Back to the topic of resilience

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There will be many days when the internet does not work.  I mean, aren't we all a little surprised I have internet at all?  I know I am.  Somedays the internet doesn't work and some days, surprise! It does.  So in the spirit of surprise, some days you won't have any updates from me, some days you will have more than one.  It will be a surprise for us all!  So with that in mind, here is post number two for today.

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Back to the topic of resilience, it is amazing how quickly people can get used to things.  I am of course basing this only on my own experience, but I think resilience is pretty universal so I am going to go ahead and assume that my experiences speak for everyone else’s.  Let’s just roll with that assumption, shall we? 

When I drove into the IMC compound (or as those of you who read the posts in correct order would know, I more rode into the IMC compound as a melted puddle of sweat), I was pretty taken aback.  I mean I wasn't expecting the Hilton or anything, but still, I was pretty taken back.  Even in Afghanistan and near the IDP camps in Uganda, I stayed in guest-houses that had running water and toilets. And walls.  And even trees.  Not really the case here.  Instead of a guesthouse, there are rows of tin shacks.  The floors are covered with peeling linoleum, although I suppose that that is actually a luxury.  There are hardly any trees and there is dust everywhere.  I suppose that not even an NGO can control the weather and make itself a little Garden of Eden, but still it was just surprising.  And the pit latrines… Well, is there anything else I need to say?  Pit.  Latrines.

But two days later, everything feels pretty normal.  I know which room is mine and have become pretty comfortable in it.  I kind of enjoy the outdoor showers.  The food is basic but I like that everyone gathers around the giant flat screen tv to watch football at meals (Yes, there is a flat screen tv and sports night.  Even here.  Dudes.).  The mornings are beautiful.  The compound is perched on a cliff and this morning the program manager showed me “the tower” which is basically just a tin shack up a little higher, but if you climb up and look across the cliff, you can see for miles across savannah.  With the rain coming, everyone swears that in just a few days everything will transform from red and dusty to green and I can only imagine what the view will be.  I have even gotten used to the pigeons scrabbling around on the tin roof in the morning.

I haven’t gone out into the camps yet, that happens tomorrow. Once I do, I am sure that I will be jolted back out of my comfort zone again.  There is a limit to how far my comfort zone can stretch and I imagine that the boundary is just a little bit passed where I am now and does not include real, true poverty.  No one’s comfort zone should have to include that.  I think it is safe to say that if life was a little bit fair and people cared a little bit more for each other and a little bit less about their possessions, maybe no one's comfort zone would have to include poverty.  Maybe we could all agree that no one’s comfort zone really needs too include much more than the basics.  Except for maybe the latrines.  Maybe we could agree on some slightly nicer latrines.