Good Morning Salvador: No longer displaced

After being stuck out of my site for a week following Hurricane Ida, I finally set out for home Friday with a couple of days' supply of food and water for myself, and 16 pounds of corn flour and candles for my host family, who were running out of food.

Riding the bus to my site was quite an experience. The closer we got, the more landslides could be seen along the road, and we often had to stop and wait for machines that were clearing away mud to make space for us to pass.

Then we got to the bridge to my pueblo, which had been completely washed away. I was told the buses only went to that point, after which people were crossing the broken bridge on foot and walking about an hour to my village. When we arrived, a crew was repairing the bridge, and I prepared to get off the bus...but it kept going. We were going to cross! Everyone on the bus got excited, until the bus got stuck in a rut in the middle of the bridge. Back and forth, back and forth it moved, on the bridge which was basically still unsupported mud, and which curved so that it looked like the bus might plunge off it any minute.

The Salvadorans around me laughed and made little expressions of surprise, but I was panicking. I could feel all the blood rushing to my face and was literally biting my nails. Then the bus stopped trying to move and I was one of the first people off it.

I started the hike to my village carrying all that food and barely made it a half a mile before a truck from my community passed and the people offered me a ride. Thank God! As we were heading home, we saw the same bus...it had eventually crossed the bridge, which was fully fixed later that day.

As soon as I got home, I was pulled into food distribution efforts. An hour later, the electricity came back (while I was cleaning my fridge of the green slime that had built up during the week) and that night water started running again. The villagers had been told they might have to wait two more weeks for any of that to happen. But the day the gringa came back, everything started working again.

This proved a horrible coincidence for me, as our municipality is still suffering massive consequences -- about a thousand families lost their crops and 65 families were displaced and need new houses -- and people in my village are now looking at me to save them. One of my friends apparently told his mother, "At least Alia lives here. She'll take care of us." Which is a HUGE responsibility for someone who just came to teach classes, plant trees and conduct community cleanups.

Many of you have asked how you can help. I am waiting to hear about funding from USAID and at least one other NGO, but if that doesn't come through, I will set up a private fund and send instructions on how to donate. I'll keep you posted.

Here is the bus stuck on the bridge.