El Salvador

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Hi my friends,

I've never lived through a natural disaster before. Or thought about how to rebuild after one. I cannot even imagine what it is like in India right now.

We're now at 16 days after the earthquake here, and it is still the first topic of conversation upon seeing someone. "Where were you when it happened?" Everyone knows what 'it' is. "Are your house and your family okay?" "Did you feel the aftershock last night?" (Yes, the aftershocks still continue. I felt one a few hours ago.) No conversation starts without these questions.

We're left with over 700 dead, and about a fifth of the population with severe damage to their houses, so that they're not inhabitable - although people are still living in the damaged houses because they don't have anywhere else to go. They've lost sources of work (the unemployment was about 50% here even before the earthquake) because their places of work are damaged and closed, or because people aren't buying their goods because they're using their money to recover the damage, or because people are displaced from their houses and are far from where they used to work. Even worse than the physical damage may be the mental trauma. People are devastated - they are scared from how they saw the walls of the house moving like waves even if they didn't fall down, they're sad because they lost loved ones or know that people lost their lives nearby, they're questioning God, many are without hope to start over.

It's not a very pretty picture. But there is hope. There is talk of not 'reconstruction' for the country, but for 'construction'. The idea is to build the houses up in better condition so that the next time we have an earthquake or other disaster, the country is more resistant. We have the advantage now of international attention and funds to help pull ourselves up (although most of the international attention has now left and gone to the even worse tragedy in India).

We've (we being the Reformed Church and associated NGO called ALFALIT where I work) pretty much ended the 'emergency phase' after the earthquake, where we were delivering blankets, plastic, and basic food necessities to the families with damage. Now we're entering about a month time of planning and testing how to enter the reconstruction phase. We've selected certain communities where we'll work, and we're going to work with architects, engineers, social workers, and economists to assess the damage and the needs of each community. We're going to build a few houses to see how it goes and what group and style to work with. We're figuring out the organizational structure of how to adapt a small organization to meet the needs of a much larger scope and budget. All this is incredibly interesting for me. I'm working tons, and I actually have responsibilities now. As a good North American who is task oriented as my culture teaches me, I like having responsibility for tasks.

One thing I've found interesting is different churches' reactions to the earthquake theologically. There is a very strong Pentecostal presence in the country and thus the feeling is very strong among the people that this earthquake and all its damage is a punishment from God for being so sinful. The Reformed Church where I work is speaking out loudly against this interpretation. Migde Lucas for example, one pastor whom I work with here, points out that earthquakes are a part of this world - they've always happened and will always continue. God made the world with earthquakes, but also with trees to cover all the land, so that landslides wouldn't happen and bury people. God also made the world without the intention of such extreme poverty where people live in adobe houses which collapse when the earthquake arrives. We haven't cared for the earth and for its people as God has commanded.

So personally everything is fine. I slept in my house for the first time last night since the earthquake - I'd been sleeping in an ALFALIT building to be able to be closer to the office because we were working early and late delivering goods to communities.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers, although we aren't on CNN anymore. The cameras aren't here anymore, but the houses are still on the ground and we haven't even started to recover. This is a process of many years that we're entering.

As I've been asking before, please pray for the desire of the people here to move on. This is a depressing event that takes away a lot of people's hope, without which reconstruction and rehabilitation is impossible. Please also pray for wisdom of the administration of the office where I work - these drastic changes in the organization are extremely time consuming, stressful, and important to the existence of the institution. Please also pray for the ability of leaders in the country and all organizations receiving aid to look out for the needs of the people who really need the help, and not for their own interests.

Feel free to forward this email to anyone who may be interested.

Peace, Marcia