The next day we arrived at the CNO and once more had to wait outside as we were not on the list. I was (once again) behind an irate UN staff member who was searched thoroughly by the guards and was made to squeeze out the contents of his toothpaste before he was allowed in. I was searched too but the guard grinned at me as I cracked a joke and I wandered in. Security was very tight this time as Secretary General Kofi Annan was coming over for a visit. Part of me groaned as yet another VIP coming in would seriously disrupt the work being done.

Once more there was chaos in the office – made even worse by the presence of an electronic virus that had got into the CNO network. The IT guys thought it was from one of the thousands of USB keys in use and from that morning onwards, all such devices were banned until they were scanned. I passed two MapAction volunteers who were about to head out for a trip: one by helicopter to the East coast over at Trincomalee and another would be heading South past Galle.

'D' the MapAction director quietly asked me and N what our impressions were of the Galle area and we found it hard to describe. He nodded and said he understood but he said it was important for us to see why we were here and it was not merely to crunch numbers and handle client requests it was to help the people we saw struggling to survive in the field. The fact that the aid agencies and the Government in those areas were using our maps for their work was some consolation.

MapAction were looking to the handover of the mapping responsibility but our field team continue to collect information.

I held the fort as operations officer for the entire day and was exhausted by it. I did put in considerable effort in producing a map catalogue would allow everyone to see what maps were available, what file name it was and what area it covered. It would be as easy as someone flicking through the book and picking out maps they wanted.

Kofi Annan did come into the office but he was did not stay long. He’s assistance did grab the map book I put together that morning. I felt like refusing him but I let it go eventually.

The rest of the day was manic and the email box was a mess and the numbers coming in from the field continued to be frightening. So many dead and dying and news were also coming from the other regions: Indonesia I knew was badly affected and now the airport was closed due to a plane hitting a cow (?) had me shaking my head in wonder.

Some chaps from the department of survey were here as well and they had been tasked with taking over our work once MapAction left. The IWMI people would also stay for a couple more days then they, too would leave. My first impression of the survey chaps was not good: they struck me as career pencil pushers with limited ‘get up and go’ about them. They seemed to only do things if someone senior told them to do it….and only if the request was backed up by a fax (in triplicate) with the necessary signatures. They wanted all our procedures, how we did things and whether we had step-by-step instructions. While I sympathised with their position, their lack of self-confidence and dynamism made me fear the worst once we left. I knew that politics was playing a part as the IWMI people in my view were far better suited to do the MapAction work then the Survey chaps.

Still, I had to persevere and allowed two senior members to shadow me as I handled calls and tasks.

S and A reconnoitred the devastated area near Galle, to the south. The GIS desks worked steadily throughout the day. D was keen to repay the Sri Lankan charity, Sarvodaya, in some way for their kindness in putting up the team on our first night in country. V yesterday gave a short presentation on our mapping and offered to produce a map for them. They are a highly organised Charity, the largest in the Island, and we produced several excellent maps showing the relief effort they have organised.

As MapAction are leaving much of our kit behind in the CNO for our successors, we shall need to expend some thought and action on reconstituting our operational capability when we return to UK. The operational pool has contributed 16 persons out of 20 or so to this emergency, many of whom have freely given two weeks where only one-week deployment was planned. We have several extra volunteers in waiting, and they will be absorbed into the team over the next two months. From the experience of the tsunami crisis, we know we can quickly augment our team on the ground with local experts.

Apart from planning for the integration of the national survey department personnel who arrive in force, tomorrow, Monday; D set in motion MapAction’s plan for a GIS workshop to host the best GIS minds in Sri Lanka - engineering firms, universities, relevant government departments. This will be held on Tuesday morning, and I intend to shape its purpose and outcomes so that we leave behind a first step in the GIS contribution to the reconstruction of the country's damaged areas.

T, who arrives on Tuesday evening, will act as the MapAction project advisor to steer this process and subsequently to energise the GIS forum. MapAction's reputation with the Sri Lankan authorities is high, and we intend to capitalise on that reputation for the benefit of the poor and homeless who have so many challenges and difficulties ahead