walking away.

Sometimes moments align themselves perfectly, irrevocably, and an excellent time is had by all. Had dinner last night with an emergency response crew of 3, hard-living, die-hard, hard-drinking, hard-cussing men and women who have seen the worst of this world, the arbitrariness, the brutality, the poverty, the deaths that hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, conflict, genocides, wars, and still have enormous compassion and passion for the people and the work they had to do. One of them was telling me about how he was on a mission in Rwandas, when the Tutsis were murdering Hutus, and 600 children had been taken to a refugee camp, and a Reuters reporter was there. The children were mute, distressed, unable to speak, eyes hollow in their faces, and this reporter was poking this child with a stick, trying to make her cry so that he could have a photo and the friend was telling me how he literally punched him and stamped on his camera and walked away and then got bollocked later on. Through much whiskey, tobacco and wine, stories of suffering and more importantly of hope were exchanged, and I came away with renewed respect for these men and women who fight everyday, unknown battles to the most of us, sacrificing every chance they have for a normal life and a normal relationship, simply because they cannot walk away.