Posted: May 18th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 4 Comments »
There’s a sentiment amongst some folks that volunteers in disaster struck countries are simply morbid tourists. As though the destruction and suffering is little more than a sensationalized backdrop to a Kodak moment. I’m currently a disaster response volunteer, and I’ve seen hundreds of volunteers come and go in the past few months. Consequently, I’ve got a first hand perspective on the type of people that show up as volunteers after a large disaster.
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Posted: March 21st, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 2 Comments »
Sunday is my day off here in Léogâne, so I have some spare time to sit down and upload a few photos from the week. I was a bit remiss in taking photos this week though. I started working in the hospital and well it’s not so picturesque. Unless you enjoy seeing an old untreated tibia fracture. There’s a lot of sad stories walking around the hospital every day, but there’s also a lot of smiles. The pre-quake health care here wasn’t exactly award winning, so a lot of folks are just happy to have someone take a look at their malady. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: March 14th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah, places | 9 Comments »
I’ve been in Haiti for three days so far. Several hours in Port au Prince, and the rest of the time in Léogâne. In this short time I’ve seen some pretty amazing things. Maybe not amazing in the traditional sense though. Let’s divide this post into two separate sections. One for my impression of the overall Haitian experience, and another for the volunteer work. I apologize that this post is a bit rushed, but I’m expecting the internet to cut out for the day any second now. Or the generator. Whichever goes first I guess.
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Posted: March 8th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 7 Comments »
In 3 little days I’ll be up before dawn and flying to Haiti. I’m already a little bit sad that I’m leaving Victoria. It’s been an awesome month here, and I could happily stay longer. On the other hand, I’m also glad to be on the move again. I have quite a few hands seemingly, because on the other other hand there’s a ton of unknowns about how things will go in Haiti. Oh, and on the other other other hand… ok, not really. In the last minute I’ve learned that I either need more hands, or a new catch phrase. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 28th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 3 Comments »
One of the most time consuming habits I have is standing around day dreaming about things I see. The most random things can set me off on an internal litany of pretend conversations and scenarios. I blame it on being an only child. Or perhaps it was that skateboarding head injury mishap in ’88. Either way, my point here is that my day dreaming has to work overtime when I’m traveling. So many new things to imagine. For kicks I thought I would share one of the things I saw here in Victoria that got my imagination going.
We had walked past countless sailboats and it was just another morning in the harbour. All the proverbial chat topics were going on, “ohh that one is pretty” and “I could sail around the world on that baby”, and so on. Then amongst all the fancy boats this little beauty suddenly caught my eye and ignited my day dreaming muscles. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 18th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah, places | 6 Comments »
Do you ever have those days when you’re not certain why you travel? I’m in Victoria BC for February, and this morning I was out running errands. As I was about to turn into a government office I noticed a hardcore looking photographer taking pictures all around him. As I paused a moment to not walk into his current shot, I got to looking at what he was shooting and wondering what was so damn photo worthy. It quickly became a moment of realization that what I was ignoring as just normal scenery was some other guy’s great photo. Read the rest of this entry »
