Cuenca Updates: Thursday June 7, 2012

Thursday June 7/12 update

I spent about 6 hours on emails and uploading photos to 3 different sites since 5:30am.

I also did some research on 911 emergency history and requirements. The reason for this is that Bella volunteered us to join up to 20 expats selected by Joe Spotts, of Joe’s Secret Garden, to have a discussion at 3pm at a Government office about 911 service for expats.

We got there on time and joined seven other expats (lots of late cancellations) for this meeting. The topic of discussion was very different than we had been led to believe.

The meeting was chaired by Ana Lucia Serrano Lopez, the Regional Coordinator for the Exterior Relations Ministry. She grew up in the same neighborhood as the Minister and also is personal friends from college with the country’s President, Rafael Correa. She learned her English (and French?) in Vancouver so she is very Canada-friendly.

The Guest Speaker was Matt Scranton, Chief of American Citizen Services at the US Consulate in Guayaquil, who was with the Peace Corps in China at one time. If he isn’t CIA, I’ll eat my shirt.

The stated purpose of the meeting was to organize the US expat community in case of disaster, for disseminating important information, and to reduce any load on 911 operators in the event of said disaster. This could be in the event of a natural disaster, like an earthquake, or maybe civil unrest. The simple fact stated by Matt is that it would take at least 3 days to get aid to Cuenca purely because of geography and logistics.

The rest of the group were friends of Joe's and Joseph's: Spencer who lives in Cotacachi, Tom and Jayne, John and Barbie (Ken was busy I guess). All of these folks have at least 2 years experience in Ecuador so they bring a lot of experience to the table.

Way too much time was spent by the panel citing the general expat distrust of anything done by the US government to keep tabs on them. Then more time was needlessly spent by Matt continuously stating that he doesn’t have the time or inclination to chase people down.

There was already an attempt to set up a warden system (supposedly even Canada has this) to help expats keep in touch with each other in emergencies. One of the fellows at the meeting was Tom Golden who was a warden (and is also the fellow starting up the local soccer team fan club). These things usually die a slow death because of ignorance and apathy, and the distrust mentioned above.

Joe Spotts says one of his best friends is Dennis Mileti, the world’s leading disaster specialist and had already spoken to him about advising them correctly. That sure sounded like a no-brainer and matt was quick to agree to talk to Dennis.

Honestly, the change in subject matter from 911 to disaster planning was out of left field so we were not well prepared for this discussion, nor for the fact that this was all geared to US citizens only. Regardless, we have made some valuable contacts since Ana Lucia and her assistants, Stefania and Carolina, are the Cuenca experts for immigration matters, which will soon be able to be handled locally, and without lawyers gouging people. We actually have the personal phone number for Ana Lucia in case we ever have problems, 24 hours.

After the meeting we went and had supper at that second-floor restaurant across from the Palermo where Bettye and Chris live. Betty is still very sick unfortunately so we did not get to see them today.

Enjoy the pics. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.