Out from the ashes...

Things here have gotten worse over the last few days as the earthquake continues to have massive impacts on life here. Where I am living in Santiago, things are pretty good. Grocrie stores are open, so are busses, electicity is on and in general life is continuing as normal. The only reminders are the constant reports on the television of the devistation, the tremors that are present every day (yesterday there were 2 that were pretty powerful) and the banners and car decorations that are everywhere now.

I have some friends who just returned from the south, where the tsunamis are reaking havoc and am incredibly disturbed by what he told me. There is looting, fights, a curfew from 6 at night till 12 the next day in order to curb the violence and looting and in general people are living in desperation. It is so hard to be so close to that, and yet still feel like I am in a different world. I can only hope that things get better as more aide comes and as the people continue to give to each other. That is one cool thing that has happened: the aid at the grocery stores, on the street has skyrocketed. People here are being generous with there money, resources and even time. There are lots of volunteers who have given up their vacation plans to help out down south and here in Santiago.

So there is hope, but there is a lot of devistation and rebuiling left to do. I hope that this spirit of generocity continues! There is so much that needs to be done and I hope that out of this, Chile will emerge stronger than ever.