Joel Johnson Has Him a Blog

Jake and I drove into Algiers today at the request of 'Malik,' a Muslim Rastafarian activist who is currently helping the area to coordinate rebuilding and medical efforts. They've set up a medical center and community center, but haven't had the ability to get online and register with FEMA, so that's step one.

It's sort of weird, because these guys don't have power, but plenty of natural gas and water. We walked up, turned on my laptop with EVDO, and instantly brought a neighborhood online. Sort of ridiculous, but needed.

Reports vary between 50 to 3,000 people in the Algiers area. The grid is already up near Malik's house, and we expect it to come online here before Monday. If we can get these guys a permanent internet uplink here and the medical center, the next step will be to teach someone how to use the AMD machines to get online and register so they can help other people.

Algiers is ready to be repopulated, it would appear. The mandatory evacuation doesn't apply here, the streets are peaceful (but empty), and there are plenty of military around. Malik says that Algiers will be the staging point for the rebuilding of the rest of the city. If we can help get some internet infrastructure in place, hopefully we'll be of help.

We're going to go out and visit the medical center tomorrow. I think we've got the equipment, minus some monitors, to make this happen.

I think we might actually have something good to do here finally.

But for now Malik and his wife have put out a great big spread of rice and beans and chicken and I'm absolutely starving, so I'm going to stop being rude and have a bite to eat.