I write not to ask for more financial help, but for you to feel the personal satisfaction of knowing your contributions have reached Pisco as intended. Joan Mahon writes…

Greetings to All,

Our dilemma this week was whether to continue sending updates but, as emails and photos arrived, it only seemed fair to share some of the touching words and images directly from Pisco and Lima’s protagonists. I write not to ask for more financial help, but for you to feel the personal satisfaction of knowing your contributions have reached Pisco as intended.

On Monday, Fr. Alfonso emailed from Chincha, where “there now is water and working sewers, although streets are still full of rubble. In Pisco there is still no electricity or water in the few homes left standing, and no phones. But streets are being cleaned.

“The panorama is desolate in that city. It looks like a cemetery. I still don’t know what the future will be like. I have 54 families whose homes are totally destroyed but we are awaiting government instructions as to what they intend to do.

“Today I opened a cooking area (‘olla comun’) next to the tent of the ‘new cathedral’ in Pisco. A group of women has accepted my invitation to prepare meals for the poorest, mostly those who don’t dare go to the large government dining areas. It’s all working very well and I think tomorrow we will have twice as many being fed.”