In fact, I didn’t even find out about the earthquake until I went to check my email and saw half a dozen “Are you OKAY???” messages. I am, however, worried about the friends we made during our one month in northern Pakistan, where we spent most of our time in what is now a disaster zone. If any of them are reading this, please let us know if you are okay, and what is going on.
The New York Times called this the worst earthquake to hit the region in 100 years. When we were in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the media was reporting the worst heatwave in the same period of time, then, right after we crossed the border into India, the worst monsoon flooding in 100 years slammed Mumbai.
It’s not us though; unfortunately there is plenty of natural violence elsewhere in the world, including El Salvador, where floods are overtaking the Bajo Lempa area where I first worked with Chencho’s NGO, mentioned in the previous post. It’s horrible to pit disasters againt each other, but I’m afraid that any chance El Salvador had for international relief (already in the shadow of New Orleans) will be wiped out by the Pakistan earthquake. Standby for more on El Salvador.
And yes, we’re okay.
