My friend sent out this story in an e-mail to our omnibus (training class). Its pretty wild, so I figured I'd post it. he's from Brooklyn, so read it with an accent. .
thursday, july 23rd, 700 am -- i woke up and saw, to my utter amazement, that the overnight high tide had taken an entire house off its stilts and dropped it IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BEACH, about 50 meters north of its original location. everyone in the community, of course, got a huge kick out of this: laughing, children playing on the now-vacant house, etc. however, they quickly realized that this is a bad omen, because in about 6 hours the tide would start coming back up again, possibly to destroy more houses. therefore, many people started evacuating their things from their houses and putting them on the road parallel to the beach. i realized that we had a potential "katrina-like" situation on our hands (imminent doom, etc.). i snapped some fotos and went to the municipio, where i had a meeting that afternoon.
thursday, july 23rd, 200 pm -- i show the fotos of the displaced house to the mayor and various people in the municipio. he makes the point that, all of the houses in this area of risk in Don Juan are illegal and were never supposed to have been built. he has a point, and even my house on thea beach is illegal, but still... to my shock, noone seems to concerned or ready to be proactive. unfortunately, i had more meetings to attend at my foundation´s office that afternoon/evening, so i did not return to my community for round 2 of the potential destruction (late afternoon tide). i tried to brace myself for the scene that i knew awaited me that evening...
friday, july 24th, 1230 am -- i finally return to my community after a long day of meetings. my community is eerily dark and quiet. i walk the beach with my flashlight, and the destruction of the late afternoon tide was horrible. my flashlight revealed that about 5 or 6 more houses had been destroyed (completely gone, not dropped on the beach), others had been mashed up pretty badly with wood and sh*t everywhere, and a few had that cross-section look, where an entire side had been carved away revealing the interior, like a doll house. all the people in the affected area where sleeping in the street, with all their stuff in piles around them. indeed it was, essentially, a refugee scene. the tide was starting to come back up, so i set my cell phone alarm for 300am that morning so i could be prepared for the next high tide.
friday, july 24th, 300 am -- i wake up and the waves are just smashing the hell out of my community, including my front porch. i watched for hours and saw light posts fall on top of boats, while houses, walls and fences disappeared entirely. the waves started overtaking my front porch quite a bit, and i had to jump back to avoid beeing doused. one of the stilts that holds up my front porch was beginning to buckle; i began running an escape plan through my mind. i already had a couple of bags packed to flee, just in case. really crazy stuff. the type of natural phenomenon that you cant take your eyes off. i finally decide to tap a nap at 600 am for an hour, knowing that a clean-up / relief effort would be necessary in the morning.
friday, july 24th, 800 am -- i wake up again and walk the community. we almost lost the front porch, but thankfully it is still standing. we reinforce it with a few more stilts. i walk to the south... approximately 15 houses are now completely gone, destroyed by the worst high tide of this multi-day disaster. it looks like bombs struck the individual lots where there were once houses. piles of rubble everywhere and people wandering around in stunned, post-disaster daze. i survey the damage along the beachfront and it is heartbreaking. after about an hour of silence and trying to think, i simply get busy. gotta get busy to take my mind off things. i got to each little zone of rubble and ask the people if they need help. i immediately suggest that we need to clear out all of the largest, heaviest posts from the destroyed houses because when the tide returns, those things would slam against the surviving houses and rip them apart. i convince dozens of people to STOP BURNING THE TRASH! holy sh*t, why do they just start burning everything? i say to everyone in large groups, "hey, we have to work out here all day long cleaning up and helping people. do you really want to work over fires and smoke all day, breathing in this sh*t? i dont! so lets cut it out! besides, you are just burning light little pieces of palm and bamboo. those wont do anything! they will float harmlessly in the ocean. lets get these huge posts out of here before they mash up everything again!" they listen (mostly), and the fires stop. after a few hours, some people start making lists of the families who dont have houses. this way, when the relief resources come, we will know who needs what.
friday, july 24th, 400 pm -- emergency meeting at the municipio. apparently the mayor is now willing to listen. great. before i leave, i tell dozens of people in the community to get their things ready to evacuate. trucks will be coming, so pack up your stuff and be ready to move when we get back. some blank stares and nods, and then i am off. we show fotos, discuss potential plans for this evening (tide coming back up to high in about another 2 hours!), etc. we suggest moving the people to higher, safer ground (school, church, empty lots, etc.). friday, july 24th, 700 pm -- we return to the community to see that NOONE HAS MOVED AN INCH! in the usa, when a disaster strikes, what do we do? we evacuate, right? not here. people keep saying that they would rather live in the street than evacuate to the school or church. why? because the school/church/empty lots are in don juan CENTRAL, and the people of BELLA VISTA don juan dont like the people of don juan central, so they refuse to go there, even in a crisis. unbelievable. all this while the tide is coming again. the press has arrived. i am pretty sure i was on the news. then the resources start coming in thanks to the municipio: mattresses, water bottles, pillows, sheets, towels, food rations, etc. the pista, the location where we would distribute the resources, is a f*ckin zoo of people who refuse to cooperate. i ask the police to help get some people out of there, the people who were not affected, so we can work. not happening. good job cops. there are kids playing indoor while we are trying to dish out rations. people are coming up to me asking for free sh*t when they live outside of the affectd zone. eventually, the system of handing out rations becomes corrupted, and people who LOST NOTHING SO FAR ARE RUNNING AWAY WITH MATTRESSES, WATER, SHEETS, you name it. that group of bandits includes my host family. when i see the mess that has become of this aid attempt, i kicked over a couple of plastic chairs, threw a few more out of the way, and yelled out something like "there is corruption here! people are taking things when they still have everything!" i storm out of there, refusing to calm down. this goes on well into the night.
well, perhaps i will write round 2 later, because now i have to go to yet another meeting with the mayor. there is so much more to tell. some final last thoughts to close out round 1 --
*people in don juan are beginning to invade private property to solve their housing problem
*i have had women yelling in my face about everything, when they still have a home and suffered nothing*miduvi is here and in the early stages of building new homes
*lets just say that my CAT tools community map will change DRAMATICALLY
*all of my projects post-CAT tools have been shelved, as you can imagine
*i didnt tell peace corps anything until 2 days ago, because i didnt want to get yanked from my site
alright, so bottom line - if any of yous quit after hearing what i have been through, i will shove my size 44 Venus sneakers so far up your culo that you will floss your teeth with the shoe laces, you got me?! yeah. seriously though, i am fine. its been tough, but we will make it. much like joyce, i just dont want to hear anymore omnibus 101 quitting stories, because if i can make it through this, we can all make it through everything. diga?
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