Mad, mad week

What a mad mad mad week it's been. I'll be exceptionally happy when this expedition is over. I need a break. It just seems to have been one of those weeks where nothing goes right and everything that can go wrong, does.

We had a full-blown evacuation off site. Disappointingly, it was not by helicopter, but by four-by-four, but that was still pretty dramatic. Thankfully the person concerned was not seriously hurt, (she got a bump on the head after a diver fell on top of her from the boat) but she wanted to get checked out by hospital just to make sure. Unlike at home, where you can just go to A&E by taxi if you need to and return home reassured, that's just not possible here. You have to involve insurance companies ("press one to purchase a new policy, two for claims, Or 3 to speak to an operator....!!! I'm not kidding you!), who then have to involve their agents (in this case, South Africa) who then have to involve medical teams somewhere else in Madagascar (in this case, Tana) who then have to involve someone to fly a plane (in this case to our nearest airfield which is Morombe) and then a vehicle... All in all, the evacuation process took about 20 hours...

All I can say is, I'm thankful that she wasn't seriously hurt, things could have been a lot worse, and I have a fab team of staff and volunteers who all were really excellent and responded appropriately. Still, I don't really want to repeat that drama for a while. We hammer home the health & safety message a lot here on site, but nothing can guarantee that accidents won't happen...

The volunteer was doing alright in general, but was a little alarmed when three doctors, and two other people leaped out of a 4x4, put a drip in her, put her in a secure stretcher and then in the 4x4 and drove off.

Meanwhile, the diving equipment is on its last legs now - we barely have enough working equipment to send out a full set of divers. Thankfully, just in the nick of time, the freight, which has been in the country and held up in Tana until last week, finally arrived. It made it down to Tulear after having been held up in customs for two weeks, but then all the truck and 4x4 drivers refused to take it up here as it's too 'heavy'.... It's really ridiculous. It was then all taken on a taxi brousse to Morombe with one of our staff and then from there driven down to Andavadoaka on a pickup truck. Phew. It was like Christmas when it got here!

So we now have lots of brand spanking new dive kit, and my food parcel has finally arrived. :) yay! :) As it's nearing the end of the expedition, I'm going to be very restrained and try and save most of it for next year! I've already started on the garlic sticks though! :)

What else has happened? I've dived a couple of times. We had a party night. I didn't really get much of a day off, but as that was four days ago, I can't quite remember why now. A complicated camping trip was arranged. Zebu carts were ordered. cancelled. And ordered again. Then cancelled again. Zebu cart drivers needed to be placated as did the volunteer who had sustained a bruise on a zebu cart ride (though, the volunteer who had been hit on the head and later evacuated, kept apologising profusely for all the hassle she was causing us!)... some of the volunteers still doesn't seem to have grasped that this is Madagascar and things don't happen 'just so' and in the way that they would do at home.

My staff are rapidly losing patience with them. I am managing to still stay patient with people for the majority of the time - it's my job after all to answer all their questions and to reassure them, look after their needs and deal with their complaints. And actually, I think I'm reasonably good at that bit.

However, during the early part of the post-accident drama, while bags were being packed for evacuation and phone calls were still being made to insurance companies, one volunteer came to find me to let me know that "it had come to his attention" that as the injured girl was leaving site, they no longer required 3 4x4 cars to get them off site, but just needed two, and so could I also cancel one of them? I have to admit that it did take a superhuman amount of restraint to reply politely that it was not the time right then, but that I would tend to it when it was a bit more appropriate.

Oh, and Ellie, from the carbon offsetting project, arrived on site along with a few goodies for us (the Guardian from two weeks ago! and some christmas crackers. :) ) It's good to have someone from 'management' here for a while. She has now been here for almost a week, but it's been such a busy one, it feels like she's been here a month. She's really great and we've both agreed that constructing a bicycle powered generator will definitely be our project for the next year.

Anyway, Justin and I leave site on Thursday on the camion. So who knows what adventures I'll have to report next week!

Happy christmas to one and all in case I don't get to post before then.