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.