For the most part of the storm, everything was ok for me. My ducks, on the other hand, were not so happy. They were so used to being underneath me; I think they were a little scared. I had them out in the pen with the chickens, but they did have cover, so I figured they would be all right. Sure enough, they made it through the storm unscathed.
After the storm, I walked around town to see what type of damage we suffered. To my surprise, my town was just fine. We had a few minor mudslides that blocked a portion of the road, but other than that, we were back to business as usual. Now in our surrounding villages (aldeas), some of the roads did not make it. There are very few cement roads leading to the villages, so most of the rain washed some of the roads away. My cooperative and I decided to help some of our villages that have members in the cooperative. We passed out food and water, and gave rides to those who needed to come into town.
While we were dealing with our own issues, I watched the news and read the newspapers. Many places in Guatemala were hit hard. They lost homes, pets, and family members. It was very sad to watch. Some towns have no way of exiting because the river washed away their bridge. One place in particular has to use a bucket across a long cable that stretches across the river just to get to and from work.
And if that was not bad enough, our capital, Guatemala City, has a giant sinkhole in the middle of it. The capital was hit extremely hard because not only did it have the rains from tropical storm Agatha, two days before we had an earthquake which erupted one of our volcanoes, Pacaya. We had ash everywhere to the point they had to shut down the airport. Needless to say we’ve been through a lot, but we’re strong and we’re making a way. I have faith we will all be okay. As far as I go, I’m back to work like normal.
