Less than two weeks ago my sister, Barbie and I, visited the girls pictured below and their family at their house.  There were numerous kids and several adults living in a series of four rooms, called casitas, because they house different families.  There was an open area for washing and cooking, and general cohabitation.  The smaller girl, Manuela, is the niece to Anna and they sell merchandise to the tourists on the street, which is how we got to know her.  Also less than two weeks ago, my mother, Barbie and I took these two along with one other young girl, Josefina, to the cinema in Guatemala City.  This was the first time for them and it was quite an experience for us as well.

The village is located about 15 minutes from Panajachel and is built on the side of the mountain. There is only one road that leads to the village so it doesn't get much traffic. And it was bad. One lane most of the way with dirt and rocks and mud everywhere. But we made it. Once we got there Hector and Pedro went to seek out the worst of the families affected by the storm. As they brought back people little by little more and more people began to surround the truck. Within a few short minutes the 40 bags we had brought was gone but the people were still there. We apologized and then Barbie and I took several bags we had set aside for Annas family and set out to the house. A little boy had come up to me and called me by name and I recognized him from Annas house two weeks prior. He began to lead us up the path. The road was incredibly littered with rock and mud, 6 feet high in some places covering doors and windows.

As we walked, the boy began telling me that the houses were gone. Because my Spanish is not so good I asked him questions and he excitedly answered me, affirming that the houses were gone. I didn't know what to think until I saw the first Boulder. It was maybe 12 feet wide and laying at the base of where their house used to be. Right behind Pedro, with the man sitting on it. It was huge.

In the picture above you can see a kind of pathway between the buildings where the water is running. That was the narrow walkway between the houses. Annas family lived on the right hand side, where you can still see the wall standing of one of the rooms, but the rest is totally gone. While we were looking at it I was so overwhelmed, and then Anna and Manuela walked up and I cried. Barbie was crying and Anna was crying; it was really hard. These people, surviving two weeks ago, were destitute. There was no help, no aid and no future. I asked Anna where she was living in she said the church. Sleeping on borrowed blankets on the cement floor with nothing but the clothes she was able to salvage I couldn't help but think how sparse the accommodations were two weeks ago; but it was their stuff. It may not have been much, but they owned it. Old pots with burned bottom from the open flame. A calendar hanging on a wall and some pictures from magazines. Straw mats to sleep on and no chairs or tables. But they had something.

And so we wept. It's interesting,,, skip that thought, I must change the focus of this piece. I only have 30 minutes left to get to the Internet café to send this tonight so let me tell you a different part of the story. We brought the entire family to Panajachel this afternoon and fed them, their first good meal in a week. We brought them to my house where Barbie brought lots of close and they picked out lots of clothes. We gave them all food bags of rice, beans, sugar, salt and toilet tissue. Then we took them back to their… house? Manuelas father, Rudy, asked us to take Anna and his daughter with us to sleep at our house. Anna has been staying in the church but she doesn't sleep. Rudy told us his daughter doesn't sleep as well. They have rented a small house. Small means like a bedroom and it doesn't have a door. They literally have no room on the floor to sleep. But then they don't sleep much anyway. So we brought the two girls home with us and we were just now having dinner when Anna started to talk, retelling the story. They were all asleep on Wednesday night when they heard a terribly loud noise and knew something was wrong. They ran out of their house to find a river running down the pathway. It was strewn with rocks. They ran\waded down the path to the street, where many people were crying and yelling. They couldn't find family members and everyone was crying and screaming. Then the big rock came, smashing everything. They could hear the Destruction and everyone ran to the Lake. They were all crying, the men and the children and the women. Anna was looking for her father. She was afraid he was dead and if he was dead she wants to be dead as well. All the people were on the beach for several hours, afraid to go back. The river was running through the middle of their town when it didn't exist before. Some of the men came running down, having seen the destruction and were crying and yelling for the police. Nobody knew what to do. The children were all crying and screaming and people were still looking for their family members. Next morning at dawn no one could believe what they saw. Everyone who came to the houses, or at least where the houses used to be, just stood and cried. And then someone spotted the dead man's hand sticking up through the rubble. That just made it worse. Everyone was afraid to be in the houses that were left. For three nights no one slept. Finally, on Sunday afternoon things were peaceful. And finally they Slept. There was no water, no electricity and no telephones. The road was impassable and no one knew what was happening outside of the little village. Finally, on Monday afternoon someone came with a tractor and cleared the road enough for one vehicle to travel. There's not enough food to eat, there is no water to drink. There is no aid, and no government officials helping. You see, only one person died. And that's not newsworthy.

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