Agatha 2010

This weekend Guatemala was hit by tropical storm Agatha. You can read about it in the news.

I’ll copy some of my notes to give you an idea of what it was like… Keep in mind that my town was one of the least affected…

29/05/2010

In our backpacks we had passports, cash, a set of dry clothes and a few cans of food. That’s it. We hid our valuable stuff in between the dirty clothes in the bathroom basket, locked the door and left right before dark, under the rain and up the mountain. We headed to the only place that we considered safe from the mudslides in this valley.

Up here we sit y the candlelight, playing cards, waiting and pretending that we don’t hear the storm-like sounds that the river makes as it carries thousands of rocks and boulders downstream.

This reminds us all too much of five years ago, when tropical storm Stan buried villages, schools, houses. We wait and we wait and we wait.

30/05/2010

Today we spent all morning up the valley in a friend’s house. The river was slowly eating the earth beneath its walls. So we got ourselves wet and moved rocks to change the course of the river, so that it wouldn’t crash directly into the earth under the house and damage it more. It was hard work (my hands hurt so much!) but I’m sure it’s better now. If it doesn’t rain it will last until we think of a better solution.

Let’s hope it doesn’t keep raining…

I read in the news that there are 70000+ people that had to be evacuated and that everywhere bridges and roads were blocked or destroyed. And the airport is still closed because of the volcano! How can this be happening now? It’s only MAY!!

Still… I’m so lucky. I have my house and my family, food, water and enough wood to dry my clothes by the chimney :).