Hurricane Eta Update: How are those we work with faring?

 

Evacuations Thursday, Prinzapolka River, Nicaraguan Caribbean coast

Although Hurricane Eta has left Central America, it’s still raining and continuing rain is forecasted for the next 10 days. How are we faring?

CDCA - Ciudad Sandino: All our staff and their families are fine. Nueva Vida Clinic operations have continued as usual. We did not get much wind in Ciudad Sandino and since the rains are steady but not torrential, there have not been many homes affected here (except everyone now knows exactly where their roof is leaking!)

Agriculture co-op: Organic farming families with COPROEXNIC are fine; so far their sesame in the fields is fine. This morning Rogelio went out to check on the co-op's 140 acres of sesame near our Center and reports that it still looks good. The amount of continuing rain will matter a lot.  All the peanut farmers are worried about their crop because too much rain can be very bad for peanuts. Many of the farmers' food crops of beans and corn are at risk.

Destruction of houses, Commuity of Wawa, RCCN, Caribbean coast

Coffee families: René called from the El Porvenir coffee co-op this morning to report that everyone is fine, but their community is now entirely cut off, as two of the ramps on their only access road washed out completely. They have been watching their bean crops closely and are hoping to get a chance to harvest some this week, but they have already lost nearly half of their beans, which is their community’s main food for the year. Part of the 20 acres of sesame they had planted has been lost. The coffee harvest was supposed to begin this week, but of course with the rain it can’t start. All the rains accelerate maturity in the coffee beans, so the beans are ripening, swelling, splitting and falling off the plants. If this continues, it could be very bad for this year’s crop.

Central America: On a broader scale, Central America has been hard hit, with 3 million people affected in the region. On Nicaragua's east coast, two miners died in a mudslide; other countries have had more casualties: In Guatemala there are 150 dead and more than 100 still missing, in Honduras more than 20 dead, in Panama six dead, in Costa Rica three dead, and in El Salvador two dead.

Nicaragua: In Nicaragua the hardest hit areas were in the North Caribbean Autonomous Region and Jinotega, which got heavy winds and rains, and Rivas, which also got a lot of flooding from rivers and streams. Countrywide, more than 47,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters where they've been receiving food, supplies and health care. As of Friday there were 1,200 homes reported to be destroyed or partially damaged around the country, with that count continuing as authorities get access to affected areas. Over the weekend government emergency services sent a convoy with roofing kits for 2,000 homes to Bilwi, the hardest hit town on the east coast, to begin reconstruction. Although most roads are now open, five highways were affected and nine bridges.

Feeding evacuees at emergency shelter, Alamikamba, Northern Caribbean Autonomous Region

Water & disease: As some people begin to return to their homes where flooding has abated, potable water is an issue. Access to clean water has been restored in Bilwi, cleaning of wells and restoration of clean water distribution is in process in other places. Electricity was out in much of the north of the country, but is beginning to be restored. Flooding can also spread disease; the Ministry of Health has administered 50,500 doses of prophylactic medication against the spread of leptospirosis.

Food: There is much concern around the country for the loss of food crops which could create scarcity and drive up prices. Already the price of potatoes has gone up; other crops will be sure to follow as rains continue this week. 

Please keep Nicaragua, El Porvenir, the farmers around the country, and our work in your thoughts. 

– Becca

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Assembly of PIGS: U.S. Presidential Election

In the Assembly of People Into Giving a S**t, we reflect on the United States presidential election…because we care about the poor.

It is Saturday and CNN has called the presidential election for Biden…and here is how I feel…

• Happy that there will be a woman as vice-president
• Happy that she is a woman of color 
• Happy that she is a child of immigrants
• Happy that the First Lady will be an educator 
• Happy that the husband of the vice-president is Jewish 
• Happy to have someone who will lead us wearing a mask and listening to scientists
• Happy to have someone who will reunite immigrant children and parents
• Happy that there will be a president who will not be so mean
• Happy that the discourse might become nicer…never thought I would crave “nice” as I do now 
• Fearful that Biden will be even harder on Nicaragua as he has promised to be
• Fearful that Biden will not address climate change as rapidly as it needs to be 
• Fearful that the militant white supremacists will start shooting 
• And mostly fearful that people will relax and go back to “normal” 

Shutterstock licensed photo

La lucha es larga (the struggle is long) as they say in Nicaragua. As happy as many are and I see them celebrating in the streets on television, Pres. Elect Biden is no radical. We must remember he will keep the mainstream the mainstream…and that mainstream has gone further and further to the side that ignores the poor while poverty grows and grows not only in the States but worldwide and the rich get richer and richer.

The mainstream does not address the extinction level of climate change, but continues the dependency on carbon fuels and increases fracking and drilling.

The mainstream does not address the systematic infestation of racism in all the seats of power.

The mainstream does not address the ever-increasing level of classism that pits the working class against the poor and sets the rich apart and untouchable.

The mainstream thinks that the U.S. State Department and CIA can interfere in other nations’ elections, governments, and economic systems…just not theirs.

The mainstream doesn’t mind the collection of data of people’s privacy.

I remember when Barack Obama was elected, for whom we voted, because we felt strongly that the U.S. needed a person of color in the White House…Mike said to some volunteers who asked if we saw this election as a pathway to hope, “Just remember he will still be the talking head of the empire.”

And he was. Droning increased. Drilling increased. Fracking increased. US-sponsored coups happened in Latin America.

The only way that real change is going to come is if we fight for it.

Celebrate for a nicer administration now…go for it, but remember Biden and Harris are mainstream and that stream is drowning the poor worldwide, sweeping humanity to extinction, and causing pain and suffering within the U.S. and globally.

La lucha es larga…the struggle is long. We cannot stop fighting, if we love our neighbors…The Divine’s children…our brothers and sisters. We just can’t.

-Kathleen

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Future Fridays: How do you want governments to respond to disasters?

 I first arrived in Nicaragua to volunteer with the JHC-CDCA nine months after Hurricane Mitch in 1999. On my first day in the country, Mike drove me through three muddy arroyos out to a field with 15,000 refugees in it. I ducked under the barbed wire conducting electricity to stand in the mud in front of a black plastic tent where a woman so tiny she didn’t even come up to my shoulder showed me the rain running onto her dirt floor and cried, asking me for a few sheets of zinc roofing for her family.

That was just the first visit of the first day…I had experiences like this all day every day for the three months I was in the community of Nueva Vida. And Nueva Vida was just one of dozens of refugee camps spread across Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch, filled with thousands and thousands of people all with the same plight: Hurricane Mitch killed 19,000 people and left 2.7 million homeless in Nicaragua and Honduras.

Meteorological warnings for Hurricane Mitch were dire – but the Nicaraguan government did nothing to prepare or warn the population. The President at the time, Arnoldo Alemán received a phone call from the the mayor of Posoltega telling him that the Las Casitas volcano was unstable and begging him for help evacuating people in danger. The President refused to declare an emergency or send in rescue teams.  Hours later, more than 2,000 people died on Las Casitas when a torrential river of mud literally ripped children from their mothers’ arms. In other areas, people climbed into trees to escape rising waters and sat for days in the branches, awaiting rescue that never came.

When the rains finally stopped – after dropping more than 10 feet of water in a matter of days – aid poured into the country. President Alemán embezzled relief money and supplies for himself and his cronies; most of the aid never reached the victims of Hurricane Mitch. The extent of government aid in Nueva Vida was a tiny square of a field for each family and a piece of black plastic. The houses in Nueva Vida were built by church groups and NGOs. The latrines were dug by Jubilee House Community volunteers. The government stood by as its people suffered – not just during the Hurricane, not just for months afterwards, but for years. I know this is true because I saw with my own eyes the suffering of the survivors, heard with my own ears their stories, and felt with my own heart their pain. Hurricane Mitch was a natural disaster, but the people’s suffering was multiplied ten-fold by the human disaster that followed it.

This Tuesday November 3rd, Hurricane Eta hit Nicaragua as a Category Four Hurricane, hitting vulnerable coastal and rural communities in the North Caribbean Autonomous Region.  Rains are continuing as I write, and although there is damage to infrastructure, homes and crops, there have only been two lives lost as of Thursday.

We began getting reports of a coming possible storm late last week. On Friday the National System for Prevention, Mitigation and Attention to Disasters, SINAPRED, held a press conference and on Saturday they sent out a convoy of trucks with supplies for emergency shelters in Bilwi. Monday the government declared a red alert for the northeast, yellow for the northern region, and green alert for the rest of the country. From the beginning, the organization on a national and local level has been incomparable with the disastrous lack of response to Hurricane Mitch.

SINAPRED has quickly coordinated the mobilization of a massive network of first responders: local emergency networks, municipalities, the Navy, 9,000 specialized Army troops deployed around the country, police, firefighters, youth organizations, the water department, the electrical department - the health department alone sent out 6,500 workers and prepared enough medicine, food and supplies to see patients in special field hospitals for 45 days without restocking. They fumigated and cleaned more than 65 emergency shelters ahead of time, preparing dozens more daily as the storm progressed across northeastern Nicaragua and brought on floods nationwide. More than 88 tons of food, hundreds of mattresses, 500 kg of chlorine to purify water and other supplies were sent early across the country to affected areas. As soon as the storm knocked down trees, emergency services were out clearing roads of downed trees and wires; in one river workers repelled down a bridge to clear debris with chainsaws as the swollen river raged around them. More than 35,000 people were evacuated to emergency shelters before and during the storm.

Eta has left Nicaraguan territory, but rains are continuing today and and will continue tomorrow. Meanwhile, crews are beginning to assess the damage, and repairs and rebuilding will begin. In watching the emergency response closely, I am confident that this time, the Nicaraguan people will not be left alone in the aftermath of the storm. Already, Hurricane Eta is leaving a different mark on Nicaragua than Hurricane Mitch. In Bilwi where the eye of the hurricane passed so close, ten pregnant women who had been evacuated from coastal Miskito villages gave birth in the Army’s emergency hospital during the storm. One of these is baby girl named Eta. 

– Becca

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Hurricane Eta to Hit Nicaragua while the U.S. Votes

It is Monday and I find that my anxiety is getting higher and higher as we look ahead to Hurricane Eta hitting Nicaragua and the U.S. elections tomorrow. 

Hurricane Eta may be a category 4 storm by the time it hits and it is bringing lots and lots of rain.  We are nearing our rainy season, which means there is not a lot of room where all this rain can go.  Crops are almost mature in the fields and if we get too much wind or rain, we could have extensive crop failures. 

Hurricane Mitch 1998

I remember Hurricane Mitch in 1998 hitting about this same time of the year...there was massive flooding and mudslides and deaths...whole communities buried.  It was the deadliest hurricane of the 20th century.  At least with Hurricane Eta the Sandinistas are in power, so we are not as concerned because they have called up the army to help people evacuate, unlike the inaction of the Liberal party of 1998.  The Sandinistas deal with disasters better.

And then there are the U.S. elections and the word that stores have run out of ammunitions.  Our children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, friends, supporters, and on and one are up there.  We're scared for them  as everyone else.  All of the gatherings will cause up ticks in COVID-19 cases.  It may be the makings for a perfect storm.

We are also concerned about how the many, varied, elections will go...and what that means for the poor of the world, the people of Nicaragua, and our work.

U.S. voting - photo Shutterstock licensed

So yep, I'm a mess.  I'm ready for this week to end so I will know what we are up against.  Maybe next week I will have a more hopeful message.  For this week, we are battening down the hatches, watching the news, and praying hard.

-Kathleen

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Assembly of PIGS: Grief

Today is All Saints Day, and Day of the Dead in Mexico. Tomorrow, Nicaragua will celebrate Day of the Dead. No matter which or neither of these days you celebrate, it is a good time to remember the dead and those left behind.

In Mexico, or wherever Mexicans may have settled, families go to the cemeteries to have picnics, light candles, and celebrate their loved ones who have gone before them. On Monday, Nicaraguans will go to the cemeteries to clean the grave plots and place flowers on the graves. Becca and her daughters, Eibhlín and Orla, will help us establish our own “shrine”, or “memory table”, of the dead from our families and community.

In many Protestant churches, people will worship and sing “For All the Saints” which is one of my favorite hymns. They will remember those who died in the year before, because it is good and right  to remember those whom we have lost.  This year the numbers will be greater than before because of the many deaths from COVID-19.

With this virus our world has lost artists, song writers, authors, activists, scientists, and our dear Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We have lost family members, teachers, friends and our sweet Jessenia Castillo. We have lost thinkers, leaders, visionaries and our dear John Lewis. As a society we have lost so many that we love and admire…so many whose music we enjoy...so many who have left their mark on our lives. And we grieve our loss. At this point, who among us has not lost someone dear to them because of COVID?

Grief must be released. When we see the marches over Black Lives Matter, we need to remember these are mostly marches of grief, because of all the lives lost to senseless brutality. Most in the Black communities know the loss of someone either dead or in prison due to the lunacy of the criminal justice system.

When we see marches demanding change to gun laws, again these are motivated from grief…from the loss of children, parents, friends that have been cruelly shot in homes, schools, cinemas and other public places. 

So often we see only anger and not the grief that births the anger.

Here in Nicaragua, grief is treated a bit more humanely, I think. When there is not the social distancing demanded in a pandemic and there is a death, then the family cleans and dresses the body, places it in a simple coffin, and holds a vela (or wake) until the body begins to break down and needs to be buried. People walk to the cemetery with the family in support, to where friends have dug the hole for the body.

Nine days later, a mass or some kind of observance is held, because the grief is still there.

A month after the death, another mass or observance is held, because again the grief is still there.

Three months later and then a year later, the same happens. Most Nicaraguans realize that grief stays with the loved ones for a long time. Sometimes a yearly observance is held until the family is ready to let go of their sadness.

One might think that the dead here have great power… but it is not that, it is more a recognition of the loss of a loved one. A recognition of grief.

With the rise in the evangelical movement here, people are told to celebrate the resurrection and the fact that their loved one is in a better place. But the grief is still there…the loss…the hole left by your child or parent or dearest friend dying.

With the pandemic, these rituals are not being observed as much and the families and friends are left more alone in their grief. We cannot deny the grief…the mourning…the lamenting of all that is now lost.

Grief feels like losing a part of yourself. Your heart is broken and the more you have loved, the more broken the heart is. Grief is first like a gashing wound spurting blood all over the place no matter how much you try to shut it off, and then grief moves to a slow bleed oozing the life out of you. The more you ignore the grief, the more packed down and festering the wound becomes.

We must as a society figure out how to help those who grieve. We cannot shut their pain off or try to make it go away. That is hard, because it’s difficult for us to address the pain. Their pain brings up our past grief and our future grief. 

Mike, Jessica, Tiff, T Earl gathering around Joan 

When Mike’s mother, Joan, was dying with cancer, I went to be with Mike who was helping, and see his parents. Joan was in so much physical pain from the cancer, and Thomas Earl, Mike’s dad, and Mike were in pain watching the withering away of their beloved and mother. I sat with Joan one afternoon and asked her point blank how she felt about dying and who was talking to her about it.

“I’m angry, Been. I’m really angry.”

“Tell me what you are angry about?”

“What I am going to miss,” at this point tears pouring down her face. “I won’t get to see my grandchildren grow up. I won’t even get to meet the grandchild there,” pointing to my swollen belly. “I am going to miss so much.”

My tears now flowing, “I know. I will miss all that, too. I’m mad too.”

We sat and cried. But then she decided that she wanted her hair cut, a perm put in, a meal from Red Lobster, a wine cooler, and she would finally take her morphine in the doses she'd been instructed to take. She had a couple of good days, one bad day, and at the end of that died, she died.

Grief comes in waves. Rage can pour down on us at the loss of someone dear and the injustice we feel. It can stop us in our tracks and make it hard to breathe when we look for our child and the child is no longer there. It can make us curl up in a ball and try to will the hurt away. It can make us crazy as we try to fill that hole that is left.

But grief can and will ease over time and with the love of others. And that is where we who are not in tremendous grief at the moment have to help, we must - however possible in these pandemic times - be there. We may not know what to say or how to say it, but the love and support will be felt and is desperately needed.

The dead are resting from their labors, illnesses, and pain. It’s the living who need us now.

-Kathleen

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