Day 1

For all those who are interested I decided I would make a blog (something I have never done before) and post the pictures, instead of trying to send them around individually. This was hopefully the first of many trips down to Constitucion, one of the cities that was the hit the worst by the earthquake. I have a whole lot of pictures, but I'll just put a few of them here to briefly explain.


This is part of the team early in the morning heading out, don't judge us too harshly most of us had not slept at all the night before and had been running around like crazy the week before that trying to gather information and get food and collect different donations to deliver in Constitucion, buying food in bulk was a particular challenge, as most of the whole sale places were all sold out.


One thing I can say about the Chileans is that they all showed a lot of solidarity, most everyone wanted to help. On our way there it seemed that half of Santiago was going to different towns down south over the weekend to give whatever they could to help. Here we are stuck in a traffic jam, what normally takes about three hours on the highway took us over 7.
Of course part of the reason for that was because huge sections of the highway had either shifted or cracked, so they are rebuilding them



This was a main bridge that got totally destroyed:

When we finally arrived to Constitucion, we realized how bad it really had been, most of the city was in shambles:


This was the first place that we went to help out in, it was right by the sea, where the tsunami wiped out all the houses. We had to wear masks and gloves and they suggested hats, as the dust was supposedly very contaminated.
Most everyone was extremely grateful for the help, we were impressed by how they were not greedy at all albeit being very much in need, they had formed little help groups among themselves and would share all the goods that were given them.



We found that for a lot of them, it was very important to really talk with them, encourage them and hear their story. Most of them had lost either family and/or friends and for sure their homes and all that was in them.


this is how a lot people are making do until they are able to rebuild their houses.


They have formed a little community of sorts there, this one man who has a handicapped father and son, sent his family to stay with relatives and committed to staying there and helping in any way that he could so that families could rebuild their homes and lives. This man works around the clock of his own free will organizing donations that come in, making sure that everyone has something to eat and is at least able to find some kind of shelter. We were very impressed with his unselfishness, like I said earlier we found many people like him who were going out of their way to help their neighbors.


This was the little peninsula where over 50 people were camping the night of the earthquake, they have some kind of firework display that they do at dawn. Because the Tsunami hit 15 minutes after the earthquake, I believe only two people survived, a young mother of 17 years old with her baby who climbed up the tree and held on for hours with her baby wedged between her and tree. People who were on the mountain nearby said the most impressive thing about the tsunami was the terrible noise, they described it as having a 100 lions roaring right in your ear.

We then drove around to the more remote areas of the city where people had not received very much government help yet.



We had brought with us some coloring books and colored pencils and little snacks for the kids, just like an extra thing, apparently they were like a God-send to the parents, they were all so thankful for those as they said the kids were restless and they didn't have many if any activities for them. The children of course were delighted.