Humanitarian and medical aid organized by Medecins Sans Frontieres is loaded onto the Rainbow Warrior.
Nylon bag rashes were evident on everybody's forearms this morning, however the mood was good. Loading was finally completed just before midnight and everyone from the crew was involved at some point.
It was evident that we were not going to be able to take the physical lead on the unloading operation and that we ought to be asking ACF to organize ten of the local guys to come to the Rainbow Warrior to assist with the lifting.
The crew have been absolutely amazing to this point but we didn't want to physically burn anyone out, and that was very possible when it was still and the temperature was so hot every day. We'd also been at it for almost three weeks and half of the crew was already over their three month period on board the ship.
ACF appreciated this. They consulted with DWB in Lamno about the best ship to shore operational procedures. Damian, their logistic guy on the ground, had arranged three boats at our request, and he rang the bridge twice before 0800 to confirm arrival times and ask whether there was anything else they could do for us. Captain Derek told them about the need for the ten local guys to help on deck and it all happened.
This was the first substantial civilian food drop into Lamno, and ACF were incredibly grateful that the Warrior made it possible.
ACF is a French NGO (non-governmental organization) which specializes in distributing the large amounts of aid coming in from various sources like the World Food Program.
They had been sitting on a large pile of food in Banda Aceh with no way of moving it down the West Coast, so this seemed like a perfect partnership and we were only too happy to help.
By knock off time (1700,) and several rotations of helpers on board, we had successfully unloaded at least 40 of the 70 tons (maybe even a little more). Not bad; and a lot better than anyone thought would have been possible when we closed the hatch on it all last night.
--Rob
Christian and I went into Lamno at about 10 a.m. Then we headed back to the IDP camp near the soccer field. There were six UNHCR tents set up. The women said that only the men slept there at night. They didn't use them in the afternoon because it was too hot inside. Children were using them to play hide and seek.
We carried on walking to the back of the camp. Behind the curtains of laundry, the smell of curry cooking smelled quite inviting. The only green vegetable I saw around here was pakis, a type of edible fern. They cooked it in coconut sauce.
Next to the pakis curry, a woman poured something that looked like beans in tomato sauce into a wok and mixed it with chilli. I asked them what it was, and they said it was beans in cans from the helicopters.
Apparently they didn't have a common kitchen system and everyone was cooking for their own family. They didn't have stoves so they arranged red bricks together and made a fire in the middle with wood.
We interviewed three residents at the IDP and they told incredible stories of how they escaped, how high the wave were... They don't know where they are going next.
--Abby