Solutions Without a Problem

The nature of a problem is not bound by a solution but rests independently in its own sphere. A sphere that the problem is content to stay in despite the "solutions" we throw at it. The nature of a problem often lies far deeper than what catches the eye, with the root lying (most often) well below the surface.

When attending a garden it is not uncommon to encounter a weed from time to time as this naturally occurs when growing a garden. The average man upon encountering this weed quickly identifies the facade of this problem and with equal speed, so also identifies a "solution". With a quick bend of the knee and flick of the wrist, the problem has seemingly been mitigated--the weed plucked from the surface and thrown to the bushes.

The next week, the man returns to his garden and encounters the very same weed in the very same spot. "Perhaps this is a coincidence," he says to himself, and follows the exact same path with the exact same solution as the previous week. However a coincidence it was not. Week after week, the problem persisted, the solution remained constant and the outcome was unwavering.

The fact of the matter is that the appearance of the weed itself was by no means the problem. Removing the appearance of the weed allowed a temporary "solution" that rendered a positive feeling of satisfaction with the man and did little else beyond making the dirt more aesthetically appealing for the short term--the weed still remained. The real problem of course was the root of the weed. The root that was buried deep in the earth below. When the root is removed then only will a lasting solution be found. When the root is removed the weed will not grow back.

While this logic may seem elementary, logic it remains and far too little is it applied to the problems we encounter on a daily basis. Whether it is at home, work, in the garden or even with doing charity work, we must always search for the root of the problems before finding solutions. For a "solution" that does not solve a problem is no solution at all because the problem still remains.

Quick-fixes are certainly the easiest path to follow in order to "get rid of" a problem. However, the issue with these quick-fixes is that in the long run we will either:

1. Move on and forget about the problem, though it still persists; or
2. Spend far more time and resources "fixing" the problem than we would have, had we simply provided real solutions in the first place.

In Haiti, this reality was quite prevalent. In the early days when I was working in the field medical clinics, we would see patients coming in with all sorts of illness and injury. Some of this was due to the earthquake in one way or another, however much of the illness we saw was entirely unrelated to the events of January 12th. One such problem we had were patients who were suffering from chronic hypertension or "high blood pressure." Quite often this condition would be associated with poor dietary habits, inactive lifestyles and chronic obesity.

As many of our care providers were short-term volunteers with assignments anywhere from two weeks to a month, there was a natural tendency to want to "fix" these patients during their short time in country. One such "fix" which would be offered was a prescription for blood pressure medications. These blood pressure medications would lower the patient's blood pressure to a more reasonable level while the patient was taking them.

These medications certainly provided a short-term "solution" for these patients, and rendered a feeling of satisfaction to the care providers having felt that they had done something during their time in Haiti. However, what happened when the few tablets we gave the patient ran out? Most often the patient would not have the money to refill the prescription, so they would then go back to their previous state of hypertension. This being the case, giving anti-hypertensives to these patients was really no solution at all.

However, beyond the argument of giving these medications for such a short-time I would argue that the far deeper issue was not actually the fact that these patients were suffering from chronic hypertension but rather their life styles. Treating hypertension does very little for the long-term health of a patient without consideration of the lifestyle and habits that created this condition in the first place. Treating hypertension with medications is the equivalent of pulling the weed from the surface of the ground. It removes the appearance of the problem, however the problem still remains. To really treat the problem the dietary and lifestyle issues must be addressed. For it is these problems that are at the root of the chronic hypertension.

With this in mind, I think it is important for us to remember why we do the things that we do. So often, the processes we do on a daily basis we call "solutions." However, when these "solutions" do not address the root of the problem we fall short. Take a look around, do the solutions that you provide or participate in on a daily basis fix problems or do they fail to pull the root out of the ground?

The art of the Divine

In the coolness of the night
To stand in silence
To listen to the darkness
The sun peaks over the mountains
The morning awakes
The art of the divine

Rain falls down
Smoke fills the air
Gentle music sings
The warmth of the fire
The art of the divine

I have no needs
I have no worries
Though the path is uncertain
My destiny is clear
I have no need to fear
My soul is at peace
Oh, the art of the divine

Proud to be an American

When I have friends who travel overseas, I often hear a wide variety of responses in regards to their 'nationalism' upon coming back. Some will say, "Wow, when I saw all that poverty, I began to realize how consumerist our society is." Others will say, "Man, I wish I didn't have to come back to the States and that I could just stay overseas forever." Still others will say, "You know, I really just began to realize how blessed and fortunate we are here."

All these responses are based on the experience and perspective of the individual. I have to admit I have probably had some elements of all three in my thinking at one time or another since being overseas. However lately, I have really found one emotion rising above the rest, and that is, I am proud to be an American.

The other day, I was at a BBQ hosted by the US Embassy. Microbrews, beef brisket, conversations about home and country music. Even though I'm half way around the world, I felt right at home, and it was a good thing.

I often have business meetings here with some of the leading Sri Lankan business men. Often you can sense a certain amount of respect coming from them just because of where I am from. And more often then not, they will share a story with fondness about the time they went on a business trip to New York, or about their cousin who lives in North Carolina, or their brother living in Houston.

When I ride in a taxi, they ask where I am from, I tell them I'm from the States, and they always say, "Ah USA, very good place."

Even when you hear Sri Lankans referring to 'the embassy' you know there is only one embassy they are talking about, the U.S. embassy.

I guess what I am saying is that, Sri Lankans love America, and they have a certain amount of respect for me just because I am American, and I like it. I know it's not exactly the 'cool' thing these days, especially for people my age but, I always think to myself after these conversations, "Yeah, that's were I'm from, and I'm proud of it."

Blogging may stop, but life does not

I find it borderline amusing how long I have gone without posting on this blog site, it raises the question: Why do I even still have this blog site? Since the last time blogging:

• Left Haiti


• Went to Sri Lanka


• Started a company


• Had some good times...

What more to say? Trying to do a summary of 10 months of living is not easy. I'm not sure that I am actually going to try. Perhaps though, I can use this as a launching point to start into talking about my new life, 'one day at a time'. Fresh starts are always good. Will this be another fresh start for me or just a failed attempt? Time will tell. Until such time when time does tell, I shall subside into living the life that I do.

Out of Haiti and onto...

Since the early May when my last posting was, so much has happened. It's not that I haven't had time to write because I have; it's more that I have been too busy trying to process all that has been going on, and just didn't ever get the urge to record it. So here I am now, to report the happenings in my life.

At this point, I'm not looking to list out piece by piece all that has happened since May. At some point I would like to assemble some more thoughts and stories from Haiti but for now I think I just keep it simple and to the point.

I have often joked with my colleagues that working 1 month in Haiti is the equivalent of working a year anywhere else. The reason for this is that so many 'abnormal' things happen in the average day that order to get the same experiences somewhere else it would take much longer. That being said, May and June were just as crazy as any other month. To add to it, I had some additional professional responsibilities that definitely added some to the mix. But overall, things seemed to be functioning at a 'normal' level for Haiti, and I got used to this fact.

In early June while my boss Donnie was out of the country away on business in Sri Lanka a pretty big opportunity came up. The opportunity to move to Sri Lanka and start a pre-hospital care system. This is something I have always dreamed of, and I jumped on the opportunity. A few days later I put in my resignation with my agency in Haiti, gave them a one month notice and started transitioning out of my job.

On July 10th I got back to the Oregon, where I am enjoying time with friends and family. August 4th, I'm headed off to Sri Lanka to live out my dream.

The UN Convoy and a Flat Tire

There are some things that really just make for a good story, and I believe this is one of them:

Steve (our British Manager of Strategic Church Partnerships) and Jaweed (our Sri Lankan Finance Manager) and myself were all headed out to Leogane from our office in Port-au-Prince. Now I think I have mentioned this before, but traffic down here can be quite bad. It usually takes us somewhere around 2-3 hours to get out to Leogane from our office in Port-au-Prince which is only 23 miles away. Needless to say, it's a long drive and anything you can do to speed it up is nice.

On this particular drive there was a UN convoy with lights flashing, and sirens blaring coming through. Naturally, I started following them as they cleared out traffic as they went. The only problem was that I was actually in the middle of the convoy. I didn't realize this at first, but quickly noticed that there were several more UN vehicles behind me. I kept up for a while without any problems, but as we slowed down and the vehicles behind us caught up, I could see the driver of the vehicle behind me waving me off. Finally, I pulled off to the side and let the rest of the convoy go by. About 5-6 UN vehicles passes us, the last one was a pickup with several UN Sri Lankan peacekeeping troops inside. As they slowly went by, Jaweed called out to them in Sinhalese (the primary Sri Lankan language), they were quite excited by the sight of a fellow Sri Lankan so they told Jaweed in Sinhalese that they wanted us to get behind their vehicle and follow them.

There I was, trying to follow the UN compound weaving in and out of traffic. The thing that made it difficult was that our vehicle was not marked as a UN vehicle, so other cars kept on trying to cut us off, but we had the Sri Lankans in front of us who waved all the cars off when they tried to cut in. With the intimidation factor of their camouflage and automatic sub-machine guns this strategy was fairly effective. I don't know that I have ever had as many near accident experiences in a 10 minute period before. I had to continually squeeze through gaps that I was not sure I could make it through, but the Sri Lankans kept waving me on. It was intense. I was sitting up in my seat the entire time.

Finally, we broke out of the traffic a bit and were making decent time with the convoy, when out of no where appeared a 6+ inch rock in the roadway, I swerved to the right to miss it, but it was too late. I continued on for the next few seconds expecting a flat tire, and sure enough 30 seconds later the tire went flat and we lost the convoy... The ride was fun while it lasted anyway.

Life as Normal

Well, as many of you know if you have been reading my blog up to this point, I came down to Haiti almost 7 weeks ago, but down here so much happens in the day that it seems like it was much longer ago than that. Since then my life has changed so much in so many ways. I haven't written about it in quite a while because I have been far too busy taking it in to even worry about putting into words.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of strange events that have somehow become quite normal and at times even expected. It is hard to find a day anymore where something actually comes off as being a surprise. Just last night I was talking to Donnie the head of mission down here in Haiti about this: When I first arrived in country we would drive down the streets and I would be amazed and in awe of all I saw around me, not only the destruction, but also the people and their cultural differences. Driving down the street my eyes would be glued to every image around me. Now however, everything has become so normal. I don't even notice the destroyed buildings around me anymore and the culturally bizarre things I see people do, don't shock me anymore. If anything they just make for a good laugh. But that's life as normal now. Expect everything to be hectic and bizarre, and it is.

There was the week of vehicle break-downs where nearly every vehicle in our fleet either broke down, got in an accident or got a flat tire. This was followed by the week of sickness: we had a team meeting one night where 4 (one of them being me) of the 15 or so people who were attending were hooked up to IV fluids. This was followed by the HQ visit week where we had 3 high ranking people from MTI headquarters all in country at the same time. Then we had the weekend of "rest" where the full time Haiti Ex-Pat staff returned to the states for a little R&R unfortunately for some of us flights got delayed and connections got missed and the weekend didn't turn out to be as restful as initially hoped for... This leads us to now.

After a wonderful and restful time back in the states, I made it safely back to Haiti. The first thing I had to deal with in country was the baggage claim. Unlike most civilized countries where they have a nice rubber conveyor belt that runs all your baggage through, they do things a little bit differently here, they do it Haitian style. They rope off an area inside an old hanger surrounding a cargo door. They unload all of the bags into that roped off area while all the passengers stand outside the rope watching. Then after most of the bags are unloaded some brave soul jumps in and grabs their bag, which is quickly followed by someone else unhooking the rope and a free for all convergence of passengers onto the pile of bags. There is yelling, pushing, grabbing... Then you walk outside and get swarmed by dozens of porters who are just dying to carry your bags for you and don't very well take no for an answer. It's really a great experience that just screams, "welcome to Haiti."

After all this I got home and began to settle in and catch up on my emails thinking I was going to be able to ease back into things. Shortly thereafter, I got a call from Donnie who was about 45 minutes away saying, "How quickly can you get here, there's been a team (not an MTI team) of 7 people who got in a bad car wreck up in the mountains, some of them are critically injured, I need your help." After waiting 20 minutes for my driver Wilson (who was out doing errands) to show up, I loaded up my backpack full of bandages, swabs and IV fluids and raced toward the mountains. Traffic is ridiculous here, so Wilson decided to take the back roads to avoid traffic. The back roads in Haiti are awful, one has to wonder if technically they can even be called roads. As we bounced up and down on these roads with the emergency flashers on and the horn blaring, I was attached to my phone trying to text Donnie to find out the rest of the details and the exact location of the accident while simultaneously talking to one of our HQ guys trying to arrange transportation for a group of potential donors we had in country. After making it far up into the mountains I finally got a call from Donnie saying, "We didn't make it in time, the helicopter evac beat us to it."

Coming back down from the mountain I realized that the HQ guy and the potential donors still didn't have a ride, so we swung by and picked them up to take them to dinner at our place. We got back to our compound with the potential donors when one of our Haitian staff approached me and said, "I think there's been a misunderstanding, Margaret (the cook) only cooked for 3 people and there are 10 of you." So here I was with a group of potential donors who had just been stranded for the past 3 hours, back at our compound ready to feed them the meal we had promised, only to find out that there wasn't enough food... Great... Plan B anyone? Wilson, "I think there is a restaurant open that is near here." Me and the HQ guy, "Done." So we headed out to the restaurant and ended up having a quite pleasant evening. It's that kind of dichotomy that makes this line of work so interesting. One minute you are racing up a rough mountain road to go and attempt to rescue people, the next minute you are sitting at a table with a bunch of potential donors doing your best to host them... And that was just my first few hours back in country...