My Rather Jaunty Specialist Went to Indonesia and All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt ...

Mock T-shirt, originally uploaded by rjschmidt.

Well I know I’ve been silent on the page for awhile, but I have a good excuse: I’ve been on tour. If U2 can keep doing it, so can I. (Speaking of U2, by the way, my birthday is coming up and wouldn’t it be a great, great gift for someone to say, ‘Hey Ry, by the way, got you tickets for one of the shows in the fall’ … Just a thought.)

No really, I’ve stepped up into the role of Logistics Manager for our programs, and just recently I’ve also agreed (I plead insanity for this one) to act as the Administrator for our Medan office temporarily. What that means is that I’ve been touring the country with Sally, a brit logistician on loan from Tearfund UK, setting up systems for managing procurement, stock, and vehicles and staff movement – and looking for places to buy beer on the side. Sally has a great taste for beer, which I’m more than willing to match.

So I’ve been busy. Logistics is a very interesting exercise in creativity while faced with chaos. In other words, it’s like trying to change a tire on a moving vehicle. Dr. McKemey, the Oxford PhD in Disaster Management who consulted for us (and, for those of you who remember, hired Hannah as the bookkeeper while she was washing his underwear) said that doing Logistics you see the underbelly of an organization.

In honour of our time under the underbelly of World Relief, Sally and I decided to make T-shirts. I’ll leave the subtleties up to you to figure out.