Day of Rain

June 20, 2012

Cathedral is empty, usually this place is hopping.

When it rains things slow down. There may be a few gutters in this city but the only ones I've seen are in the barrios and they are usually open channels next to a road or stairs. When it rains the streets turn into rivers and you better be prepared to get doused as the cars go by. Afterward the streets are very clean.

When I arrived at the museo Sergio was in the large costume room and he was giving a tour to a school group, the kids appeared to be nine to 13 years old and were so well behaved. For example they weren't touching everything, they were not yelling nor running around. They actually walked in pairs arm-in-arm and were politely greeting me with, "Buenos dias".

Of course the boys like to act up when they know they are getting their photo taken. This is only part of the group, the rest are outside. The two women infront of Don Sergio are the teachers.

While he gave the tour I changed the bandages on the man with the radiator burn. He is doing very well, "gracias adios"— he is a healthy 30 year old. His wounds are epidermal and superficial second degree, so thankfully he should heal well. Unfortunately, he said he can't work. He is a taxi driver and since 90% of his chest, most of his left forearm and his right upper inner arm were burned he cannot get comfortable to drive. These people need to work, they want to work and even when they have a true reason not to work, they still want to be at work.

Another example of an accident waiting to happen. This burned out fire is on the floor with a make-shift grate (three rebars bent to hold wood) in a small room. What you don't see here is great grandma sleeping in a bed to the right. It makes sense to us this is dangerous but they have lived many years like this as fire provides heat. Electricity is out of reach for them, they can't afford wood burning stoves or chimneys; this is the best way they can manage for the comfort of warmth… most of us can flick a switch.

The afternoon brought more rain and this makes for a slow evening, which was fine with me as I must have picked up a virus and was not feeling well. We saw four patients which allowed me to get home by 6:00 pm. I showered, chatted with my compadres here at Bela's and was in bed by 8:00 pm.

 

The streets are glazed with water and off the curb is 5 inches (sometimes more) of rain.

Posted by P. Ferrer