Lake Atitlan

Well here I am in another beautiful volcano surrounded local. We arrived in Panajachel on Friday morning and were quickly put to work sorting out the huge shipment of medical supplies that had been sent from Canada. It took us two 5 hour days of sorting and rearranging to get everything in some sort of order. We are heading back this afternoon to go through the 7 boxes of medicine and arrange all of that. We have become the local clinic as well, assessing peoples sprained ankles, sore stomachs, and other minor ailments. Sharon (the Austrailian woman coordinating much of the distribution of the containers) has been joking that she should just hire as her in house medics.

Everyone we have met here so far has been wonderful. Jill (the founder of Poco a Poco from Vancouver Island) connected us with some great people who are all working very hard to help the people of this region get their lives back to normal after the horrific mudslides of Hurricane Stan. It is incredible to see the aftermath of the slides. The river that runs right through the town swelled from about 3 meters wide to about 400 meters wide taking out everything in its path. Houses and business simply fell into the water. Mudslides took out homes built along the hills, along with entire crops of vegetables which people depend on for food and income. It is incredible to see how people who had so little to begin with now have even less. We have met lots of people as they have been coming to Sharon´s house to get free clothing that came along in the shipment. Yesterday a mother with 5 of her 12 children arrived looking for clothes. They were all smiling and laughing, wearing there almost rags (which were impeccably clean) and broken shoes which they walk miles in every day. A new pair of shoes cost Q16 or about $2.60 canadian. Tim gave them a couple of yo-yos that we found in one of the boxes and they were all busily and happily trying to figure them out. So incredible. We have given out a couple of wheelchairs to people who have had strokes, a pair of crutches to a young man who lost his right arm and leg in an electrical accident, and a little walker shipped down especially for a little girl with a congenital birth defect. It is so hard to adjust to being able to see the hardship and loss that so many of these people are dealing with on a daily basis. Things are much worse off on the other side of the lake where half of one town was completely wiped out. It is literally a grave yard with bodies still trapped in the mud. People have lost their families and friends, and what little they had to begin with.

I have definately found I place where I can contribute something for the time that I have here. I found a little suite with a kitchen to rent for the month, and actually got to unpack everything. I´m off to find some coffee and some basic supplies to stock up and then we head over to Sharon´s to finish our sorting. Hope you are all well, and take a minute out of the day to remember how incredibly blessed we all are to live where we do with what we have.

Love to you all . . .
Catherine