Smugmug and More on the Earthquake

So I'm just posting a photo to see if I like smugmug. It's me at Larco Mar this shopping center in the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima built right on the shore. This beautiful sunset is from nearly a year ago!

My one year anniversary in Peru will be September 15! I need to come up with a good way to celebrate.

The news on the earthquake isn't getting better any time soon. So many people had their homes destroyed. There's no water, no electricity and no food. An old woman in my town has all of her kinds living in Ica and hasn't been able to speak with any of them yet. She is terrified. Churches and social groups are collecting money and supplies, but the effort is going to take a long time. Even just among the Peace Corps volunteers of course everyone wants to do something, because they're Peace Corps volunteers and that's kind of the mindset. But at this point there's nothing besides sending money and supplies. The volunteers who live in that department (Peruvian equivalent of a state) haven't been permitted to go back yet. We're still having aftershocks and there has been looting. There was even an article in the tabloidy newspaper, El Popular about a church group that is offering transportation to folks who live all up and down the coast but have family in Ica so that they can go to Ica and help, a kind gesture of questionable forethought.