4 February 2010: When it comes to pain, I am a confessed wimp. Why suffer when a small pill can take care of it? I never understood people who boast about refusing to take even one aspirin. I liken the array of painkillers in my first aid travel kit to a nicely stocked Scotch collection: the right choice for any occasion.

Thanks to my talent of seriously injuring myself – from getting a finger tip caught under a razor-sharp chef’s knife to cracking a rib by slipping on an ice-covered Whistler Mountain parking lot – I have an ample selection of prescription analgesics. I rarely use them – that’s why I still have plenty on hand.

Even with such a low tolerance for pain, I choose to live with chronic ear aches. Always had them, starting as a kid. My mom used to give me some nasty tasting medicine but I soon gave that up. Some pain you learn to live with.

Magic pills

For the people of Haiti trying to rebuild their lives, when the drug stores finally re-open there won’t be any magic pills waiting inside. It’s been 3 weeks and the hurt of losing loved ones, their homes and their city is starting to dull, if just a little bit.

My friends and colleagues here can talk about it for longer stretches before pangs of hopelessness and despair again take them to the edge of bursting into tears. This is beyond mourning.

Misery most definitely does not love company. People are desperate for distractions to give time glimpses of opportunity to heal their wounds. Television stations are back on the air, but most people still don’t have electricity to watch any surviving sets. For those who could afford one, many have damaged generators. There is no rush to fix them with expensive post-quake gasoline still out of reach.

Watching TV may be the ultimate brain numbing activity but routine does offer some promise. People are wandering the streets at all hours with no particular destination in mind. They seem to be counting on auto pilot to take over navigation in the hope of giving their minds a bit of down time.

Football distraction

The ultimate distraction for Haiti may well be watching football – don’t call it soccer down here. Brazil is the team of choice for most nations without teams of their own, and Haiti is no exception.

The next World Cup - it happens every 4 years - takes place in South Africa in June. When asked, a buddy becomes despondent at the thought of the badly damaged electricity grid not being repaired in time.

He then allows himself to be swallowed up by the vision of people setting up big-screen TVs in public places to show all the games. Just like in 2006 - but this time the sets would be huge.

If only we could rebuild the power system right away and start the World Cup in February. That could give Haitians reason to enjoy life again.