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.
|
120607 USA Disaster Preparedness Meeting |
|
120607 Matt Scranton, Ana Lucia Serrano Lopez |
|
120607 All the intelligent people including Bella |