Goodbye, Fernando

Today I received an email that Fernando, an apple farmer who worked with HODR on an irrigation canal project in Peru last year, was found murdered a few days ago.

Guh. Fernando was one of the first people we met when we visited the communities of Ramadilla/Con Con to look at the canal project, and he was one of the few people to work with us consistently and tirelessly through the whole duration of the project. I remember how he patiently worked with me while we poured cement, added rocks, poked, smoothed, spread. He was also the subject of the photo we used to announce the canal project. Standing over the then-earthen canal, he looked sad, serious.

These are disjointed, nonsensical anecdotes. Fernando was a sweet, kind man. I remember him vividly as an integral part of Ramadilla/Con Con. I'm sad.

I know that I drop into places for brief periods of time, that I don't know the context of my surroundings. Peru, and South America in general, struck me as kind of hard, violent places. Beautiful cultures full of great people of course, but still a rough society. Luz, the mayor of Ramadilla/Con Con, had her motorbike carjacked while we were there. And the whole project in Pisco ended up shutting down early because of the swelling crime.

Then again, in the Philippines, one of our friends was murdered, almost one year ago, in what seems like a bizarro freak incident. Julia Campbell, a Peace Corps Volunteer who also worked with HODR and introduced us all to Donsol, was murdered while hiking in the famous Banaue Rice Terraces. It's not a place known for violence, and the Philippines doesn't strike me as a dangerous place.

I don't know. Maybe it's simply bad things happening to good people. I miss them both.