The GIS Tech went well - I presented a couple of times and it was enjoyable. Fielded some questions from a load of people and that is always part of the fun isn't it?
Suriname severe flooding and MA swings into action. Got a call from the MA calling circle asking me to place myself on standby for deployment. - Over 120 towns in the former Dutch colony have been hit by flooding and at least 70 are under water.
Heavy rains since last Sunday have caused extensive flooding in the country's remote central lowlands. Although precise figures were hard to come by on Tuesday, it is estimated 120 villages have been hit and 20,000 to 25,000 people have been left homeless.
No real news though - certainly BBC or CNN has not picked this one up and this is after a week. Probably because of the low death toll in this area of the world. Interestingly, even knowledgable friends had to get an atlas out to find this place. I have been when I worked in Guyana, next door to Suriname.
Anyway, the preparations for deployment went on and most of us knew what needed to be done: I started to prep the MA forum with the right posts so that the planning committee can start the organisation. The volunteers at this point had to find out their availability for the next week; with the possibility of deployment on the sunday. I knew I could do it so soon so made this know on the forum. Already, there were a handful of the MA volunteers already posting their (un)availability.
Additionally, I went and did a kit check to ensure that I had all the bits and pieces required. Surinam is hot and sweaty and mosquitoes are thick and aggressive. The MA nurse informed us to get as much malarone as possible, this I did at the local travel clinic. Am a regular visitor there now having had all my immunisations done there. 24 pills of Malarone set me back £88!
This was also the time for the fecking website to fall over; just as the new maps were being created and posted up onto the board. Not good.
Never a good time to be honest. It was fixed and then broken and then fixed and finally broke on sunday morning. Proving to be highly disruptive as its unavailability makes the MA deployment organisation and the map dessimination quite difficult. Still, the rest of the weekend had me liasing with the other volunteers: an advanced recce team of two had left on sunday and a team of four to leave tomorrow on tuesday. Even now, a week after the flooding, it still has a low-key feel to it.
Odd really.
Also, the weekend had a fantastic FA cup final, absolutely superb and going into extra time, 3-3 and going down to penalities. One of the best FA Cups I have seen in a while. Interrupted my gardening.
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