Hurricane
Stan takes toll on San Lucas, surrounding areas
by Rev. Greg Schaffer
It had been raining for five
days and five nights. The water ‘run-off ditch’ that winds through the housing
area (rancheria) of the Plantation Community of San
Andres Pampojila just south of San Lucas was running
full. When these waters became heavy with mud, the people knew it was time to
leave. Early in the morning on
The following day, when the
rushing water, mud, and rocks had calmed, fear and worry gripped them as they
returned to view the damages. The sight that awaited them was of devastation.
Their simple houses had been crushed, pushed aside, or filled with mud, rocks,
and debris. The little church, built over sixty years ago of stone, withstood
the pounding but was filled with a meter of mud, dirty water, and debris.
Tearfully they began to gather what could be salvaged thanking God that no one
had been killed or even injured. Pablo Coroxon
gathered a group and began digging out and cleaning up the little church.
One week later, to the day, Pablo
walked the 3.5 kilometers into the church in San Lucas and asked, “Padre, would
you come out to celebrate Mass with us? We can not leave the church all alone
by itself. We want to thank God for saving our lives and ask God’s help to
begin again.”
A group of Community leaders
went to the owner of the coffee plantation Pampojila
and asked about plans for rebuilding the ‘rancheria’.
He agreed to rebuild housing but only for the thirty families of ‘colonos’. Plantations are obliged to have housing for full
time workers known as ‘colonos’. When members of
these families grow to adulthood and marry, some are able to find part time
work on the plantation (finca). These young families,
know as ‘voluntarios’, are encouraged to find housing
elsewhere and come for seasonal work when available. The owner of Pampojila had encouraged the young families to move on but
had been lenient and many had simply added a simple lean-to onto the houses of
their parents and continued living on the ‘finca’.
Now with the planned rebuilding of the ‘rancheria’ of
the finca, the ‘voluntarios’
would have to leave.
Representatives of the 136
families of the Community of San Andres Pampojila
have come to us. They would like to stay together as a well knit community.
They would appreciate it very much if we could help them find property near the
‘finca’ so they could continue to work there but have
a home and property of their own. They also know that we have been working on
developing a piece of land just north of the ‘finca’
for housing. This development is taking some time because it demands pumping
water from wells on the
The Community of San Andres Pampojila is also well aware of the fact that over the
years we have helped nine plantation communities onto land and into housing of
their own. Some were present on September 7th of this year when there was an
inauguration of the three new communities of El Porvenir,
Totolya, and Tierra Santa onto land of their own and
into homes that belong to them. This was a major effort and has become a model
of what cooperation can do. The hard work of the people themselves, the
generous donations by all of you making it possible to buy the Plantation La Providencia through the parish / Asociacion
del Desarrollo and the full cooperation of the
government through an infrastructure / housing program made available to these
three communities a new independent life. Celebration of that Inauguration Day
proclaimed what hard work, generosity, and cooperation could do for so many.
What the people of Pampojila do not know is that to accommodate all of the 136
families we would have to buy a piece of property adjacent to the land we are developing.
The land for sale is about 16 acres and with the property we are developing
right now, would be sufficient to accommodate all those in special need. What
they don’t know is that the land for sale is very expensive.
The Community of San Andres Pampojila has always been a Community of faith, prayer, and
dedication. Each Wednesday at
Fr. Greg Schaffer is a priest of the Diocese of New