certainly not with the presence of the 82nd Airbourne!
The distribution took place in the SA compound. Vouchers had been given to 800 families and we were giving out 170,000 meals - 2 weeks supply of food. I can't say it was an easy distribution - but we left having given out to 840 families.
There is need everywhere in this country - while we had been waiting at the airport this morning doctors working in a field hospital asked if we could supply tents to them for their patients. They are treating seriuously ill people - some are given amputations of limbs. They then send them out to nothing - so we will provide tents so they at least can take some shelter away with them.
Every day brings new challenges but new opportunities.

Deployment diary day 10: Wednesday 25th January

We are now into the third week after the earthquake. Amazingly, the media are reporting the recovery of a 17 year old survivor pulled from the rubble today. That's 15 days after the quake - incredible.

Signs of returning to normality are being talked about. It's so hard to get one's head around that concept of 'normality'. I know that Haiti is a very poor country - things were not good here even before the earthquake. Food has always been a precious commodity and shelter for many in the suburbs very limited.

However, when I walk around the camp I find it a very uncomfortable thought that this could even remotely considered normal. Families are living in very basic shelters fashioned with pieces of scavenged wood and material. Some families live in areas not much more than 2m x 2m square. Outside these homes families set up stalls to trade charcoal, sundries and sweets - all to try and make a small amount of money.

Today our focus was on the camp. The biggest challenges are the sheer numbers living there - about 3,000 and how to shelter them. If we are to do anything to improve their shelters (such as giving tents) some very delicate and sensitive discussions will need to take place as to how to move them around. Some will need to be persuaded to move out or move on to create a little extra space - but where do they go? Yesterday Damaris, our Camp manager, and Shona, our volunteer engineer and site planner, met with members of the community to start those very sensitive discussions. They made some headway and will meet again with the group every day.

Tonight our team will be up at 3am to pack food supplies ready for the distribution in Petit Goave on Thursday - 174,000 meals are going out. I'll tell you how we get on tomorrow.

The best news of the day was a meeting with the Colonel from 82nd Airborn. He came with a few of his team to see how they could help us. We are having great support from them and they seem to think TSA are doing a good job, too. Great encouragement for us.

Thanks for your continued prayers. If you are reading this on Thursday offer a prayer for safety for us all at the distribution today.

Deployment diary day 9: Tuesday 25th January

So what did the new day bring? After the extremely energetic day we all had yesterday a slightly less frantic day was hoped for. Physically, it was certainly an easier day - and we were all grateful for a breather. But life here doesn't stop and planning for the next relief distribution starts immediately. Tomorrow our food distribution and security coordinators head across to Petit Guave to meet with our satellite team there and ensure all the pieces are in place for a distribution of food tomorrow.We have had young people visiting the community to assess and register the families in preparation.

Our young assessment team in Port au Prince continue their work in the camp behind the compound. They think we are up to around 3,000 families there now - that's probably 15,000 people. The place is just crowded.

This afternoon I walked through the camp and was reminded again how resiliant people are. The children were playing football on the single patch of spare land remaining. Unless we can protect it, others wil come in and make a shelter there - so the kids need to play while they can. I saw a child yesterday flying a kite fashioned out of a coat hanger and a supermarket carrier bag. Yesterday, once we had allocated food rations to all the families with ration cards we gave the rest to others. Children were coming through the line, like these in the photo. They had no bag, so they removed their T shirts and used them as a bag to carry their meal rations!

Children all around the world pick up on things we do and say. In Iraq it was the 'thumbs up' sign. Here, as you walk through the camp, they point and say 'hey, you'. I have no idea who taught them that phrase, but it follows you wherever you go. Either that or 'blanc' (white). They say both in fun and with a smile.

The SA school on the compound opened some temporary classes this week in partnership with Kinder Not Hilfe - the sponsors of the school. It's great to see the younger children going back to class and returning to some sort of normality. Hopefully, others will get back soon.

I know that the media are giving out all kinds of messages back home - those times when difficulties arise will always make the news - but as I walked through the camp today everyone was pleasant and friendly - despite living in appalling conditions and with huge needs still to be met.

The reconstruction of this country will take years - many places will never be rebuilt - many of those could be schools, and the education of children could be another undeserving victim of this awful disaster. Today my hope is that you might spare a thought and a prayer for the children suffering here.

Deployment diary day 8: Monday 25th January

Yesterday I started my blog with the phrase 'being an aid worker can be so frustrating at times'. Today I want to start, 'being an aid worker can be so fulfilling at times'. Thank God, today was one of those times and one of the reasons an aid worker packs their bag and heads into the field.

With some great planning by Jeff (our food distribution coordinator) Andre (our security liaison) and back breaking work by every single member of the team and volunteer staff, we managed to distribute 260,000 meals today!! Not bad for a days' work. Of course, it wouldn't have been possible without the SAWSO support team back home getting the stock and finding a way to fly it over to us and, of course, the magnificent help of the US 82nd Airborn. Those guys were superb!

You will see from the picture that the Army compound is actually in 2 halves, separated by a drainage/sewerage canal. From the photo - DHQ is on the right hand side - the school, corps, children's home and clinic are on the other side. That layout enables us to funnel the queue along and through a carefully guarded pathway and to block the entrance and access points off with US Army vehicles. When the distribution ended we lined up along the DHQ side to applaud the 82nd as they left. Incredibly, as those who hadn't managed to get food followed them along the path, even they smiled and waved at us to say thanks for bringing the food into their community. I was fearing a riot - but received just the opposite, It was an amazing experience for all concerned.

Actually, if that's all that had happened it would have been a great day - but in addition to that we also dispatched a team of 2 officers and 3 doctors to the town of Petit Guave to establish a satellite command centre and clinic in that badly hit town. Plus we had a very positive meeting with a couple of NGO partners who are going to work closely with us to help turn a sprawling array of 2,500 shelters into something resembling a displaced persons camp, and then we met tonight with a couple of faith based agencies working in the outlaying areas of the capital to see if there might be possibilities to colaborate and ..... the clinic had its' busiest day so far and treated over 300 earthquake survivors (many of whom were very ill or badly injured).

Great day to be an aid worker - great day to be part of The Salvation Army - and great day to be able to serve God in this situation. Thanks for your prayers.

Oh - and tomorrow is a new day - wonder what that'll bring??

Deployment diary day 7: Sunday 24th January

Being an aid worker can be SO frustrating at times. Today we geared up for the first distribution of food since my arrival here. The earlier team had completed one successful distribution and one not so successful one so we went into today with some real enthusiasm and an element of trepidation. The distribution team worked really hard to set things up carefully, making sure we and the beneficiaries would stay safe and that food would be distributed in a dignified way. This would be a UN dry ration distribution - scoops of rice, beans and oil - having to measure out rations of rice, beans and oil is messy, inaccurate and slow. So this added to our concerns.

So - we were a little on edge. Then we waited, and waited, and waited.....

Mid way through the afternoon we contacted the World Food Programme to ask where the trucks were. A simple text message came back 'the trucks aren't coming today' - that was it. What a let down!! We have no idea why they didn't come - but we heard rumours later that the trucks had been high jacked en route between the airport and our compound. We don't know for sure what happened - all we know is we had no food and lots of disappointed people.

As we were wondering what to do we had a visit from troops of the US 82nd Airborne division. You may have heard on the news that the US troops are here in substantial numbers - but they've not been allowed to support the UN Peace keeping forces in the security operation for relief goods up to now.I don't know what has changed - but we've been offered a troop of the 82nd who will help us. They have been assigned this part of town as their patch. Thank the Lord for this blessing! So, tomorrow (Monday) we plan to distribute food to 2,300 families (that's 11,500 people) living in the tent camp behind our compound. The 82nd are going to ride 'shotgun' to get the food to us from the airport and then stand protection to keep the crowd calm and in order.

The disappointment of today was huge - but we think now we have a much better and workable system and hope it will open the door to rolling food out in huge quantity.

My day has been much longer than usual. We have spent the last 3 hours down at the compound with the crew from Fox news. They have been filming our work and planned to do a short piece live on the Jeraldo Rivera 10pm show. They had a few of us lined up for interview - but as the time got nearer things got changed and I was to be the only interviewee. Fox News is BIG in the USA so it was pretty scary - especially knowing that media reporters often try to lead you into supporting their particular message. With a live piece they can throw whatever question they want at you with no thinking time to respond. When we went live I was asked 2 questions - and was quickly closed down before I could say all I wanted. The piece seemed to last just a few seconds and yet preparing for it had used up the whole night. The good thing is that the SA made air time on a huge show and the story is getting out. I hope I didn't say the wrong thing - I suppose I'll know if I still have a job in the morning. Ah well, who said life should be easy???

Deployment diary day 6: Saturday 23rd January

Today has been a day where I've been very aware of contrasts. Firstly, I write this sitting in a room of the 'Coconut Villa' hotel. It wouldn't compare with the Hilton back home, but by contrast to the situation around me it is luxurious. I have electricity, water (cold) and, for the moment at least, air conditioning. We even have an internet connection in the restaurant. That's pretty good by anyone's standards. The hotel is one of a very still standing and has suffered virtually no damage. Drive out of the gate and the buildings all around it are completely flattened.

The Salvation Army was one of the first NGOs to send international staff into Haiti. Because we already had a presence here our headquarters identified somewhere for their visitors (us) to stay. Even over the 4 days I have been here I've noticed a change. The place is full now, buzzing with the hustle and bustle of NGO staff and media teams. By the way, I realise that by telling you this I've lost all your sympathy and good will :-)

The contrasts are many. There's the contrast between my current 'home' and the homes of those around me. Then there are the contrasts within our team. Some of our team are doctors. They have chosen to remain in the compound and live in the clinic where they are working. The clinic backs onto the sports ground which has become the camp. One of our doctors, Dr Herb, was telling me this evening that the stench from the camp and the sanitation canal that runs by it, is so bad that he has to tie a facemask over his nose and mouth at night to help him sleep. Yet he stays in the clinic of his own choice to be close to the patients he has come here to care for.

There's the contrasts in work roles. As incident commander my duties revolve around the command centre. We've established something pretty efficient now. A square of desks in the centre of the room accommodate the key command roles so we can easily communicate with each other. Around the periphery of the room are other team members and partner NGO staff who support the SA. My work involves strategy, planning and management of the team. In contrast, some of our team members spend their whole day out and about, lifting and shifting in the very hot temperatures. Some were drenched by midday from the strenuous work they were doing. I thank God for colleagues who are willing to endure such hard physical work to support those who are in need.

Tomorrow is going to be a distribution day, food rations to 1700 families - that's about 8,500 people. I'm apprehensive about it - despite the planning and preparation that has been invested to try and ensure it works well.

But in a place where contrasts seem so stark, tomorrow will be a day of unity. Every one of those who come to receive food will be united in having suffered great loss from last week's earthquake. Every one is now living in a shelter or tent - afraid or unable to return home. And every person represented in our team will be united by the desire to show care and support to them - perhaps in just a small way - in order to demonstrate that they matter.

Your prayers for our distribution will be very much appreciated.

Deployment diary day 5: Friday 22nd January

Despite a 2.30am arrival, the most recent team members to arrive were up for breakfast at 7am and ready for work at 8. The routine of the daily briefing at the command centre is being established and the new team took their places around the room eager to learn what the day's tasks were to be.

Immediately after the briefing the newbies were taken on a quick tour around the compound to induct them into life here in Haiti. Following this they were interviewed and assigned their roles. It has amazed me how quickly new personnel have emraced their new situation and role. For folks used to working in North America, life is so different here - yet team members are slotting in and getting things done veryu quickly.

As I look at those families around us I have even grater admiration for their ability to adjust to something new and to cope with it. Life seems to go on - despite the terrible loss and huge adjustments being made. As we drove home at the end of the day (and rather later than usual) we found that the roads had been blocked on one side. People were setting up their beds for the night and preparing to sleep in the street. The level of destruction here is incredible - much more extensive than I have witnessed in earthquakes at Peru or Pakistan. Very few buildings have survived unscathed. The earth tremours continue daily - so it is no surpirse at all that locals refuse to use those buildings that remain standing. Most look severely weakened and reamin vulnerable. So life for most is now a tent or a makshift shelter. Yet they still smile, laugh and carry on with family life.

Our focus for the next few days is very clear:

1. We support our exisiting clinic programme - resiting it into a stronger building which is being prepared and adapted to take it. Occasional we receive an urgent call from the clinic and transport someone to hospital. The medical ship USS Comfort has also been a godsend.
2. Assess and register those who are living on the sports ground, SA compound and plaza behind DHQ.
3. Prepare for some major distributions which will take place in the next week. We have a ration distribution in partnership with WFP for 10,000 prople lined up very soon and then receive our own incoming supplies of 1.3 million meals and 3,000 tents.
4. Assessing of remote sites. A team head out soon to Petit Goave to gather information there and see whether we can set up remote distributions and clinic facilities.

A team of 30 young people from the local corps were involved today with the local assessment and registration. They returned saying how welcome they had been made by the local people. THey saw their SA T shirts and knew you and what they were. This is testimony to the ministry of the Army in this community for over 50 years. Thank God for the fatihful witness of Salvationists around the world.

Deployment diary day 4: Thursday 21st January

The feeling of being the new kid on the block very quickly starts to fade here. It's the end of only my second day in Haiti but I feel like I've been here weeks. Yesterday was spent trying to create an organisational system and asigning roles to team members. My good friend John Berglund (from New York) and I are sharing the management of this programme. He's bringing his knowledge of the Incident Command system used across North American Emergency Disaster Services to help shape our organisational structure. I hope I can contribute lessons learned from various international disasters to help shape programme element.

The 6 new team members arrived early this morning (2am) but reported for duty at 8am. They were assessed and interviewed in order to appoint them to their roles. This team have been released for 2 weeks - but delays in getting over here mean we have them in the field for just 11 days. We;ll be going through the same process of evaluation and assignment in less than 2 weeks.

The second half of the new team arrives tonight - they will be slotted into their roles tomorrow.

The clinic here continues to go well - seeing over 250 patients each day. The medical staff are doing a great job with limited resources.

This afternoon we put together a team of 25 young adults to help us with assesing the community. They helped design an assessment form and will launch out tomorrow to find out just how many people we have settled in the camp behind our compound.

Tonight's team meeting was intense. We have our first chartered cargo plane arriving tomorrow in Dominican Republic. Carrying food and water the cargo will be transferred into two trucks and driven across to Haiti. We haven't yet found a warehouse - there are non available here - so we will have to get these goods out almost immediately. That's especially the case as we are receiving two more planes during the next week carrying 1.3 million pre-prepared meals and 3,000 tents. The challenges involved in distributing them are enormous but, if we can get the distributions completed effectively, will mean a huge amount of aid reaching our local community.

Today we have again been reminded of the vulnerability of this part of the world. I counted 4 aftershocks today which were sufficient to have us all running out of the room into the open air. I really dislike these and pray they will ease off quickly.

Have heard that I will be doing a round of BBC radio interviews again this Sunday morning live from Port au Prince. Unfortunately, doing the breakfast show at 8am in the UK is only 3am here - so not much rest saturday night, eh? Thanks for checking in on the blog from time to time - and for the helpful prayer support.

Haiti Deployment Diary: Day 3, Wednesday 20th January

First day in the field always feels like a baptism of fire – this morning was no different. It started at 6am when we were rudely interrupted by a severe aftershock. Rated 6.1 on the Richter scale it brought down a number of buildings in Port au Prince. Fortunately, the hotel we are straying in seems quite secure and we were safe.

My work day started with the daily team briefing. Our team is in a state of flux at the moment. Those who managed to get in very quickly after the earthquake are already heading out. The new team members arrive during the next couple of days. But passing over of essential information and ensuring institutional memory is not lost is challenging.

During the briefing we were reminded that life and death are inseparable. During the evening the medical team in our clinic safely delivered two babies – born to mothers living in tents on our compound.

To help understand the situation I was taken around The Salvation Army’s large compound. I was joined by a structural engineer who made a brief assessment of the buildings. The Haitian people refuse to go inside – still afraid of collapse. Looking at the poor condition of many of the buildings still standing, I fully appreciate their feelings. However, some buildings survived with minimal superficial damage so we wanted to assess whether they could be used.

This assessment gave me opportunity to walk through the camp that has been informal set up by the local community. The resilience of the people is amazing. The local economy is getting going again with people setting up small stalls outside their tents. Actually, it would be wrong to talk of tents – most families have cobbled together a shelter using scavenged materials. There are few tents and no toilets.

The water supply is poor – children swarm around asking for water or food. But they do it with a smile on their face and are happy to hold hands with the relief workers as they walk around.

The Salvation Army’s work largely revolves around the medical clinic being staffed by a team of international doctors. During the last couple of days they have treated over 200 patients each day.

Getting relief supplies is still a huge challenge. Flights offer very limited cargo facilities – we haven’t yet secured a safe warehouse and the distributions we have managed to do have been very difficult. Yesterday there was a riot. We had a supply of Croc shoes – the community broke into the storage area and ransacked it. On the plus side – as I walked around the community yesterday there were some very colourful shoes being worn!!

Last night we sent a few of the early team members home and new ones arrived. Today the same thing happens. So by tomorrow the team will have virtually changed. There’s a challenge to ensure all the institutional memory is passed over and things don’t fall between the cracks.

Tomorrow is a new day and we’ll start focussing on finding a warehouse and assessing community needs. The team are all well and grateful for the many messages of support and prayer.

Haiti Deployment Diary: Day 2, Tuesday 19th January

The old saying, familiar in military circles, 'hurry up and wait' is so often true in emergency relief work, too. This morning we gathered for our team briefing at 8.30am in our Fort Laudedale hotel to be told to be ready with bags packed at 1.30pm. The plan was that we would drive to Miami and then join a charter flight to take us to Haiti. By late morning word reached us that the flight was cancelled and our rooms at the hotel were rebooked for another night.

When you have a team of relief workers who have quickly gathered possessions and their emergency kit and left home and families at a days’ notice to head for a disaster zone, news that you are spending another day in a hotel is not what you want to hear.

But things are very fluid just now both in the field and as far as logistic are concerned. At 2pm a frantic call came round - a flight had been fixed and we could get 5 of the team out today. Word was ‘you have to be at the airport in 10 minutes’. So a very quick dash saw the 5 selected team members at the small civilian airfield having cases weighed to see if the 8 seater plane could carry us and all our kit. We had 200 pounds free weight to spare so enough room to add some tents and medical supplies ready for a 4.30pm departure.

The 5 chosen included 2 doctors, a Haitian Salvation Army officer now stationed in the USA, a retired but experienced disaster responder - and me!

The small plane has already made 5 round trips to Haiti in the last few days. The pilot, a local Salvationist, knows the score well now. His plan was to get us to the Turks and Caicos islands for refuelling and then onto Haiti to make the agreed landing slot at 10.45pm.

The team headed out with an air of nervous anticipation at what lay ahead, mixed with relief to be actually on the way. Our colleagues left behind will join us over the next couple of days but we carry their prayers and best wishes.

After 3 and a half hours we made the refuelling stop (both for the plane and us) and then a further hour and a half found us landing in Port au Prince to be met on the tarmac by colleagues in 2 cars to take us to our accommodation. Well – we’re here! It was pitch black on arrival and we collapsed straight into bed – so I’ll post more tomorrow when I am up to speed with our relief programme and the news about the community.

Haiti Deployment Diary: Day 1, Monday 18th January

Welcome to my deployment diary on day 1 - the calm before the storm! After 4 days of preparation it was good today to set off to the airport this morning and get onto the flight headed for Fort Laudedale via Atlanta.

Having not worn the Emergency Services kit for 18 months it felt really good to put the vest on again - it felt really comfortable to be back in the 'fellowship of the T shirt' again.

The Salvation Army is a wonderful, world-wide fellowship. It's large and big enough to do amazing things - yet so small that we know each other as friends. I finally arrived at my hotel at 11pm (which was 4.00am Tuesday in the UK). As I walked through the entrance I was greeted by a bear hug of a welcome from my dear friend Jerry Larsen. He's just arrived today from Chicago and will be heading out tomorrow as part of the next group of 16 relief staff. Jerry is now retired but he and first worked together in Albania in 1999 and have worked together many times since in places such as Iraq and Pakistan. As I shook hands with others waiting in the lobby to check in there were warm greetings from Bob Poff's son and then from Dave Dalberg's son. Made me feel old when they started talking about my working relationship with their fathers! But how great to be on the other side of the world with friends from years gone by.

The good news is that the IES team that arrived here on Saturday have made it to Haiti today. The plan for us is to depart here at 2pm tomorrow and drive to Miami where we are being flown down to Haiti.

News from Haiti today is that the first SA distribution of MRE's (meals ready to eat) took place safely and peacefully today. Not sure quantities yet but will find out tomorrow.

Tonight my king size hotel bed (!) beckons now - I'll make the most of a comfy nights' sleep before heading out tomorrow. Internet connection permitting, I'll try and keep this blog diary up to date daily - so if you are at all interested in this informal view from the field feel free to look in from time to time.

Before I go - just a thought to close. We often question the value of SA uniform and some are quick to say it has had its day. On many occasions today I've received lovely greetings from fellow passengers who have seen the large Red Shield on the back of my vest and who have taken the time to ask what I was doing and where I was going. The cabin crew on the Delta flight from London came over and said they would pray for us in the coming days. Thank God for visibility and for the wonderful goodwill of so many people towards The Salvation Army.