Elinda wrote:
Now tell us about how you joined up with Surf-aid to help bring relief to affected masses. Yes?
We were anchored up about 50 miles from the epicenter. I had just climbed back onto the boat at about 5pm local time and was glugging my first Bintang (beer), when the quake struck. It felt like someone had grabbed the anchor chain and given it a few really hard jerks. We all looked at each other and then the crew started charging about in readiness to go and hide behind the nearest island in case of Tsunami. We knew it was a biggie from the size of the jerking, but it was half an hour or so before we realised (from a txt message from the mainland) that it had munted Padang big style.
After sending a few txts home to say we were ok, the mobile coverage and satellite phone crapped out, and we were then out of touch for about 20 hours. When we found out what had happened in Padang, we volunteered our services (being medical types) and were told that we would be contacted. 2 days later we were told we wouldn't be needed as the place was crawling with aid folk and dog teams and the army (controlling looters, putting out fires and digging thru rubble).
We carried on with our trip as soon as we found out that the crews families were safe, and the crew themselves explained to us that the best thing for them was to continue. They have earthquakes as part of their lives and they felt that earning their salaries (and
very generous tips/donations that we left for them) was more important in the long term than to be yet another hungry mouth to feed at an aid tent.
We came back thru Padang on Saturday and even tho bodies were still being found, life was continuing, shops were trading and people were smiling again. The people there are incredibly resilient and their welcoming ways in the middle of a disaster like they had just experienced was humbling.
Interestingly, I saw several large car dealerships completely ruined, but not a single damaged church or mosque.
If you're interested,
here's a link to the Surf-Aid Site Quote:
SurfAid's Program Director, Dr David Lange, who has been with the organisation less than a month, narrowly escaped from the Ambacang Hotel just before it collapsed. The people behind him didn't make it out and last night emergency crews were using heavy lifting equipment to try to locate any survivors. The Ambacang is a well-known stopover hotel for surfers heading out to the Mentawai Islands.
The Ambacang is in the photo in my OP.
And also a link to the
Sumatransurfarii website which is the guys we were there with. there's a bit of a report from Scuzz who runs the company and is an all round top geezer, hard drinker and outstanding surfer.
It's pretty.
