Hands On Disaster Response

I was dropped off on the side of the highway yesterday after spending 18 hours on a bus with a 17 year old lage Columbian girl, who stole my window seat, had NO concept of personal space, puked all night, and is the LOUDEST CELL PHONE TALKER EVER! Sigh...so yeah I made it to Pisco.

For those of you that have no idea why I am in Pisco, here is a reminder, I posted this on September 2nd:
´Inspired: While Ann and I were eating breakfast at the hostel in Iguazú on our last morning there, a television in the corner was blaring the latest update about the recent earthquake in Peru. Over 500 killed, 2,000 injured, and 40,000 homes destroyed. Just take a moment to think about those numbers. Hearing about this really affected me. I jumped on the nearest computer and searched for a way I could help. I was thinking about volunteering in Peru after the semester...After reading about the reports of violent crime and absolute chaos in the disaster area I started to shy away from the idea, but I haven't ruled it out. There are a few organizations from the U.S. that are about to launch projects there now that the after shocks have died down. There is one group speciafically that I have been in contact with. You can check out the website below. We'll see where this goes.´

And here I am. A new chapter. Saying good bye to Kristyn and Ann wasn´t easy. It´s the first time in 5 months I´m not with someone from the Córdoba crew. Really on my own again. Anyways yesterday I showed up and within 25 minutes I was on a work site shoveling rubble. Already I have heard so many increible stories. People who lost almost everything and what they didn´t lose in the quake was looted soon after. An elderly man tells me that where Im shoveling is where is two grandaughters died when the roof caved in on them. He started take whatever work he could to earn money to put his home back together, he ended up in a factory with few safety regulations and his hand was fractured in an accident a few weeks later. He hasn´t been able to work since. The home he lives in is made of pieces of scrapwood and its about the size of a college dorm room. What little he had left was looted two days ago.

Today I worked in a daycare center in a refugee camp. The camps are large fields where people have been living in tents for four months now. No water. No electricity. Widespread theft, violence, and rape. The daycare centers were started so that kids could simply be kids again. Just a safe place to play. If you want to check out some more info about where I am, or see some video footage of the disaster response in Pisco, check out this site:

www.hodr.org

Again sorry for all the spelling errors and choppy crappy writing. I only have one sole (about 30 cents) on me, so I can´t pay to use the internet that long here.

Peace.