Port Resolution 19:31.6S 169:29.8 E

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Mon 27 Apr 2015 09:20
Hope you enjoyed all pictures! That was a surprise, but today we suddenly had limitless satellite communication and I took the opportunity to just throw up a bunch. Unfortunally there is no order and no text, hopefully you can attach them  stories told earlier...
Yesterday, just before dawn we came into this bay that is not even on the charts. Good to have Google earth and some good anchorages guides on internet (we downloaded material in Fiji). This bay is not secret in any way, as a matter of fact t is used by the world rally and some other global sailing organisations.This means also that the world rally has sent the village money to recover.
To sync with Samariathan Purse and to make the imigration officer happy we took on a trip by car to Leneka, the main city on Tana.
The road going there was a Paris Dakar Rally where most of it was in very rough terrain.2,5 hours later we were there. On the way we could witness the enormous forces that have been here. The town itself looked really bad and it seems that as soon as your environment is no longer natural it becomes really messy, really really messy.
In Leneka the action was high. Ships unloading and trucks loaded with food took off in different directions.
Samariathan Purse had a big temporary warehouse full of food and their office was simple but efficient. In contrast to organisations that have to proof their existence by being at the disaster spot but also want to make sure they get the right exposure in media, not to mention branding. It is almost like UNICEF is competing with CocaCola when it comes to make sure that everybody knows they are here.
As a matter of fact I haven't seen one Coca Cola sign, but EVERY kid on the island has UNICEF backpacks, every kid.
It is not that they did not have any before, we saw today kids that went home with the new backpacks carrying the old ones in their hands.
Enough of that, Samariathan Purse is funded by a few donors and that means that they do not care about exposure,  their aim is to be first on site and to give the best needed help. When it comes to Tana there are a few spots that neither the goverment or the aid workers have been able to reach and that's where we come in. We can come to them through a tiny bay on the north side.
Today I went up to the hospital in Lenaka and talked to their doctor in charge (our doctors had a day off with the kids), I found out there is another spot where they have not been taken care off medically so the doctors leave tomorrow morning for that village and will run a clinic there. In the evening we plan on getting up the vulcano that puffs here on the island.
The day after tomorrow we will be two boats going to these villages up north and check them out, eventually unloading our food. If there is more need, we will have one boat in Lenaka ready to load and come up to assist. After that we need to run up to Eromango before the real hard wind hits us and stops the work.