Mudslide

As promised, I just returned from Panajachel and watched the repair around the bridges and river banks and also crossed the mudslide that has blocked vehicular access to the camp. I don't know that the pictures do it justice.

Here is a picture of the workers passing heavy rocks from the ground up to their work level. I guess it struck me because I'm used to seeing machines do this type of work. They were enjoying themselves -- especially being in pictures.




This is the mudslide that blocked access to the camp. Transportation takes you to the beginning of the mudslide and then you walk across and pick up the transportation on the other side. The path now has built in steps and the path changes because it continues to slide as more rains come.



And lastly, mi amiga, Aura who is not only our architect but a masseus and healer who in one treatment did more for a pain I'd been having for over a month than 6 sessions of physical therapy. This shows you the large rock that is at the start of the mudslide on the day that we walked to the camp.



Check out the link if you want to see all the photos I took this day including a bystander who was having a little fun with his friends and posing for me on one leg.

Photos

After the Rains

I sometimes joke about calamities as they are going on because it's one of the ways in which I manage the stress and disappointment that comes from its interference with my plans. Afterward, when the damages are tallied, I feel remorse for having laughed at something that has affected people so tragically.

I no sooner joked about an earthquake we had here a few months ago and a major earthquake hit Chile. And the recent fun that I had with our Tropical storm has come back to remind me that while it helps me personally to laugh at my own situation, it is no laughing matter.

There are people who lost their homes and lives from volcanic lava as was the case here in Antigua just before the storm and from mudslides as was the case all over Guatemala when just days later we were hit by Tropical Storm Agatha.

I have friends in both the Panajachel area and in the Antigua area who were involved in search and rescue and getting aid to people who were not just looking for "stepping stones to cross the river that was the street" but whose cars were in the river and whose homes were buried in the mud. To them, I say thank you!

Why Guatemala

I live in a tourist town and the pictures that I show you have a different face. Here, there is some affluence - and when you hear of violence it is generally in the City and other areas of the country.

I'd like to show you a little bit of the other side and the best way to do that is to share something with you that I ran across today while reading a blog about human rights. It is through this photo-journalist site that you might gain some insight as to "Why Guatemala" and get a sense of current and historical events here. To access MiMundo.org, click on the "Why Guatemala" link above.

Along with a very recent assassination of an attorney who was defending a whistle blower, you'll see accounts of massacres during the war and documentaries on the effects of mining in some of the rural/indigenous towns.

Lastly, I'll share with you a few statistics. According to UNICEF, 70% of indigenous children under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition and there are regions as high as 82%. The percentage for Guatemala in general is 49%. It also reported that 51.2% of the population are now living in poverty while 15.2% in extreme poverty (less than $1 per day), meaning they cannot meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation, and health care. Infant mortality and illiteracy are also some of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.