Total destruction

Thank you to all those who sent me emails and texts or who called (at three in the morning!) to check up on me, following the earthquake last week. Lima escaped largely unscathed from the disaster with minor damage to buildings. As nothing compared to the total destruction of the towns in and around Chicha Alta and Pisco to the south. The mayor of Pisco started to cry during a press conference in the days following the earthquake whilst describing to the media the full extent of the damage and the aid they required. The town has been utterly overwhelmed by the scale of the rebuilding effort required, both physical and mental. Here at ECLOF Peru we're looking at sourcing funds to purchase more aid for those still suffering. Almost a week later and of course the press has moved on (almost immediately to Hurricane Dean which just hit the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico where I spent a month studying Spanish in July), but the emergency needs of the population are as pressing as they were five days ago.