Found in Translation

M: Hi, Wondering what is “akwatab”? Is this short for potable water?
Thanks,
M K: “akwatab” is some kind of pill that you put in water so that it can
sanatize [sic] it
R: @M—sounds like aquatab—can we have a bit more context to be
sure…?
8
In the first six weeks of this undertaking, more than forty thousand text
messages were received, translated, and sent back with an approximate
turnaround time of ten minutes or less. One U.S. Marine working on the
ground in Haiti described the system’s impact like this:
I cannot overemphasize to you what the work of [Mission 4636] has provided. It is saving
lives every day. There are hundreds of these kinds of [success] stories. The Marine Corps is
using your project every second of the day to get aid and assistance to the people that need it
most.
9
Beginning one month into Mission 4636’s one hundred days of operation, the
volunteer efforts were gradually transferred to paid workers in Haiti, creating

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employment opportunities in an area where the earthquake intensified the
country’s prior scarcity of jobs.
Munro concludes one account of his experience with these words:
With far too many people to thank, I will limit the expression of gratitude here to the Haitian
population that sent reports. Their selflessness in the face of a crisis of this scale is humbling.
They shared information not just about emergencies but also any information that they
thought would benefit the relief efforts. Despite the tragedies surrounding them, mèsi (thank
you) was among the most frequent words in the reports.
Munro told us, “As the main responders were the military, most exact cases
remain classified. But in unclassified announcements they assured us that it was
saving lives every day.”
10
The program ran for approximately a hundred days,
saving at least that many lives.