Photos from the Field

I haven't heard from Steve very much the last two days. He tried to Skype us yesterday evening (his morning) but we weren't home Friday evening. Just now (Saturday night, his Sunday morning) I've caught him on Skype chat, but he's still not giving me that many details. Hmmm guess he must be busy! He did upload a bunch of photos to facebook, so I've posted a few here. He's had internet a good part of the day, but the bandwidth is pretty weak, and it cuts out often. Some of the photos below show them unloading some household kids off a flight, for a distribution. The kits contain plastic sheeting, kitchen kits, blankets, mosquito nets, torch (I think he means flashlight but it could be a lantern). It was supposed to arrive on a flight yesterday and he waited on the tarmac for hours until finally reaching the guy in Manila, who still hadn't managed to get it on a plane at all. The shipment finally arrived early this morning (their time) but contained only a fraction of the kits they were expecting, which is a problem since the local mayor was organizing a distribution for 1000 when only 150 arrived. He said its incredibly frustrating because space on planes is so incredibly limited, and right now so many of the flights are going to Tacloban, which is getting priority. So they often don't have control over what does or doesn't make it on the plane.  But he said they should have several more coming today and tomorrow, and a whole 20ft container arriving by sea on a ferry on Wednesday or Thursday. He said that every agency working in Roxas (by the way he's in Roxas city, Capiz province, Palay Island) meets together at 6pm every night, for a coordination meeting managed by OCHA (United Nations Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance, or something like that- they are always the coordinating body of all the aid agencies, in a major disaster like this). Then they break up into clusters and divide up and organize who does what, where, and share information on what they've found and learned. You'll see in some of the photos Steve's fancy new backpack- he actually got that about a month ago as part of a pilot, it has solar panels on the back and can power a 60w battery, which can connect to just about anything- a car charger plug and a USB plug, among other things.  He has been working out of the governor's office but he said just got a local dongle (apparently this is what you call a think that connects to your laptop and picks up a cell signal and creates a wireless network) which will allow him to make a wireless hub via the local mobile network, right from his computer. He said office coordination and administration is super challenging, in addition to relief supply logistics. He's super happy though, because he just hired a new logistics assistant who comes from the area, and starts working with him tomorrow.