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We take the Alamo bus line from Guatemala City to Xela, about a 4+ hour trip. It’s a route filled with hair-pin curves as we head into the western highlands of the country up to about 7,500′.

These are previous life Greyhound buses from the US but they’re still in pretty good shape. Finally coming into Xela and starting to navigate narrow streets, our driver was stymied by a loose wire dangling down blocking his path.

All buses here have an assistant so our assistant got out, tried to figure how to move the cable, couldn’t succeed, so he started to cut it, but to no avail!  It wouldn’t cut!  Finally, after about 5 minutes, blocking traffic and honking horns behind us, the assistant jumped back in and the driver simply and slowly drove into the cable, tore it down and kept on going.  Wish I had a picture of that!  This is the junction of wires to our apartment building – very common here!

After being released from my FEMA deployment, Leslie and I wanted to see and visit an area where she lived as a teenager while her Marine Corps Dad was stationed at Camp Lejeune near Jacksonville, NC.  During that time, her Dad bought about 50 acres of undeveloped land along the inland waterway and sub-divided it, installing streets and infrastructure, then selling off the lots for custom homes.

Leslie has her own street!

We spent about a week in D.C. before heading back to Guatemala.  I personally enjoyed seeing the two Air and Space museums (the one at Dulles airport and the original on the mall) but we stopped into our Congresswoman’s office and received guest passes to watch both the House and Senate in session from the gallery.

But the sessions were boring.  In the House, congressmen stood before an empty chamber, read their printed speech then handed it to someone in front of the Speaker’s chair.  This exercise was merely to get the speech printed into the Federal Register (official document of proceedings) so the Congressman could tell his constituents back home he gave an impassioned speech before his colleagues about whatever. We left after half an hour…!

But we were lucky this trip.  A “super” full moon with clear weather over the mall.  We deliberately visited the Lincoln memorial at sunset and early evening to catch this view.

After being gone from “home” for almost 2 months, living and working in multiple locations, it was great getting back to Xela again!

I’d only been back “home” to Xela for about a week after my deployment to Louisiana but was already following Matthew’s progress across the Atlantic. Many hurricanes start off the coast of Africa and drift over towards the Caribbean and Matthew was doing the same.  It was forecast to be big and hit somewhere along Florida, so long story short, Leslie and I flew into Orlando the day before Matthew hit.

In Louisiana I’d noticed large staging areas in church parking lots for disaster relief like after Katrina, so I told Leslie that if she came with me maybe she could volunteer in disaster relief efforts while I did my FEMA inspections.

After Matthew slowly paralleled the eastern seaboard, I was assigned to work initially in North Carolina and later across the state line into South Carolina. Flooding was still actively happening because heavy rains inland were flooding streams and rivers downriver. Driving up I-95 from Orlando it was awesome seeing so much flooding everywhere, wind damage and massive trees downed everywhere – including blocking the freeway. Crews were furiously cutting back the downed trees opening up the freeway.

We’d crossed into NC and jumped onto I-74 east to check into our field office in Wilmington but as we crested a small hill we saw traffic ahead slowing down and semi-trucks pulling over onto the shoulder.  The sight we saw past the traffic and down a gentle hill was unbelievable. A levee had just broken, flooding the entire countryside below us for miles (including the freeway) under a torrential, fast flowing flood. I wished I’d taken a video! This happened so fast there weren’t any highway patrol officers, barricades, warnings, just the first cars and trucks pulling over, stopping and getting out to look.

Again, long story short, we had to make a 5 hour detour back down into SC and over to the coast before we got to Wilmington. At a local EOC (Emergency Operations Center) we were warned to never travel at night and be extremely cautious driving on state and county roads because of washouts.

Imagine driving along and seemingly the road ahead looks okay, but there’s nothing there to hold it up except the asphalt itself!

After working in NC for about a week or so, I was transferred to Mullins, SC.  Leslie hooked up with the local EOC and was put to work helping to set up a food distribution center.

This center wasn’t open to the public.  Rather, it was the “master” intake center from which donated items would be received, organized and then transferred to the various public community sites.

I was amazed at how significant the flooding was from Matthew.  For a couple of weeks or so I’d traveled this stretch of countryside and been amazed at the high water mark along the woods at the edge of this field.  It was very pronounced immediately after the flood subsided but slowly the vegetation started to green up again.  I wish I’d taken this photo immediately after the water went down, but you can still see how high the flood was in this area (maybe about 20′).

I’d just inspected a 2 story home close to this train bridge and the devastated family said there had never been water as high as the bridge, yet the flood almost reached their roof and was over the train tracks.

Deployments are hard work, physically and emotionally.  Long days, devastated communities and shock and tears as families and I walk into their homes for the first time after the water has receded.

I’m a standby inspector for doing FEMA inspections after a regional disaster occurs somewhere in the U.S.  and I’ve just finished spending two weeks in Louisiana working with families hard hit by the effects of what was to become hurricane Hermine.

Even after a couple of weeks after the storm, there was still standing water in many areas.  Some of these places had water 4-6 feet deep in their homes, and some homes I inspected had standing water for over a week.

Mile after mile, furniture, appliances, drywall and family treasures were thrown out on the road to be collected as trash.

After a while, truthfully, I never paid attention as I went from home to home…

But every pile represented someone’s horrific loss.

There’s a certain amount of danger going into damaged homes and in the country, many of the homes I inspected were mobile homes with steps of various safety!  I’m always aware of where I step, but for this one moment – while focused on something – I forgot these steps were rotten and I instantly crashed through the top step. Fortunately, nothing got broken but the step (and some black and blue bruises!) but I kept on working without a pause that day.

We work 7 days a week in the field from 7 am until sundown, then spend a couple of hours in the evening calling and setting appointments for the next day.  I never stop for lunch.  My routine is to buy trail mix, add extra M&Ms and raisins, pour it into a styrofoam cup and munch throughout the day as a travel from home to home.  I usually lose 10 pounds every deployment which isn’t a bad thing!

Flying back to Guatemala City, I then had a 4+ hour bus ride back “up the mountain” to Xela (almost 8,000 feet).  It takes a couple of days to decompress from the deployment and catch up on some sleep. The work is arduous – but I love it!

This gorgeous moth was just outside our front door earlier this week; as a matter of fact, it was also here a few weeks ago as well.

I was walking up the stairs (we’re on the second floor) with the lady from the first floor who was on the way to the rooftop to hang some clothes to dry.  I noticed the moth and pointed it out to her…

What a reaction!  She backed away and made a hand motion indicating “bad”, “not good”, “stay away”, etc, which is a common gesture here in Guatemala.  Later that day as Leslie’s tutor came for her 3 hour conversational session with Leslie, we showed her the moth – same reaction!

She explained that the significance of this moth in the Guatemaltecan culture is…death to come, an omen.  Hmmmm…

Which led to an interesting conversation about culture, superstitions, etc.  For example, in US culture we have Friday the 13th, no “13th floor” in many high rise office buildings and the number 4 (sounds close to the word for death) in Chinese culture.  Leslie and I have worked with individuals from Chinese backgrounds who wouldn’t ever consider buying a home with a 4 in the address.

But now I’m just trying to figure out who in our building is going to die…