El Salvador Flooding Aftermath

Since the intense rain, floods and landslides in Central America have not shown up in Canadian newspapers, I thought I would update my blog to let people back home know what’s been on everyone’s minds here, since my arrival in El Salvador last week. And although I was lucky and wasn’t severely affected by the rains (other than not being able to dry my clothes, explore the city, or start my job), it was a crazy time to arrive in the country, to say the least.  

I will continue on from my previous blog post from Tuesday! Even though on Tuesday it looked like the rain was stopping, Wednesday it began again and poured all day, and was probably one of the worst days yet. Thankfully the rain has now finally stopped for good, and since Thursday we have had beautiful sunny weather. But the country has been left with a lot of devastation. After 10 days of rain, 34 people have died, (mostly buried by mudslides in their own homes) and over 50,000 people have been evacuated from their communities. In total, more than 150,000 Salvadorans have been affected by the floods, in practically every department ( or state/province) in the country, hence why it has been a national emergency. And keep in mind that the total population of El Salvador is only 6.1 million people to begin with.

In all of Central America, there have been over 100 deaths, and over one million people have been affected by the storms. The United Nations World Food Program is very concerned about the immediate as well as long-term impact on food security that this disaster will have on Central America’s poorest people, who have already been affected by rising food prices, before the storm hit. The region is very vulnerable to these types of disasters, and the United Nations has classified Central America as one of the regions in the world most affected by climate change.

Unfortunately, El Salvador was the country hit the hardest. On Wednesday, President Mauricio Funes appealed for international aid on national television, saying “I want to tell the world that El Salvador is going through one of the most dramatic disasters in its history”. International media has compared the disaster to the 1998 Hurricane Mitch, which killed thousands of people. Although the 1998 disaster resulted in more deaths, the media here is saying that in reality, the current disaster is much worse than in 1998, because the damage has been more widespread and the flooding has been more severe. "We think of hurricanes as the thing that causes the most damage, but you can have rains that are just as damaging without the hurricane," Herman Rosa Chavez, El Salvador's minister of the environment and natural resources, told CNN.  President Funes noted that it has resulted into a major national emergency due to "the intensity of the rainfall, the duration of the phenomenon and the extent of the affected territory". The heavy rains left approximately 10% of the country under water. Four major bridges have been destroyed, roads, including major highways, have been washed out, and the Grande and Lempa rivers have flooded farmland and houses, causing millions of dollars in economic losses. Some places in the country accumulated over 150 cm of rainfall, much greater than the previous record set during Hurricane Mitch of 86 cm. A difference as to why there were more deaths during Hurricane Mitch, then with the current storms, is that in 1998 the rainfall came in a matter of a few days, whereas this past week the rain was spread out over 10 days. As well, the Salvadoran president claimed that this time the government was more prepared for a disaster like this, and evacuated people earlier, hence preventing many more deaths. On Thursday President Funes said that "the loss will be great, more than ever before from a natural phenomenon of this type." Hurricane Mitch cost $262 million in damages when it hit in 1998. And as I noted before, there is a fear of possible virus outbreaks and food shortages. The effects of this natural disaster will linger for many more months. People who were evacuated, and who have been living in one of the 600 + shelters in the country, are returning to their homes now. Some will have much work to do to repair their houses, while others don’t even have homes to return to anymore. The worst is that these people were already very poor to begin with. Some of the worst hit areas of the country are only receiving aid now, because many roads were impassable so help was not able to reach them until now.  

This link from the BBC has some good pictures of the damage done during the storm. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15332068

As well, here is a video clip from Al Jazeera's website.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/10/2011102241527998644.html

A few notes to say about the video clip – first, the aid given to the government by the UN and other countries goes to the municipal governments to give out to the communities. During past disasters, past governments have been known to sell this foreign aid to make money, instead of giving it to the communities who need it the most. On Friday afternoon, I accompanied a few of my co-workers from ANADES to solicit donations from the government-sponsored agency warehouse which has been in charge of giving out the aid. Unfortunately, we were denied help – we were told for transparency reasons, that the aid only goes to the hands of municipal governments to distribute the aid, and not to NGOs. . Supposedly this current government, who has been in power for the past 2 years, is less corrupt – so hopefully that is the case, and the aid will go to where it is supposed to. Although one would think that NGOs such as ANADES, which has experience in disaster relief, would be more efficient and effective in handling aid distribution than municipal governments. Some of my co-workers have been visiting the Bajo Lempa area this past week, which the video said has been one of the hardest hit areas, as they work in some communities there. Since I work in the education area of ANADES, I have not been going out to the communities to hand out aid, but I have been hearing very sad stories from my co-workers.

ANADES is divided into 3 main programs: Education, Community Development, and Health. Besides working in San Salvador, where the ANADES Headquarters are located, the ANADES community development program works in 36 other communities in the country, and sends “community social promoters” to work with the people living in marginalized areas. There are about 11 of these community social promoters working for ANADES, including two other MCC volunteers from Canada – Elizabeth and Lynden. Normally the community development program focuses on issues such as community organization, preventative health and nutrition, support for people living with HIV/AIDS, and sustainable agriculture. But since ANADES also attends to emergencies, they have had a very busy past week, working long hours trying to get to the communities most affected by the storms, travelling with some doctors who also work or are volunteering with ANADES, to deliver food and medical aid. These are some selfless and amazing people that I have been getting to know, and they could use your prayers as they will continue to have lots of work to do in the coming weeks. A couple afternoons I helped out with sorting/organizing the medicines. I have never seen so much gauze, aspirin, cold medication etc. in my whole entire life! They also use a lot of natural remedies, which is really cool! Anyways, it’s hard to know what all to write about this disaster – there’s so much more that could be said! The effects of the storm are complicated, and won’t go away anytime soon. But I am very happy that I am working with this amazing organization, the more I learn about ANADES, the more impressed I am with the work they do, and the holistic approach they take in everything they do, which has been very evident in their response to this disaster.

On another note, schools (which were closed due to the risks of floodings and mudslides) will finally open again on Monday, so I am very excited to finally meet my 22 new pre-schoolers, early Monday morning! Wish me luck! I will blog again in a few days, and hopefully my next blog will be more upbeat/positive than this one! Lastly, I just want to thank everyone for all the emails and facebook messages I received these past couple weeks – I had a rough past couple weeks, which included (among many other things) the death of my Grandma Lichti, as well as moving to a new country, and your emails, thoughts and prayers meant a lot!! So thank you so much!!!!! And keep them coming :) 

Greetings from rainy El Salvador!

This past month has been pretty busy, but I have finally had a chance to update my blog! Last Tuesday (wow, was that really a week ago??) was my last day of Spanish classes at CASAS. I am very grateful for the connections and friendships I made there, and the improvements in my Spanish skills. Wednesday morning at 7:15 am I was all packed and ready to head to El Salvador to start the next part of my journey! Arriving on Guatemalan time, Antony (the MCC rep/my boss) picked me up at my host family’s house around 8, but we couldn’t leave quite yet because his wife Irma was dropping their daughter off at school! Finally at 9:30 am (yes, one and a half hours later…) we left the city, but…to make a long story short…it has been raining pretty much non-stop in most of Central America since last Monday, which has created floods as well as some mudslides, making many roads impassable. Although some roads were still ok, we had to drive slower due to the rain/mud. We drove past a few accidents, as well as many flooded rivers and houses, which was very sad to see. It’s always the poorest and most vulnerable families who have their homes built in flood-prone areas. We were within 30 minutes from the border to El Salvador when we came across a line of traffic. A bridge up ahead had collapsed, and since all other routes to the border were closed due to the tropical storm, we had to return back to the city. So at 4pm, 7 hours after saying goodbye to Guatemala City and my host family, we were back in the city once again. To make things worse, since we were driving a pick-up truck, my suitcases had to go in the back – we wrapped them in garbage bags and tarps, but that wasn’t enough for this Guatemalan rain! Half my clothes got soaking wet, so I had to hang them up around the MCC apartment where I stayed the night, since they don’t have a dryer.

The next morning, I packed up my wet clothes back into my suitcases and we attempted the trek to El Salvador again. This time, we made it! Thursday the rain had stopped, and most of the roads had improved, so our journey went much quicker, and we finally arrived in the afternoon, to the ANADES headquarters, just on the outskirts of San Salvador. I had a bit of an orientation with the director of ANADES, the director of the 5 pre-school programs in the country, and the woman in charge of the pre-school I will be working at, called Centro Hogar. I found out that my work will be as a “collaborator” with the other teachers/educators in the “Materno 1” class – with kids ages 18 months to 3 years. Not exactly sure what the job of a collaborator entails – but I guess I’ll find out soon!

Friday morning I started my first day of work at ANADES. School was closed due to the storm, but I met all the teachers/educators in the pre-school system, and we had a First Aid workshop. It was a little bit boring, since I knew most of the stuff already, but it was good to practice my Spanish – the El Salvador accent is a lot more difficult to understand, than the Guatemalan accent! The rain started back up again in the morning, and it poured all morning and afternoon. At 2:00 we were sent home early, because of the rain and the risk of more mudslides. Since Friday afternoon, El Salvador has been in a state of emergency.

Since I haven’t had internet access since arriving in El Salvador, I will continue my blogpost!

Today is Saturday, and the rain continues…

This week I am staying in San Salvador with two older women who work at ANADES. One is a woman from El Salvador, who is one of the co-founders of ANADES. The other is a woman from Spain, who has been living and working with different NGOs in El Salvador for the past 25 years. Next week I will move in with my permanent host family.

Sunday – More rain…

Monday – The rain has seemed to slow down a bit today…but this also happened on Thursday, and then things got worse again…so who knows!

Tuesday – The rain has stopped (in the city, at least!) The sun was out all afternoon, and my wet clothes from a week ago are finally dry!! And I finally have internet access to post this blog! J

Unfortunately, schools are still closed, so I haven’t been doing much this past week. I’m hoping that by Thursday or Friday I will be able to start my work at the pre-school, but who knows!

I don’t think the tropical storms in Central America have made it into Canadian newspapers, so here’s an article from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15331290

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their communities, and many homes and crops have been destroyed. Many rural communities where ANADES works have been greatly affected, so once the road conditions improve and bridges are fixed, the ANADES community development workers will have lots to do! Please send your thoughts and prayers to the people of El Salvador and Central America. Hopefully the rain has stopped for good, so that the situation doesn’t continue to get worse, and so that roads can improve so that help can arrive to the most desperate communities.

September 11: A View from Latin America

Hello all! This article was just emailed to me from my Guatemala/El Salvador MCC reps, and I thought I would pass it along. A different (and very much needed!) perspective on Sept. 11th - I highly recommend reading it!!

http://lacaadvocacy.wordpress.com/

Life with my Guatemalan Host Family!

As part of the SALT program, I get a month of Spanish language training before I start my volunteer placement in El Salvador. For me, this means studying in Guatemala City at CASAS (the Central American Study and Service school), which is a program of SEMILLA, the Latin American Anabaptist Seminary. For the past 2 weeks now (I can't believe how quickly the time has gone!) I have had Spanish classes every morning from 8:30-12:30, which are going very well. CASAS is a great program, but I will save talking about it for another blog post, because right now I want to tell you all about my wonderful Guatemalan host family!

In order that students get a chance to practice their Spanish and be fully immersed in Guatemalan culture, CASAS finds host families for the students to live with, while studying at the school. I was lucky enough to be matched up with the amazing Kaehler Lopez family. You may be wondering why I’m living with a family in Guatemala City, with a German last name like Kaehler! I know I certainly wasn’t expecting that! Turns out my host dad’s father moved to Guatemala from Germany during WWII. But even though their ancestors are German, this family is definitely Guatemalan through and through! My host mother Astrid is a stay-at-home mom and a wonderful cook, and is always making sure I am well fed and comfortable! My host father Gustavo works at a restaurant an hour and a half out of the city, so he’s only home on weekends. I also have 4 wonderful host siblings all living at home (it’s normal for kids to live at home with their parents until they get married, and sometimes even after they get married). Karla is 29, Diego is 26, Carlos is 24, and Carolina is 21. My brother Diego also has an adorable 5 year old son, Josue, who lives with his mom during the week, but with our family on the weekends! Also, Karla’s boyfriend Tono, who also happens to be our neighbour, is over all the time, and is pretty much another member of the family! And last but not least, we have two small dogs that live in the garage/front yard, and bark a lot. Coincidently, one of the dogs is named Nala, and she is a cockapoo, just like my family’s dog back at home, Nellie! (Sorry, I realize most of you didn’t care to know that…but I thought it was a fun fact! haha.) Anyways, that about sums up the Kaehler family! As you can see, it’s a pretty busy household!

They have all been excellent at helping me learn new words and phrases in Spanish and are good at speaking slowly (most of the time, at least!) so I can understand them. They are a loud, outgoing and fun Catholic family and love to joke around and make fun of each other (including me!!) so even though I have only been with them 2 weeks, I already feel really at home with them and like I truly am another sister and daughter in the family. Unfortunately this means it’s going to be really hard to say goodbye to them next month when I leave for El Salvador. But I’m trying not to think about that now!

The house is nice and fairly big, they seem like a middle-class family (although of course not compared to North American standards). I share a room with my youngest sister Carolina, but luckily have my own bed. We have 2 bathrooms in the house, but only 1 shower (with hot water about 75% of the time), so mornings are sometimes a bit chaotic! And on weekends when everyone is home, we don’t quite all fit around the dining room table! Other than that, can’t think of anything else of interest to share!

Some highlights of the past couple weeks with the Kaehler family have been:

-         having “Spanish class” with my little nephew Josue!

-         learning more about soccer or “futbol” – since arriving in Guatemala, I have already watched 4 soccer games on tv and 3 games live, so I am starting to learn the rules of soccer, and am actually enjoying myself!

-         One of the 3 games I watched live, included last weekend when I went with my host dad, brothers and some neighbours and friends to a FIFA World Cup Qualifier game! It was Guatemala vs. St. Vincent/Grenadines, and we won 4-0! Guatemala is in the second round of Qualifiers for North and Central America and the Caribbean, for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Tickets were cheap (only $3!) but the stadium was packed full with people and the fans were insane! We didn’t get there early enough to get a seat, so we stood in the back but we still had a good view of the game and it was a lot of fun! And when I got a bit bored of the game, I would just people watch! Guatemalans love their futbol and really do show their emotions on their sleeves. I imagine it’s kind of like the equivalent of Canadian fans at the Olympic gold medal hockey game in Vancouver!

-         Being woken up last Sunday morning at 9am by my host mom, telling me to get out of bed because our family was going to the park! When we arrived, I found out it was actually a small amusement park! So I got to go on a boat ride where I got soaked, and a few very small, but still fun, roller coasters! There was also a small zoo inside the park – I think I was just as excited to see the animals as my nephew was!

-         Finding out that our neighbours have a litter of 10 (yes TEN!) adorable little puppies!

-         Learning about Guatemalan culture, education and politics (among many other things) from my host family. Guatemala’s 2011 Presidential Elections will be held tomorrow (Sept. 11^th) so it’s been kind of an exciting/interesting time here!

The list of highlights could go on but I think you get the picture: I’m having a really great time here in Guatemala City, learning lots and having lots of fun!!

For those interested, check back next week for a post on the results of the Guatemalan Presidential elections, and some info about Guatemalan politics in general.  

For now, enjoy some pictures!

Cheering for Guatemala at the FIFA World Cup Qualifier game with some family, friends and neighbours!
The 3 guys on the left side of the picture are my brother Diego, dad Gustavo, and neighbour Tono. 

my host brother Carlos and I at the game

with my host family (minus dad and one sister) at the amusement park!
From L-R, Carlos, Karla, me, Astrid, Diego, and Josue in front

my host sister Carolina and I