Yesterday I went on a food delivery trip with the UN and Sri Lankan army. If you've never 4 wheeled up and down a 2 ton truck loaded with 280 boxes of food and stalled it in the middle of nowhere Haiti with a bunch of Sri Lankan officers who don't speak English, it's a good thing to do on your 26th birthday.
This experience was very interesting. We called the "community leader" before we went, and he said he had 280 families. We brought 280 boxes of food, each enough to feed 12 people for 1 week.
Little kids had chased our truck up and down the mountain in the hot sun hoping for some food. We slipped a few rice packets out to them and sent them on their way when no one was looking. You have to be careful with that though because you can start a riot, but is hard to watch a small child chase you all the way up a steep mountain in the hot sun hoping for food and not give him anything.
When we got to the top of our 4 wheel expedition, the community leader told us he had 350 families. As soon as I heard this, I started thinking, I do not want to see what happens after the 280th box. The crowd had tickets and we handed each family representative 1 box per ticket.
I was standing on the ground handing out the boxes with a few other sailors while the Sri Lankan army officers stood around us for protection. I got back into the truck when the crowd started getting angry. It was very, very sad to see the old woman standing there with a ticket in her hand and no box of food after it was all gone. I don't think I will ever forget the sad expression her face.
Another life experience to chalk up; now I really feel like I've done it all at 26.
This experience was very interesting. We called the "community leader" before we went, and he said he had 280 families. We brought 280 boxes of food, each enough to feed 12 people for 1 week.
Little kids had chased our truck up and down the mountain in the hot sun hoping for some food. We slipped a few rice packets out to them and sent them on their way when no one was looking. You have to be careful with that though because you can start a riot, but is hard to watch a small child chase you all the way up a steep mountain in the hot sun hoping for food and not give him anything.
When we got to the top of our 4 wheel expedition, the community leader told us he had 350 families. As soon as I heard this, I started thinking, I do not want to see what happens after the 280th box. The crowd had tickets and we handed each family representative 1 box per ticket.
I was standing on the ground handing out the boxes with a few other sailors while the Sri Lankan army officers stood around us for protection. I got back into the truck when the crowd started getting angry. It was very, very sad to see the old woman standing there with a ticket in her hand and no box of food after it was all gone. I don't think I will ever forget the sad expression her face.
Another life experience to chalk up; now I really feel like I've done it all at 26.
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