The Foreign Service Journal, April 2010

26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 1 0 ents, on up to crisis response coun- seling. Expanded efforts will in- clude organized offsite programs for counseling, recuperation and team- building. These services benefit all staff, American and local. The idea for such a plan, specific to USAID’s staff in Haiti, is driven by the sudden and devastating im- pact of the earthquake. Perhaps such plans will be cre- ated and implemented for other missions as needed, and broadened to include the other foreign affairs agencies. Whatever the future holds, we must always think and act broadly, creatively and aggressively, to care for all of our staff. That care is critical to the success of our mission and, more importantly, to our humanity. For the Future As I write this, the bodyguard and his young child sleep on a street somewhere under the stars. The father has re- turned to work, somehow carrying on despite the devastating loss of his wife and two children. His sur- viving son stays on the street dur- ing workdays (there is no school in Port-au-Prince now, and won’t be for months) while his 15-year-old aunt looks after him. The last I saw his father, I gave him two Coast Guard sleeping bags I had acquired, a Spi- derman blanket a fellow USAID officer had given me as they were evacuating that first day, and the last $100 I had. I also advised him to carry home water from the embassy taps because it is potable. He lacked a tent or plastic sheeting for his now-small family. Hopefully he will have it before the rains come. But what I really want to send him is some books. The way his little boy refused to turn each page of Where the Wild Things Are leads me to suspect he had never held such a book up close. ■ F O C U S All those voices joining to sing “Amazing Grace” echoed throughout the embassy, and still echo today in my heart.