No phone coverage
My senior writer has been stationed out in Bandar Acheh to report on the going-ons there, for he is a staff of the Red Cross Malaysia. And since the tremor yesterday we've been thinking about him constantly. But he's so absolutely fearless!! All he's really worried about is the lack of communication lines to report what's going on!!His first 2 emails were quite interesting. I may put them up later, but for now, I'm just gonna put up what he wrote last night after his short email yesterday morning to reassure us that he was alive.
I am now stationed in Meulaboh, to the south of BA. I will only depart for Nias tomorrow morning. I am at the IFRC camp (literally functioning out of tents). I don't have telephone coverage. We've had bad network coverage since the earthquake last night -- my housemates could not call me and I could not call them. But I did manage to call Jenny in Bangkok to help her with the information bulletin Geneva was issuing out, but the line was extremely bad and we lost each other more than once. However, since that phone call at 11.30 this morning, it has been hard to call anyone in Indonesia. I tried calling my boss Howard in Jakarta but no luck. I am now using a satellite phone, but unfortunately, Virgil and I only brought one phone and Virgil is using it for his work (he will be stationed in Meulaboh and I will be in Nias tomorrow). We have to sort out this communication problem as I also need to keep in touch with Virgil tomorrow. We shall see what Holger, head of operations, will do about this situation.
X, tell parents not to worry, I will be going to Nias with Axel, the BA programme coordinator, and Vera, the relief delegate, so everything will be OK. We have a little plane at our disposal, so if anything were to happen, we can hop on the plane to safety. No delegate has been hurt and everyone has been looking out for everybody else. Don't worry about me, I am OK, not traumatised or scared, just stressed (can I perform the task handed to me? am I able to write? can I contribute to the information bulletin?) and excited at the same time (this is the adventure of a lifetime! I could die!). I will touchbase with everyone when I get the chance tomorrow.
I am now working on the information bulletin for Geneva and will be briefed by Holger as to what is expected of me tomorrow.
Scared, stressed and excited from a tent in Meulaboh and whoops, the earth just moved again.
xxx
I absolutely admire his guts and dedication towards his work and fearlessness!! He may be there for about 3 months. Another 2 more months to go!! While all those quakes are happening!!
posted by Jennirhiow @ 11:10 am
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