A Visit to Guija

Today I got to visit Guija to see the damage from all of the flooding and it was not pretty.

Instead of posting a lengthy, drawn out or long-winded description of my day I'm just going to share some pictures and promise another post later this week.

Temporary camps set up between Macia and Chokwe. We saw the red cross or doctors without borders at the camp and also saw a South African NGO passing out food. We also saw WFP vans and World Vision working in the flood affected areas to deliver aid but all in all the situation did not look good. Entire families were living under single plastic sheets, and many had placed all of their belongings out in the dirt to try and salvage what they could from their homes. We also saw people walking along the road to get supplies from Macia to bring back to the camps. Many areas between the two large towns were still flooded.

Some areas are still flooded, and in this picture you can see the water rose to just below the windows of the houses. At my house in Guija that water was actually above the doorway (I didn't get a picture of that though!)

Here is a picture of the road between Nick's site, Manjangue, and another town before actually getting to Guija. As you can see the water completely tore up the pavement and just left piles of asphalt and rocks.

Here's a picture of the school where I teach, the water rose above the windows and door and because of that everything inside was caked in mud. I didn't actually get to look inside but the desks were being moved out to be cleaned.

Here is a picture of the front door into my house. I did not post this to make people feel bad for me I just want you to be able to see the extent of the damage inside. All of the furniture was turned over and most of it is broken and there is also mud on the ground that is about 4 or 5 inches deep. In fact everything is covered in mud or mold. I had one of the stronger houses in my community because it was raised a meter above ground and made out of concrete blocks. Many other people live in mud or straw huts which were completely washed away in the floods.

And to end on a more positive note, this little guy showed up in my house while I was trying to salvage things, he was really excited to see me (I am pretty sure he was the previous volunteers cat). I gave him some crackers and water and then said goodbye, I think he lives with a neighbor and if he made it through the actual flooding he doesn't need my help now :)

I will write again later this week I'm just really tired and can't quite write what I want to say right now about everything that is going on. Thanks again though to all of you who are keeping up with me and checking in, especially right now when things have been so difficult.