Guatemala has been hit with a volcanic eruption, torrential rains and an earthquake. The heavy rains have also severely affected Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Mexico. We at Farmer to Farmer are very saddened to watch once again Guatemala is hit by tragedy and devastation.

We have been hearing directly from friends in Guatemala and the situation is terrible.
To see a video made by Alexander Nixon, a peace corp volunteer working just outside of Antigua, go to
video of mudslides in Cuidad Vieja, Guatemala.

Here is a list of websites of other organizations for more reports and ways to help. You can also send donations (marked “disaster relief”) directly to Farmer to Farmer. By just Googling “Guatemala disaster” you can find several news sources for more information.

http://www.sharingthedream.org
http://www.asgreenasitgets.org/
http://hospitalitoatitlan.com/
http://www.sanlucasmission.com/

Below is a first hand report from Deborah Chandler, the director of Mayan Hands, a fair trade organization working in textiles with women’s cooperatives. The reports read from most recent backwards.

June 18, 2010

Hi again,

Today the sun was out all day here. First time in a long time. A nice change.

The trip to Rabinal went well, and the area is in relatively good shape. Local and regional government agencies are all pitching in, with donations from big agencies, to help people rebuild their homes in those areas hit badly. What was almost sadder was to walk through a beautiful looking cornfield full of tall plants but realize that they have no corn on them. I asked, and was told that in April, which by now seems like a hundred years ago, there was such a hot spell that the baby plants were burned, and that is why they are not producing corn now. Somehow that seems extra-unfair. Farming in that area is always hard, as drought is almost more common than a good year for growing.

The trip we were going to make to the west has been cancelled, and even Julio decided that for yet another weekend he would not go visit his family on the western side of the south coast. One of the bus companies that serves the route from here to there says that what is usually a three to four hour ride is now three hours longer, as they take alternate routes to get around bridges that are no longer functional.

The odd thing is the sporadic nature of the damages. I spoke with one friend in the west who asked when our rain began again, as they have had none for several weeks, less than usual for this time of year. A friend in the area of Lake Izabal said she actually had to water her plants they have had so rain at her house, that the terrible stories are all coming from near the Motagua River. It’s the biggest river in the country, and is now a lot lot bigger, so is wrecking havoc over a long distance. The road collapses continue to be most impressive, and only a fool, or someone really desperate, would drive after dark.

The team from Sharing the Dream arrived yesterday, and I expect to hear reliable first hand news of the group Flor de Campo within the next couple of days. We have a meeting with Diane Nesselhuf, the founder of Sh/D, on Monday, so if I have not heard anything before then, I will then.

There is supposed to be another storm coming this weekend, but they have been completely wrong on the last two promises like that, so I am counting on them being wrong again.

Keep sending positive thoughts, to here and all the other horribly flooded places we have seen pictures of lately.

Deborah

Friday, June 4, 2010
Guatemala City

Today is grey and wet looking. It rained hard yesterday afternoon, and has already rained some today. Rain is predicted for the next three days.

Yesterday I drove into more parts of the city, especially south to visit UPAVIM in the neighborhood of Mezquital. They are 30 km. closer to the volcano than we are, and the volcanic sand there is impressive. The sidewalks and street dividers are stacked with thousands of bags of black sand, the only change being where there are mountains of it piled up without benefit of being in sacks. And even with all that, there is still a lot of sand moving around on the streets. At UPAVIM they told me that from the roof of one of their buildings they had bagged up 40 costales* of sand, so maybe 4,000 pounds from that roof, and from the other roof, which has part garden and some rooms for volunteers to stay, they filled another 20 costales. A few women have some damage to their roofs, but they, like many of us, said, “But that’s nothing, no big deal.” They did say that they are really tired of, and tired from, shoveling sand. *(A costal is one of those kind of woven plastic bags.)

As I saw there and around other parts of the city, the stacks and stacks of sacks of black sand are quite amazing. A great suggestion was to use it to fill the sinkhole that opened up, but this morning’s paper says the authorities working on the hole say they are not going to use it. They did not say why. I have learned more about the cause of the sinkhole, both good and bad news. (Keep in mind everything is someone’s ideas, not necessarily proven fact.) Turns out that much of Guatemala City is on top of ancient nearly-caves, porous rock that gets disolved relatively quickly with a giant inundation of water. That explains some of where the hole came from. I could get it that a leak in the drain pipes could lead to a lot of unwanted water there, but that still did not explain where all the dirt from a hole 24 yards across and 34 yards deep went. If the ground already had a lot of space in it, then it all makes a little more sense. Meanwhile, they have xrayed the ground to a diameter of 87 yards around, and believe that there is no danger of the hole suddenly being bigger.

Meanwhile, aside from the warnings about epidemics of diarrhea, conjunctivits (pink eye we used to call it), cholera, skin problems, and lung problems, the scariest thing in today’s paper is in Sololá again. A huge landslide created a dam, and enough water has backed up behind it to create a small lake. Now they are afraid that the “dam” will break and all that water (and dirt and rocks) will suddenly rush down – toward the communities of Chuitinamit, San Andrés Semetabaj, and finally Panajachel, which is only 5 km./3 miles away. It will get to Pana in the River San Francisco, the same river that has already done so much damage.

Volcano Pacaya is also blowing off more ash, way less than before, but enough to give out warnings of breathing problems.

So far, 13 helicopters have given out 486,463 pounds (243 tons) of food, blankets, drinkable water, cleaning supplies, disposable diapers, and more, packed into family-packs by hundreds of volunteers. In addition to donations from Guatemalans, donor countries include Canada, Japan, Korea, Spain, the US, the European Union, and the UN. There are 9,000 homes still in high risk situations, 7,000 homes with serious damage, 8,300 with moderate damage, and 12,000 with light damage.

One thing I left out of yesterday’s report adds another dimension to it all. The hat makers who were talking about the horrific damage where they live also mentioned that the smell is awful too. With those rivers carrying death (of animals uncounted, rotting vegetation, etc.) and destruction (of houses, outhouses, garbage dumps, etc.), it could only be pretty bad.

You get the idea. The storm may have passed, but the story is a long way from over. But also know that every person I have heard talk about their experience has as many miracle and love stories to tell as terrible ones. Neighbors are helping neighbors, every club and service organization of any kind is mobilizing their membership, youth and adult, to do something. It’s one of those “the worst brings out the best” situations. And for that we can be grateful.

DC
Dear Friends, Tuesday June 1, 2010

The disaster report today is a lot like yesterday’s, only with bigger numbers. As we sit here under a bright sunshine, it seems odd, still, to know that so much of Guatemala is devastated. The death toll is well over 100 now, with more and more known to be missing. Total bridges out so far – also well over 100, with 18 of them being major bridges or on major highways. Something like 150,000 people are in shelters.

Watching the news footage on TV, one of the most impressive things is that 20 minutes of terrible things can be shown without once repeating. It’s not like 9/11 in that you see the same footage dozens of times. In this the general theme stays the same, but is carried out in towns and villages in all of the mountainous part of the country, and plenty of the lowlands too. Those raging rivers that have done so much damage eventually get to lower altitudes before going into the oceans, and by the time they reach the coastal areas they are full of junk, natural and other wise. And huge! The Motagua is the biggest river in the country, and it is now so wide that the planes have to fly extra high to be able to see it all into one shot. One of the most impressive pieces of film is watching a large section of metal bridge, the kind that look like they were made with erector sets, just rolling over and over as the river carries it away. There is a hole in a street in Guatemala City that is unbelievably huge, with some house bases hanging over it, but most amazing is that where now there is only air, there was a three story house. Even looking down the hole, there is no sign of it. The miracle on that one is that it was a workshop for some business, and there had been 35 people working in it that day. They all left at day’s end, and 30 minutes later the whole house vanished down the hole. Other rural pictures show towns filled with boulders, huge boulders, that were carried in by tiny rivers that turned into monsters. Semi-truck trailers buried in mud, other places where after they dig down for a while they come to the top of a car.

Our best personal news of the day is that the group about whom we had the most fears is okay. Xeabaj, who make exquisite and fun baskets, is very near Tecpan and Santa Apolonia in Chimaltenango, one of the hardest hit areas. We could not reach them by phone, but took some comfort in knowing that none of the women live close to a river —- but they all live on the sides of hills and mountains, so we have been holding our breaths.

I have not been able to reach either of the groups near Rabinal, and there has been damage in Baja Verapaz, but we think they all live far enough from the river or hills that they should be safe. We’ll keep trying.

Sadly, Agatha did not confine herself to Guatemala, and there has also been serious damage in Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras.

The most frustrating and anger-producing thing so far is that many of the bridges that have gone out are the same ones that were rebuilt after Hurricane Stan. The only one I know personally is in Panajachel. It took them two years to rebuild that bridge, and a week after it opened a hole opened up and a little girl and her bicycle fell through. Now a big chunk of it is just gone, big enough that a non-attentive driver drove over the edge and down into the river below. This is criminal, and I think the company who built it should have to build it again without payment, and the principles of the company should all be put in jail. That won’t happen, of course, but it should.

The airport may well open tomorrow, but everyone we know has had their flights put off, the airlines saying they will not be flying in on Wednesday. All our groups have asked that our next deliveries be delayed by a week, Tere Cordon’s hat makers were going to be delivering this week but none can get here for now, etc. It’s kind of an odd sensation – life just got a week added to it for us and schedules. For millions of others it just got changed forever.

Watching all this, my thought is that one of the biggest needs is going to be for bridges, so if any of you happen to have any spares, send them on down. Lots of communities are completely cut off now, and the only way to get to them is by air. Helicopters welcome as well.

Thanks for caring.

Deborah

Deborah Chandler
Directora Mayan Hands
http://mayanhands.org/