San Clemente

After the truck adventure, we spent the morning exploring a neighborhood in San Clemente. This is a poorer, rural area, so much of the home construction is done with adobe. The thick, heavy walls have little defense against earthquakes, so they crumble and collapse quite severely. Roofs and walls simply drop into the rooms below.

Community kitchens ("ollacomun," literally, "communal pot") have been established in most neighborhoods. These help to divide up the work of cooking and ensure that children are fed during this emergency phase. Not being able to speak Spanish is a major obstacle; Jodi speaks a little and helped us translate in the morning, but in order to do a thorough assessment, we'll need to find a dedicated translator. We spoke with several families and were invited into their homes, both permanent homes as well as temporary shelters. The poverty level here is widespread and somewhat desensitizing - several families have moved into makeshift shacks made out of thin reed mats or randomly assembled sheets of plastic, but it's evident that some people simply lived like this before the earthquake as well; the mats are weathered and old.

People are still friendly and generous, sharing what little they have. Several times, we were invited in and fed, whether it was a few soda crackers, a tamale with chicken, or a beverage. A distribution meeting was held while we visited at one house; a stack of new USAID blankets had been delivered. One of the local leaders called Marc, Jodi, and myself up, one by one, to hand out blankets. I felt sheepish and embarassed, I didn't bring these blankets and I didn't want any credit for handing anything out. But then after we each handed our blankets to women called forward by the local leader, a group of local women came forward to hand out the next round of blankets. Perhaps it's a custom, that everything comes from someone. At any rate, it was nice.

Will we work in San Clemente? I don't know. On to Pisco...