More than 300 people gathered at Town Hall Los Angeles on Tuesday night to see Dr. James Orbinski, former president of MSF International. Dr. Orbinski, who is the subject of the new documentary film Triage, and author of the just-released book, "An Imperfect Offering," spoke about his experiences working with MSF in contexts such as the Rwandan genocide and the Afghan civil war.

Listen to clips from the event:

Here, Dr. Orbinski describes his arrival at an MSF project in Somalia in 1992. The first thing he saw was a man who was not yet dead lying in the tent where dead bodies were laid.

Listen to a clip from the film Triage where Dr. Orbinski recounts a terrifying experience while operating on a young patient in a war zone.

Thanks to each of the 3,406 visitors who came out to A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City in Griffith Park, Los Angeles.

In addition to excellent visitors, we also got some good press, including from LAist blog, LA Daily News, 89.9 KPCC radio, and the Los Angeles Times.

Next up, the exhibit will be at the Santa Monica Pier - in Parking Lot 1 – from Friday, October 31, to Sunday, November 2. See you there!

Monday — 27 October

0830 – It looks like another perfect day of weather here in Griffith Park. At the hotel, near the ocean, we woke to a moderate fog that thinned as we drove east on the freeway. It is refreshingly cool this morning. The sky, blue with scattered wispy cirrus, mare’s tails, above the burnt brown hills.

On Saturday, when the last group departed the exhibit, we fired up the barbecue in the picnic area. After dinner, a bunch of us drove up to Griffith Observatory. It was a beautiful evening, very clear, warm. I think the last time I had been up to the observatory may have been my first visit to LA, in 1969.

Yesterday, I had the day off, which I spent riding on the bike path which runs along the beach.

0850 – The first groups arrived early, and the camp is already half full. Today is the last day in Griffith Park. Tomorrow, we’ll break down the exhibit. On Thursday, it will be set up again, adjacent to the Santa Monica Pier, where it will be open for the weekend, before moving to San Diego, the last stop on this fall’s tour. I haven’t heard yet if the exhibit is scheduled to tour next year, and if so, to what area of the country it will go.

Saturday, 25 October – 0900—We’re at the camp, ready for another day. The sky is clear again. The drive to Griffith Park took only 30 minutes this morning, without commuters on the road making their way to work. After I arrived, Martin and I loaded the signs in the van, and drove around the park placing them at strategic locations, to point visitors to the exhibit. Crystal Springs picnic area is in a hollow, and surrounded by large trees. It can be a little difficult to locate.

Few school groups are scheduled today. Even when we arrived, at 7:45 the park was full of people. In the field a short distance from the exhibit is a large gathering of cyclists, with hundreds of riders in colorful spandex costumes. Two groups are already in the exhibit. The noise from the freeway behind is even greater than the past few days, because with less traffic, the cars are moving faster.

1030 – At the Partners tent, a small group of MSF donors is gathered with coffee and pastries, talking with field volunteers and office staff.

Thursday morning, 0830 — I drove the first van run from the hotel this morning. Eight of us on our way by 7 am, with a quick coffee stop then onto the I-10 freeway. Traffic wasn’t bad; we arrived at the camp before 8. The morning is beautiful. Cool with a clear sky, though probably it will get as hot as yesterday.

0930 – Quiet still so far. Only one or two groups have entered the camp, a large group of guides waits at the entrance, talking to each other. Several more guides arrived last night and this morning. Some are local, from LA and nearby, others are flying in from more distant locations. MaryJo is finishing an orientation walk-through with the new arrivals. The slow start this morning allows everyone to catch up with former field colleagues. As I wrote yesterday, it is very, very interesting to get to meet so many more MSF international fieldworkers. To learn about the experiences they’ve had at various missions around the world, but also about home lives—where people live, how they juggle home and family with the peripatetic lifestyle of a humanitarian aid field volunteer.

In some communities where MSF works, women are viewed quite differently than what we are accustomed to in developed countries. MSF logisticians are often in charge of hiring and managing teams of local workers – usually men – and negotiating with authority figures. MSF log Amy Segal talks about how she manages the disconnect.

Many people that come to A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City bring a camera and take pictures as they go on the tour.  As part of the staff I have been around the exhibit for so long that I forget what it’s like to see each station for the first time.  I find it very interesting to see it from someone else’s perspective and to learn what captured their attention as their guide talked about life in a refugee camp.

We created a Refugee Camp Flickr group for people to share their photos of the exhibit.  Here is a selection of the photos that have been posted so far, we would love for you to share your own images of the Refugee Camp as well.

Being a logistician in a refugee camp and in other settings includes reaching out to different communities within and around the camp to address their needs and make sure that MSF is not excluding any groups. This is important to carrying out MSF’s purpose of impartially providing care, and helps provide some measure of security by keeping in close communication with all parties.

These ties with the communities also come in handy when something is stolen from an MSF project, as logistician Amy Segal recounts.

Janet Kerr helped create a mental health component to MSF’s project at Kalma Camp—one of the largest internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in the world—in Darfur in 2006. She and a Sudanese assistant trained 12 community workers in Kalma in basic mental health coping mechanisms.

The workers staged dramas and spoke with members of their communities to communicate these coping mechanisms and to identify patients who needed more intensive mental health assistance. This is the story of one patient.

Learn more about MSF’s work in Kalma camp in Darfur, Sudan.

Phil gives a tour in San Francisco.

On Monday, we broke down the camp in San Francisco. Funny, my friend Karen wrote to me last night that her vision of the camp breakdown is infused with images of "bugging out" from the TV show "M*A*S*H". After disassembling the exhibit, we had to load it all into a huge tractor trailer truck which would then drive overnight to meet us in LA. The drivers have been carrying the camp around the country each of the last several years. They know it better than most of us do.

We finished loading at noon, allowing just a few hours free time before we were to meet at the airport for the flight to LA. Bill had rented a car and Panenah, Monica, and I joined him for a bit of sightseeing. Peninah and Monicah are from Kenya. Peninah, a nurse, works for MSF in Uganda. Monicah has been a log for MSF for over 10 years. In June, she moved to the United States to work as the Coordinator of the MSF USA Association. This is her first visit to the west coast. It is Peninah’s first trip to the United States.

We stopped first at the Golden Gate Bridge and walked to the center of the span. Next we drove past the Cliff House to the beach, joking that Peninah had to touch the Pacific Ocean. She then told us that in fact she had never even seen an ocean before. It was her first time to the coast. She took off her shoes rolled up her trousers, and waded in. And she stayed in for long time.