January 5th me and nearly 30 brand new World Racers will leave the states for 11 months. Our fist stop is Peru. Back in August a 7.9 earthquake killed hundreds, injured thousands and left even more homeless. One of the worst hit towns was Tambo de Mora. Here’s what our Adventures in Missions contact, Bob Cooley, has to say about the situation. This is where our team will be working.
The human dimension is even more devastating. Most of these folks have lived their entire lives here as, have previous generations of their families. Everything they had worked for years to build was destroyed in less than three minutes. The government has decided that they do not want Tambo de Mora rebuilt. In the face of this governmental fiat, the families of Tambo de Mora do not want to move. Up to now there has been no help from the government in doing so. When you speak with them, they will quickly tell you that they have no intention of moving. They intend to stay, come hell or high water, regardless of what the government decrees.
Initially, feeding centers were organized and the government helped to provide food to them. This assistance was barely adequate. The water system was destroyed and is obviously not being rebuilt. People are getting their water from ditches in which there is all kinds of nasty stuff, including garbage and animal waste. We have distributed large quantities of rice and a number of blankets and had people chasing our van as we departed having exhausted our supplies.
After the politicians made their decision that the city would not be rebuilt, they informed the residents that they would need to move and they notified them that they would stop providing food to the feeding centers after a date certain. It was last week that they did in fact withdraw their provisions. The situation there is desperate and will only become more desperate. There will likely be a show-down between the residents and the government.
