floods

Hey everyone,

I wanted to thank all of you who wrote me concerned about the flooding in El Salvador. I am safe and in the capital now, but many have lost much in this country. Yesterday we had a meeting in the office and I heard from other Peace Corps volunteers who had some pretty traumatic experiences. One of the most affected communities, Verapaz, was a Peace Corps training site so I had many friends that lived there during the two months of training. One of the host families that my friends lived with during this period were killed by the mudslides. Another friend of mine (Jimbo, some of you know him) lives on the volcano that was the source of the mudslide and was woken by his room being filled with mud. He fled his house at 3am and waited out the rain in a neighbors, while he listened to the earth move (it sounded like ice cracking he said), not knowing if he would be next. In the daylight, he decided to leave and walked three hours down the mountain to get to safety. It was incredibly frightening.

I was lucky because I was in the capital with my mother, whose flight was yesterday morning. My community was relatively lucky since we had no deaths. However, the fishing community where I do most of my work was badly affected. Many of the fishermen lost their boats and nets, which is their livelihoods. Several lost their homes, which were carried away in high river water. They are in need of clothes and food. I am anxious to get back today to see what I can do and show my support, so I will end my blog post here for now. I will try and update you guys later this week with what has happened.

Here is a link to the bbc picture of the flooding in el salvador - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8349698.stm

Best, Elian