The ensuing days were chaotic as we tried to understand what the initial directive and subsequent ones meant for our operations. What started as a 90-day pause on and review of all U.S. aid became, on January 24, a U.S. State Department suspension of all existing programs except for emergency food assistance and military aid to Egypt and Israel. Four days later, the exemptions were extended to “humanitarian programs that provide life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and subsistence assistance.”