Before leaving home, I overheard a little boy talking to his mother at my local grocery store. She was explaining their plan for the afternoon, and then he asked with raw excitement: “And then can we have crackers?” That resonated with me—I hoped I could find such Zen-like joy in simple things.

In Haiti, this outlook comes up repeatedly. The 18-hour days continue, the work taxing each one of us. In setting up and managing assistance projects for earthquake victims, we find that full meals are hard to come by, so we sometimes reach for surplus MREs. Inside are those nearly stale military-issue crackers with either a packet of peanut butter or processed cheese. Dirty-faced and exhausted, I visit Shannon at a camp outside Port-au-Prince. The hot sun is going down, and it’s time for a break. She takes out a packet of crackers and smiles: “Want some?”

So many Haitian kids have nothing left. They live in absolute squalor. Many have lost parents. Their schools are destroyed, and there is nothing to do. One of the activities we’ve set-up is called Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs). These are places and activities in the camps where kids can play, interact and engage in normal kid activities. After the earthquake, kids here did nothing until CFSs. Being kids again is critical to healthy recovery. We put together a budget that includes snacks … I smile when crackers are put on the list.