Anglican Communion News Service

"I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." Genesis 9:11

The Shelter, the widow, the twins, the friar and the Mau-Mau's

Luis Landa Public School is located right next to Iglesia Episcopal San Andres in one of our working class neighborhoods. Just because our location we have had a good relationship with the school throughout the year. We still do, but not with the students anymore because classes have been suspended and the school is full with refugees from the flood.

There is a lot going inside the school, that's why the long tittle. Fray Santiago, the friar who is also a deacon of our diocese is now helping there.

He is not alone. He is being helped by the Mau-Maus. You see, Fray Santiago works with gangs and he has managed to convince some of them to work with him helping the refugees. It seems to be working, although as a bishop I always worry when the clergy hangs around with gangs. I hope they don't get ideas.

The different classrooms have been turned into homes for several families. Before there were about 9 families per classroom, now there are only 5 as some of the people have been able to go back home. The widow is in 5th grade. She buried her husband last Thursday after his body was found along with other neighbors. They also died because they stayed behind to guard their homes from theft. Reina Carolina is now alone to care for her four children. She was crying of course when we talked about it. I also cried of course as I shared her pain and fears for the future. It's going to be very hard for her.

She wanted me to help her to get a couple of mattress for her children. She wants to leave the shelter as soon as she can. Reina Carolina will face her destiny, but she wants her young children not to sleep on the floor. They have lost everything except her dignity and her strength to start again.

First Grade is where the twins are. They were born there in the First Grade classroom. There was no way to get to the hospital in the middle of the hurricane. A boy and a girl born to Maria. Jennifer and Jeffrey are their names. Swear to God, I'm not making this up. People love these English names. Of course if you give birth in a First Grade classroom in a working class neighborhood of San Pedro Sula in the middle of a devastating hurricane you can name your children any way you want. She also lost everything in the floods. My wife Diana is getting her a crib from the home for newborns Our Little Roses that she runs. They also will try to leave as soon as they can, but that will be in a couple of months. Her home is still covered with water and mud.

It will be too dangerous for Jennifer and Jeffrey so they will continue being the youngest kids in First grade.

Berta and Gregorio

I have a TV program, Monday to Friday on Channel 7 at 10:00 p.m. It lasts only about 5 minutes and when I get long winded it lasts a little more. That's how they recognized me. I was visiting Tent City with a photo journalist from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. She was taking pictures to the devastation that River Chamelecon had created.

Berta approached me and I thought that she was going to ask me for money or food. Instead she pointed to the river and said: Bishop here's where she died, she was only two."It had been barely two weeks since the death of their two year old daughter. River Chamelecon had swallowed her up.

She had not been alone, many had died those days due to the flooding of that same river. Gregorio explained how they were surviving. Yes, they always watched my TV program. They were so glad to see me. They asked me to sit down and I did. It was a kind of surreal as I visited with them in what could have been a living room, Of course, instead we were sitting on the highway, next to their crude tent made with trash bags plastic. Sitting there right next to the river that had taken their only daughter. We talked for a while about life and also about my TV program.

They were so happy to have me visit their temporary home. I promised that I will visit them someday in their real home. But they wont be able to go back to their house for at least two or three months. Water and mud was a few feet high already. As we talked their young son showed up covered with mud up to his head carrying some belonging from their house. They were still trying to recover their lives from the mud and the dirt that Mitch had created.

The Lost belongings

Our church building in Comayaguela is almost destroyed. I say almost because we still have part of the front wall and the roof in place. All the other walls are gone and the first floor is completely full of mud to the ceiling. We are the only building standing on that block. We were lucky in comparison. You can see how people are digging for their belongings in the capital. Even if your lose your home you try to recover something from your past.

Pictures, furniture, papers, decorations, whatever. They dig in their property searching for something. They always find something but what they find doesn't belong to them. You see the floods redistributed the belongings and move them from block to block. I wonder where our Prayer Books went. It will be fun when they begin to look for things at the Pentecostal Church two blocks away from us and find them. Maybe they will think it is a sign from God.