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Sidewalk City

I woke this morning to find we had no Internet access. It turns out our batteries are not lasting the whole night, and when the voltage gets too low, the inverter is shutting itself off. When we turn the generator off in the evening, we are running our system on a battery backup. That system should be able to last for at least 24 hours, given the load that we are putting on it. The first few nights of using it, we had no problem, but the last couple nights have not been so good. We've made a couple changes to the system tonight, and we'll see if that helps. Also, we've installed a large voltage regulator, which will help us run on the generator when the voltage output goes up and down based on just what is being used in the camp. We have lights, computers, electric saws, fridges, instant water heaters, radios, and a washing machine being run on the generator in the UN Base Camp. It's not uncommon for our battery inverter to kick in and run the system on battery when the voltage drops too low. The voltage regulator will help with that, and give us a steady input throughout the day so that the batteries are fully charged in the evening when we switch to battery power. I'm glad Jonathan is here, since I'm not much of an electrician, but he has a solid background in that area.

The UN base camp was a busy place today. Every day there are a few more people here, a little more activity going on. They started putting in 'sidewalks' yesterday, and that work continued today. The last time it rained for a day, the grassy area in the middle of the tents became quite a mess, so this project is an effort to keep people out of the mud when it rains. More members of the SRSA team arrived today, and they are now at their full staffing level. They have two chefs, an electrician, two maintenance people, a nurse, two radio technicians, two information technology people, and an administrator. Quite a diverse and talented team. And, a team without their equipment. It's a long story, but their equipment should be arriving on Sunday or Monday, but truck convoy from Medan.

Jonathan and I are still doing fine with food, having some French army rations, groceries sent in from Medan, and fresh fruit from town. But, I hope I can eat a meal prepared by a Swedish chef before I leave. As I said, there are two of them here as part of their team. But you know, as I sit here and hope our food will last until the camp has a kitchen, my concern about food is so unfounded. Compared to some of the people living in remote locations north of here, I have unlimited access to whatever I need. There are still many people who struggle to get enough clean drinking water, and who are heavily dependant on the delivery of food by air.

This afternoon I was approached by an Austrian woman who wanted to know if I would read through her project proposal, with an eye on spelling and grammar, and give her some feedback. I was happy to do that for her, and it reminded me of my days working with the California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) when I assisted high schools in our region as they wrote technology grants. In this case, the project that is being proposed is for women who have been displaced by the tsunami to be trained how to sew school uniforms. This will give them work for cash, and will provide uniforms for children who have none. In Indonesia all school children wear uniforms. Many schools have been destroyed or damaged. Children are going to school in tents. Having a school uniform is a small thing that can be done to help bring some normalcy back to their lives.

It will be a long time before things are anywhere near normal for the people in the Aceh province. Hear is some information from a report from SurfAid. The complete report can be read online.

Ujung Sazlang was the worst hit village yet seen by the distribution team. The entire village has been destroyed and the population is now living 2km inland in a displacement camp they have built at the foot of the hills. The tsunami wave reached this far inland and the residents are afraid to move back to the coast.

There have been six government food distributions and two other distributions including one from CARE. They have received rice, noodles, biscuits, bread and cooking oil. Some sarongs and second hand clothes have also been distributed.