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| Mudslide in San Pedro |
It has been a tumultuous past couple of weeks for Guatemala. First Volcano Pacaya, near to the famous, colonial and very touristy city of Antigua unexpectedly erupted killing a journalist and another local. This spread volcanic ash throughout the country reaching Guatemala city and even as far as Lanquin, the home of Semuc Champey. Then a tropical storm hit killing 152 Guatemalans and 100 people were left missing from the landslides. From my experience this entailed three days of utterly unrelenting, heavy and cold rain. I was studying Spanish in San Pedro by Lago Atitlan at the time and can report that every street and was transformed in to a river and every back alley (for San Pedro has many) became a stream. We all spent three days completely drenched and there was no escaping the cold, wet rain. Once the rain let up, we found out that several areas of Guatemala had been affected badly. Floods were common throughout the country and particularly near the capital city where an enormous and unbelievable sinkhole opened as the floor of the city collapsed upon itselfi. Looking like a photoshopped image or indeed a black hole to the underground from a comic book adapted action hero film from Hollywood, the sinkhole has evoked strong reactions from across the globe as to how it could possibly have happened and what loopholes or shortcuts must have been exploited for the city floor to have caved in so violently.
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| Sinkhole in Guatemala city |
More locally, around the lake, the torrential rain resulted in mudslides from the surrounding hills and volcanoes. Houses and business were destroyed as mud seaped thickly in and people were swept with the mud. Some locals suffered the impact of the mudslides more than others and in San Pedro where 25 houses were destroyed, one family were particularly torn apart. The mother and father suffered bad injuries but their young daughter was completely lost to the mudslide and was most likely swept in to the lake. Once the rain had stopped, all the local communities rushed to help. At the site of severe damage in San Pedro, local Guatemaltecas, expats and travellers alike were digging at the sight looking for the body of the girl for the past week. People have also begun digging out the mud from the houses to make them livable again. In the meantime, the displaced Guatemalans are being housed in municipal buildings, churches and schools. The local community have pulled together to provide clothes, food and other amenities for the families. It is really quite touching. Although I spoke to an English girl who has been living in San Pedro for the past two months and is one of the forerunners of the aid project and she tells me that people suspect that the officials and admin have sadly been stealing some of the donated goods from the now homeless people.
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| Destroyed Spanish school |
In Spanish class I discussed a lot of these issues with my teacher. She is local, 24yrs old and has a wicked sense of humour. I learnt most of what I know about local Guatemalan life from my conversations with her. Her uneducated father was made to leave school at 11 by his parents to help provide for his several siblings and as such has been working in the mountain plantations (mainly the coffee fincas) his entire life. He earns, on average, between 40-45Quetzales a day (less than 4quid) and works 6days a week. Her mother spends her time doing work in the home, which is far more strenuous than it sounds. She makes fresh tortillas, salsa, refried beans everyday and cooks the meals, cleans the house and twice weekly will wash the household´s laundry by hand. This is normal life for Guatemaltecas. My teacher is educated and holds a good position for a local San Pedran as she teaches to foreigners. Also the school I was attending was a Cooperative of Spanish schools (and a bit more expensive than other schools in the area) which means that all the money goes to the teachers and their community projects, rather than to a company. The community projects involve sponsoring local poor families by providing weekly groceries, helping to build new homes for families who live in unlivable housing conditions and sponsoring physical education and art teachers for the local schools so the children can have access to a more well-rounded education than they would be able to otherwise. The school also runs a scheme where the students can volunteer at a local Home for the Handicapped which I helped out at too. I learnt however that the school´s future is being threatened as this year it has so far only been able to raise in donations a fifth of the necessary funds required to keep it open.
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| Mud-filled houses |
San Pedro is a fun village for tourists. There is an abundance of schools, hostels, cafes, bars and other activities available for quite cheap. Plus, it is by the magnificent lago atitlan which itself is surrounded by three glorious volcanoes. However the past couple of weeks of consecutive disasters that have ridden Guatemala has overshadowed the country with not only a dark sense of foreboding but a strong and overwhelming energy that things are not quite right. If Guatemala and her people had not been so poverty-stricken to begin with, perhaps these disasters would not have blighted the country so badly. It has definitely been a strange time in my travels as now more than ever, it has been brought home to me that I am very lucky to have been born British and thereby privileged.
Delfino Cortez is a very gentle, very happy and very elderly (in his late seventies) local Guatemalteca who works in the big gardens of my spanish school for six days of the week. He does a beautiful and attentive job of the lush and grand gardens, and all of it is tended to only by himself and without help. He has the kindest face and during breaks of my classes he would seize the opportunity to speak to me and practise his little English and attempt to learn more. The first day I spoke to him he asked me if I was from the States. I told him I was from England which is even further away. He looked at me incredulously and exclaimed that it must be extremely expensive to fly over from there. I told him that I worked very hard just so I could afford it. He replied that in Guatemala everyone works very hard, every day, for most of the week but they still don´t make enough money to take the bus to the neighbouring town. He smiled and shrugged and continued tending to the jamaica rose bush... I think I wept a little inside.
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| Volcanic ash in Guatemala city |
Peace and help for Guatemala,
A x
