United Nations Babyblue Peacekeeper's Hat

All the new people have arrived by today. It feel super weird because there are just way too many people. I thought the last group was big, but this group is even bigger. There are a total of about 40 new people, plus the 25 that are already here, so that is 65 people total. Literally every single place in OECC is filled with someone or someone’s luggage. You just end up running into people no matter which corner you turn to. I am leaving tomorrow morning, so I wanted to make sure the next group of people knew exactly what to do in every situation before I left. I spent all day today handing over everything that I knew and have done this past month. It was a little bit emotional going through all the details of my work here for the last time…

First thing in the morning, I took the new team to JOTC to conduct a re-con for the distribution tomorrow. Normally the security and escort tasks would be handed to military troops, but this week, due to the large number of distributions, our week long distribution tasks have been handed over to the United Nations Police (UNPOL). What this means is that policemen from different countries would be put together as a team to protect Tzu Chi distributions. It is very much like the military assignments, except all the men are policemen. So we had already had some contact with the UNPOL and went to JOTC (Joint Operations Tasking Center) to conduct a re-con (reconfirmation) of the site for tomorrow. When we got there, we were told that the UNPOL contact person was not there. When asked who was the contact person, Barbara (the coordinator at JOTC), she responded with “Michel.” I was ecstatic, because I knew Michel from before. He was one of the French Military Police (Gendermaire) people that I was talking to and ended up finding out he was from Southern France. I quickly called him up to schedule something. We agree to meet at 10pm back at JOTC to conduct the re-con at the Stadium. The re-con went really well and they were pleased with the layout Tzu Chi had proposed. I am going to miss Michel and the whole JOTC process very much. Michel left saying, “See you in France soon.”

Another group of policemen came shortly after Michel left saying they are suppose to help us with the distribution tomorrow. It was a moment of confusion, but it turned out okay. We showed them the sites and took them back to OECC, since they were going to be the ones that will be escorting us to and from the Stadium tomorrow. It was three policemen, two from Côté d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and one from Chad. Turns out tomorrow there will be a total of 13 policemen, the three from today and also an addition of 10 more Chinese Policemen. It is going to be an interesting experience. The plan is to have both groups go and help out, since normally with the army we would have at least 20 people guarding the sites. We shall see what happens tomorrow…

One of the biggest things that I had to make sure I did today was visit the Brazilian Army Base for the last time. That base and the people there mean very much to me, especially First Lieutenant Beraud. His words will always stay with me forever. “We came here to fight. We were ready to fight. You guys (Tzu Chi) have showed us how to talk with the people without our guns. We keep the peace, while you guys promote the message of peace. Thank you for showing us a different Haiti.” I wrote a small letter to First Lieutenant Beraud and gave it to him when I visited. He showed me around the base camp and even gave me a souvenir…one of the best souvenirs ever…one that I have always wanted…A United Nations Peacekeeper Hat. It even has the Brazil flags on both sides of it. He also presented me with a Brazilian flag pendant. I will always cherish these kind gifts.