Hurricane Richard

     I will start with the most recent event first, Hurricane Richard! Yes we are ok but yes we did get hit rather hard. Fortunately this was only a category one hurricane I cannot imagine what anything stronger than this feels like, it is a terrifying thought. It began with rumors that I tropical storm was coming our way but since this is the 3rd or 4th time we have heard this and nothing major had happened we weren't overly concerned. Finally on Saturday the Peace Corps started to take precautions and the rumors were that this was going to be the real deal. It was still hard to believe because the weather was beautiful as always. By Saturday night we were on standfast which means we weren't allowed to leave our sites and we were told some districts would be consolidated the following morning. I would like to mention I spent a beautiful day on Saturday at Spanish Lookout, this is where many of the Mennonites live. It literally looks like they picked up a huge chunk of Pennsylvania farmland and just stuck it in Belize. I mean this place has actual yellow lines on their paved roads, oil drilling, and a whole John Deere factory. These things are not found anywhere else in Belize. But I went with Cisco's counterpart, Elsie, and we went to a real grocery store and stocked up which was very lucky for us because I happened to pick up candles an other such supplies that I did not know I would need very soon. Sunday morning was cloudy but still no exceptional weather change yet and we were called in for an emergency meeting with the Peace Corps. At this meeting we found the tropical storm was now a hurricane and it was headed straight at the center of Belize where we live. We live 40 miles inland and our city rarely gets more that some wind or rain so we remained skeptical but wary enough to take things seriously and start preparing. The northern volunteers were all consolidated to one hotel together, the southern volunteers were all consolidated to one hotel, although these places weren't on target to be hit, and our district was all consolidated to the smelly Garden City Hotel in Belmopan. Once again because we live in Belmopan and we have a structurally sound house we got to stay home for the hurricane. We spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning the yard of all moveable objects, nailing our shutters in tight, setting up candles, collecting water, shopping for canned goods, and stocking up on rum:) It was very cloudy by this point and you could feel something terrible was coming but other than it being dark exceptionally early the weather was still fine. At about 5 the wind started to pick up a little and it started to rain, for the next two hours it just kept increasing, at 7 the electricity went out, at 8 we were being hit full force by Hurricane Richard. We sat through the storm in our landlords house John and Sylvia, and our fellow PCV Andy, peeking out the window, making pizzas (thank God for gas stoves), drinking sprite/rum/lime, and playing games. At about 8:30 we had to bring their two dogs inside because they wouldn't stay on the porch and were panicking. At about 9 the eye of the storm came through and it actual calms down during this time. We ran outside, I know probably not smart but I had to check to see if the roof was still on our house, and we were extremely surprised. We had no idea the amount of damage that had been done in such a short amount of time. All of the houses, and our pretty pergola were fine, but the yard and trees were completely trashed. There were huge trees down in our yard and electrical lines, garbage everywhere, and people all running into the streets to check on things. I have to mention the one time I actually got scared was when Sylvia and I were peaking out the window and we was our neighbors roof fly off into the road. That was the house where our friends were staying because their house isn't very strong and the roof flew off, that was scary. Fortunately everyone seemed to get back in time because it all started up again when the eye passed. The second half wasn't as bad but we didn't realize there would even be a second half so it still took us by surprise. A very large coconut tree in our neighbors yard withstood the first half but after the second half was no longer standing so the wind must have continued to be pretty bad.  We returned to our house at about 11:30 to go to bed and everything inside was fine. Although the wind blew in a lot of dirt so we had some cleanup to do and are slowly recleaning all of our dishes and sheets. The next day was crazy, we still didn't have power so I am pretty sure everyone in our village woke up with the sun and got up to begin the clean up. We were walking around the yard and village at 5:30 am and we couldn't believe the damage that was done. Many roofs gone, some houses destroyed, many houses flooded, and many trees down. We worked for 8 hours on Monday to get our yard functional again, we cleared a lot of trees down and I am still sore from the work. Fortunately the water never went out and the electricity was back on by 6pm the Monday.  It really was an event we will not forget but don't worry too much because this hasn't happened here in years and it was rumored to be a rough hurricane season this year. I promise to post some pictures soon and to keep you updated. I have run out of time but we will catch you up on our visit with Marsha, and the fun vacation we took recently. Hope you are all doing well!!
Paz,
  Kathryn