The storm

Hi all,
I've finally been able to get online again. And woah, I guess the media has really given everyone a scare with the hurricanes. We've definitely had some excitement here. I'm feeling a little uplifted now, but things were feeling rather hard and serious here just a few days ago. We had heavy winds and rain that started on Monday, and today is the first day with no rain. I long to be dry, walk on dry land, and be able to put on dry clothes again!

Wednesday was when the heaviest hit. It started out somewhat like a snow day - everything stopped because of the rain and wind. We took several trips down to the river to see what was going on. The little creek in the valley below my house turned into a monstrous huge river, that looked to be pure mud tumbling through the valley. In the aftermath we've seen that most of the gardens in the valley are demolished. There were also three men who got stuck in some trees in the middle of raging river when they were working in their gardens. We all just could look at them from the edge, helpless. No one could do anything. I've heard since that they were able to wait it out until the river receded and were able to get out safely!

Our other problem though: the storm took out our water system. We've been without water since Wednesday evening. Rob and AnneMarie have a tank of stored water they are using, and I have a tank on top of my house that I am living off of until it's gone. It's been raining a lot so we are able to catch water that way and boil it. And if need be we still have the river water that we can boil or filter. It's making life a little more difficult here though and Thursday night I was longing for the carefree days I had when I first came here with the big group and water and food galore!

I still have Ysemael with me. His mother is taking care of him for part of the days, so that helps me out quite a bit. But oh, caring for a baby without water is a challenge. I woke up yesterday to a diaper so filled with poo, oh...

But seriously we could used some prayer:
1) water. there are rumors there are only 5 places the pipes are broken and the water committee may be able to fix them soon. But the surounding towns also don't have water and I think their system will take a month to be fixed!
2)that Ysemael will be able to start breastfeeding.
3)that the road will be fixed soon. The storm took out the road on both sides of us too.