Reconstruction and Children

Today I went with the group of Education Promotores I work with at Common Hope, in addition to some psychologists to work in San Miguel, one of the hardest hit areas. There are many people living in a temporary shelter in the church and the school. We went mostly to give the children a diversion and to give their parents a break for a while. We rounded up as many kids as we could find (~45) and headed over to the school. There, we have time for the kids to draw pictures and talk if they wanted. Many of the kids were kind of in a zoned out phase. Either from stress, dehydration, or lack of food, I'm not sure.

Once we were about half way through, another volunteer group came with a projection screen and projector to show movies. When we left, the kids (who had grown to about 60) were watching 'Rainy with a chance of Meatballs" or Lluvia de Hamburgesas" in Spanish. It seemed like a good diversion for them for a while, at least.

Common Hope's blog has been putting up a lots of pics (some of which I've posted on this blog) and can be viewed HERE.

As far as an update on the country's situation, I've been reading the papers (and plan on bringing them home to share). The Airport is open, 50% of the volcanic ash has been cleaned up in the capital, 17 major bridges connecting the larger outlying departments(states) of the country have been destroyed by flood waters and have left many areas isolated, over 140 people have died as a result, and there are many still without homes. Antigua, the city that I live in remains mostly open, with tourists still walking around and making their purchases as if nothing happened.