Today we brought provisions to a few dozen of the families affected by the flooding in Chalco. We also invited them and others to the special service on the 14th.
I didn’t take a lot of video of actually handing out despensas (provisions), because I don’t want to embarrass anyone. However, we had some good talks with some people – many people remembered us from when we served the breakfasts (and we remembered some of them). Eventually word got around and we attracted a crowd of neighbours – there were about 20 people around us for a while.
With four vehicles and lots of helpers, we were done in about an hour. Now, we’ll see what happens on the 14th!
Last night the youth of Sendero de Vida (our church) got together and created some "despensas". That is, packages of provisions. These are going to go out to the people in Chalco over the next couple of weeks.
We wanted to try to stretch the money farther, so after getting a few pre-packaged despensas, we went out and got some things in bulk – beans, rice, tuna, toothpaste, New Testaments, milk, and so on.
With a huge assembly line, the youth put together the packages, and I think we must have ended up with about 140 despensas.
As we give these out, we’ll be inviting people to a special event on the 14th of March – a service of thanksgiving right in Chalco.
Imagine having a metre or two of sewage water in your house for 9 DAYS. You have nowhere to take a bath, nothing to cook with, and no food even if you could cook it.
This is day 9 after the water flooded into Chalco, a few minutes from our house, after heavy rains hit Mexico. The disaster affected thousands of people. The houses will never be the same.
In some areas where the water has receded, you can see how bad things actually are. The sewage water rushed into people’s houses and pooled in there, now leaving filthy sewage sludge in each house. Bed, fridges, clothes, stoves, TVs, microwaves … many things are now just garbage, to be left in the street and hauled away.
One of the concerns, naturally, is that disease is spreading because of the conditions. Skin deseases and "pink eye" are the biggest concerns at the moment.
I took some brief footage today (just over 2 minutes) to show you how the water has receded in some areas, though if you look close you can still see people in boats and a car with water up to the middle of its windows. Some cleanup has begun, though it’s amazing how little help there has been.
You can also see, at the beginning, people from our church serving hot breakfasts and lots of people enjoying them.
Once the water goes down, we hope to be able to give out some pre-boxed provisions (despensas) door to door. If you would like to help, these are around $10 each – please contact us if you’re interested in providing one or more. This one pictured above is a typical despensa. It contains basic food supplies.
