Many of you will have heard already, but Vilanculos was hit hard by a cyclone 2 weeks ago. I was evacuated beforehand by Peace Corps, so I was not in town for the storm, but I came back the next day to see the destruction it left behind. The town proved to be in really bad shape. Most big buildings in town had lost their roofs, many had damage to their cement structure. Our big market where people sell fruit and vegetables had crumbled to the ground. The hospital has had all of its buildings badly damaged. The gymnasium at my school was destroyed, we lost parts of the rooms to some of the classrooms and some of the buildings where students board. The second high school in town lost complete buildings. Mostly everyone I know has had damage to their house, either losing their roof or in many cases the entire structure. Trees were down everywhere, the power lines were all down on the ground too. Basically, the town was ravaged. Driving in was surreal, it was like driving into a war zone. I think the lack of color from all the trees being down had a lot to do with the effect. It was just grey and dark, and there was garbage, clothing, and tin roofs scattered around everywhere.

I did not know what to expect going in to the town. I had visions of complete chaos, health problems, no food and clean water, my house being looted since I had left it during the storm. I was scared to go back, but I really wanted to go and see what I could do to help, and to spend time with my friends that I have made in town over the past few months. To be honest, things are completely different then what I was imagining. No one in town had taken this storm very seriously. When I was evacuated everyone kind of laughed at me because I was “running away”. I didn’t know the severity of the storm either, so I was just kind of looking forward to spending time with the other volunteers that were being evacuated from other nearby towns that I don’t get to see too much. When we first got back in to town, people were still in shock from the fear of sitting through the storm. The brunt of it lasted about 6 hours, and I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to see tin roves flying off your house, and walls of houses flying away. I have to say though, I have been really impressed by the resilience of the people here. Immediately, people started to fix their houses and to get together their things that they might be able to salvage. Within a couple of days the big trees that were across the road were cut back, people were setting up stands out by our second market. The supermarket which was left in tact was opened for food. The hospital brought out tents that it had from UNICEF to set up for patients. People’s attitude shocked me too. I guess I was imagining a little more chaos… maybe more violence and looting. I have seen none of that. I am sure that there are people taking some things, like the tin that they find on the ground to put up as a roof to their house, but people for the most part just seem to be concerned with trying to get a place for their family to live. In a way, it seems like people are used to having these kind of problems. This isn’t the first time they’ve had to deal with devastation, and they do not react as people in America might at this kind of situation (I’m thinking about Hurricane Katrina).

In the last couple weeks I have seen people clean up their yards, cut back their trees, try to put some sort of roof back on their house. The president came to town for a day to visit. I am not exactly sure of what has been decided to do for the town and the surrounding affected areas by the government, but UNICEF has brought in tents to use as classrooms for all the schools that lost their buildings. They are already at work fixing our school. We started teaching again 5 days after the cyclone. Basically, people are just kind of getting on with life. People did not really stop and wait for aid to come in and help them to solve their problems. They have just tried to do what they can to get back to some sort of normalcy. This is of course, just what I see. There is probably a lot going on that I am not aware of.

So anyway, life has changed, but not as drastically as I expected when I first learned the devastation of the storm. Vilanculos has been thriving the last few years. Their have been new hotels, restaurants, and stores built in town. We have yet to see what kind of effect the storm will have on the tourist industry. I hope not much. The beach is strewn with trees at the moment, and I am not sure of the conditions of all the hotels, but hopefully it is not too difficult to fix. As for me, I am just getting on with teaching. I have been given three more classes of the 9^th grade to teach, so I am much busier then before. I am in Maputo for the next few days for a Peace Corps conference and when I get back into town we will have about a month left before the end of the first trimester. I have already been here over 5 months… hard to believe.

I hope everyone is well at home. Thanks for all the emails and kind words. I will update again when I have access to email.