January 19th Already?! Leaving for Nicaragua in the morning!

Hello friends and family!
January 19, 2010 is here, which means I am off to join the Peace Corps! I will be in DC tonight and then leave for the airport to go to Managua, Nicaragua early tomorrow morning. I have over-packed (surprise surprise) and will have to do some major re-arranging tonight after a long day of staging (learning all of the PC rules and regs before arriving).
Thank you, everyone, for your support and love over the past couple of months. Between finishing my thesis (which I did well on- you can now call me Tucker O’Donnell, MPH) and getting ready for the Peace Corps, it’s been a stressful time. I doubt my life will become less stressful in the PC, but it will definitely be a different type of stress!
I am communicating my adventures through a blog- the address is: http://tuckerodonnell.blogspot.com. I will try and update it as much as possible, but I apologize in advance for my sporadic updates because A) I am not a good journaler and B) who knows what my internet access will be! There are lots of mysteries about where I am going, who I am living with and what I will be doing.

A quick note about Haiti:

I have heard from some, but not all of my friends. It doesn’t necessarily mean the worst, infrastructure is still down. I have been lucky to hear about friends from friends and hope that trend continues.

If you have not donated and would like to please consider agencies which will use your entire donation to help the acute issues of the earthquake (and not go to administrative costs etc). I recommend the Clinton Foundation, Haitian Health Foundation, Partners in Health and the Red Cross.

Please do not donate to individuals traveling to Haiti in hopes to “do good”. My philosophy is that they will take away needed resources from the people such as food, water and shelter and if they were qualified to help, a reputable organization would hire them.
If you have donated, thank you! Remember that Haiti will be struggling with this disaster, in conjunction with their past issues, for many years to come. Please keep Haiti in your thoughts after the disaster crews have cleared. Rebuilding Port-au-Prince will require long-term efforts of sound policy, international and governmental cooperation, and continued support. There are 4x the number of people living in Port-au-Prince than it could infrastructurally hold- this is a real opportunity to rebuild PAP. It is also an opportunity to have non-governmental organizations, the government and international powers to work together and build a system of support which allows community participation. Unfortunately we have not seen that so far in this disaster. Haiti’s long history of occupation (particularly in the past 5 years of UN peace keeping involvement- MINUSTAH) and a corrupt government and police force have made the Haitian population weary of these types of situations where “super powers” are providing care for the people. Please keep that in mind when you hear news reports of “those Haitians” and the violence that is likely to occur, especially how it will be portrayed on the news in the US.


A good book to read on Haiti- although it focuses mostly on the rural plateau- is Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It over-glorifies Paul Farmer to some extent (only making his head bigger) but it ties the issues of Haiti, Public Health and development nicely together.

I look forward to seeing everyone next winter! Please email me, and when I get a mailing address- please write me letters!
Hasta Luego!

Love,

Tucker