LEX

flooding in montellano

i'm not really sure what the official rainy season is in this country, but we're definitely in the middle of this year's right now. it's been POURING just about every night for several weeks.

one of our villages, Pancho Mateo, is backed up right next to the river. the land we bought for the new school house is just on the other side of this river, up on a hill. when drew, chris and miguel went to the land today to work on a fence, they found that there has been so much rain last night that the river has flooded all of the homes next to it. there is even one small tin house that is no longer standing.

camille and constance had taken drew to the land, and decided to stay to help out. instead of starting work on the fence, drew, miguel and chris also began helping people clean out their houses. the water line in these houses was somewhere around 4 to 5 feet deep. everyone lost everything. and though it isn't much, it's still everything.

while chris, drew, miguel, camille and constance were helping out there, carley and i were in chichigua starting the first round of English camp. constance called to say we needed to take public transportation because they were helping the flood victims. but i didn't realize just how severe it was till we arrived.

we got to montellano around 1:00. our team and all of the families were still working on removing mud and water from their houses. our team members were covered up to their chest in mud, and carely and i were soon to follow. one family was loading their muddy belongings into the back of a truck. i was helping them load, but it was difficult for me to tell what was trash and what they were trying to salvage.

we spend the rest of the afternoon, muddy and wet, dividing up food (chicken, rice and beans) to give to the families who had lost the most. we spent about 2,000 pesos to buy 11 chickens, a huge sack of rice and about 20 cans of beans, yet we still had kids asking for food to take to their families.

though it was a very tragic event, i'm thankful that we were able to be there to help. makarios is going to be a part of this community for a long time, and so it was great to begin building relationships and helping now, helping how we can, even before the school exists.

(i hope to post pictures of these amazing event soon)

posted by Alexia & Jeffrey @ 4:57 PM