Word: sand
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...semi-arid northeast corner, food distribution is now a daily ritual. In its 45-year history, WFP has handled war, famine and just about every other kind of disaster, natural or made by man. But Karamoja is pretty typical. After years of drought, the soil is little more than sand. Goats and cattle are gaunt from lack of grazing and the sorghum crop is failing. Armed cattle rustlers roam the region, making the roads too dangerous for most travel. Commercial transporters refuse to haul in WFP goods, despite escorts from Uganda's national army. Yet the biggest challenge the Rome...
...family are starting to call and e-mail. And I've received a dire-sounding e-mail earlier in the day from the disaster volunteer center set up at the United Way office just north of downtown: "There is an URGENT need for volunteers to assist in the sand bagging effort. Volunteers are asked to report... throughout the day for deployment...
...deploying" again soon - as I did on Thursday. Working alongside dozens of other Iowans - from the Des Moines area as well as from towns hours away - who felt compelled to do something, anything, my 16-year-old son and I spent several hours filling sand bags to try to support levees near a threatened north Des Moines neighborhood along the swiftly rising Des Moines River...
...going to tell my wife I spent the day at the beach," joked a sweat-soaked, middle-aged guy, brushing off his overalls during a break from shoveling heavy sand into orange bags. A father and daughter, an inner-city church youth group, brawny twentysomething guys and spindly-legged teenage girls, they were all there - scooping and shoveling sand from large piles heaped onto a residential street next to a small city park...
...through their mobile home park in Altoona; an Iowa City police officer wading through water with a little boy on his shoulders; an astonishing aerial view of downtown Cedar Rapids where downtown buildings look like rafts in an ocean. But mostly, my fellow sandbaggers work quietly, diligently, steadily, shoveling sand, filling bags, heaving them into piles and hoping for the best while preparing for the worst...