"We Must Get Up" Say Hurricane Stan Survivors 

By Judy Wollen

When Hurricane Stan struck the bowl-shaped Atitlán Lake area on October 3, 2005, it loosened the soil that was holding ancient trees and boulders on the highest rim. The resulting mudslides buried entire villages, wiping out crops, roads and schools. 

One of the unfortunate villages was San Juan La Laguna, home of the La Voz Cooperative, which is perched precariously on the volcanic lake's shores. Heifer has worked at La Voz for some time, supporting and training the farmers who earn most of their income growing coffee beans. Heifer has provided bulls and chickens, whose valuable manure is combined with coffee bean hulls, then introduces earthworms to work the mixture into rich compost.

Now Heifer is supporting these farmers as they struggle to survive the loss of their coffee and vegetable fields and, in some cases, their homes. 

Immediate help arrived with Heifer laying hens, their eggs offering farm families enough profit to keep their children in school and help others in the community.

The mountains above the plantations must be replanted immediately, and Heifer is assisting by providing trees.

“If we don’t plant trees up there, we will have more mudslides right away. It is very dangerous,” says Juan Cholotio, one of the coffee farmers. 
 
Approximately 30 – 40% of this year’s coffee crop was lost. This includes plants that were lost, beans that fell off the coffee trees, and beans that will not taste right because the coffee plants were too wet for too long.  It is the monitor’s opinion that “we must re-plant 20% of the coffee trees.”

Additionally, the natural compost, so carefully prepared and put into place, was washed away.

Construction on a new road up the hillside had just been completed when the hurricane hit. But Stan took that road completely out. What used to be a gravel track suitable for a pickup truck is now a deep gulley, in some places as deep as a man is tall. Nothing but a horse can traverse the trail now. It will take some really big machinery to make the road again. 

One Family's Story
Pedro Mendoza’s house was washed into the lake. His wife, Candeleria Mendez Cholotio, bursts into tears as she explains that she is really afraid to rebuild on this place. She doesn’t want to live here again. 

Pedro’s relatives in three other families lost their houses too. 

“I am sad and I am poor now," Pedro said. "So I am starting a new fight. If I can plant tomatoes in December, I can harvest them in February and March. Onions also. I will collect firewood from up on the mountain and carry it to town to sell. I will also collect stones to sell for getting black beans and corn to eat.”

Pedro and Candeleria have six children between the ages of 12 and 17, all needing to continue there educations.  “I want to suffer with my mom and dad,” offers Bernadino, the eldest.  “I will help them build a house. Hopefully someone else will also give us a hand.” 

The real issue for farm families like Pedro's is that their older children may have to drop out of universities and trade schools. Paying for higher education takes plenty of cash, and that’s what they will not have for at least the next five years.

First Things First
 “The first thing is that we must find a way to re-build the road.  Right now, if we want to fertilize our plants, we can drive about half way up the mountain with a pick-up.  Then we put the fertilizer on our backs and walk up the rest of the way.” 

But the road is also needed to remove the bad soil and huge stones.  It will take five to six months to dig out the area, removing the bad soil, if they can hire day laborers, and if the road is re-built.  They have applied as a Cooperative for a long-term low-interest loan to help hire this work done.  They are hopeful.  They have taken loans before and have always repaid them.  Now the coop is waiting to hear on their latest request. 

Where the coffee fields are damaged in this way, there is no hope of growing coffee again until all that bad dirt has been taken away – shovel by shovel – and the black dirt underneath has been re-nourished with the life-giving compost.  It will take two to three years for surviving plants to return to full production and up to five years for new plants to begin significant production. 

They would use horses to carry away the soil and rocks if they could get them, but horses are also in very short supply right now because so many roads are destroyed.

Where plants were washed out, farmers must replant them.  It will take two to three years to rebuild the soil so it will be fertile.  Once the coffee is replanted, it will take two to three years to produce beans.  The production will then increase over a period of about five years to return to the production that was lost when Stan came. 

All the barrier ditches were filled in and must be re-dug.  These ditches between fields help to prevent neighboring farmers’ chemical fertilizer from washing into the organic fields.  The monitor will be watching carefully to see that gets done right away. 

All of this means that some of the older children cannot stay in school right now.  They will be needed in the fields, and besides, the families’ income will be reduced.  In some cases, it will be reduced dramatically. 

We May Have Fallen, But…
Heifer staffer Ma. Magdalena Ixquiactar Tuc, herself a Mayan, says it is very important to try to ensure that children can continue to study. That will ensure better conditions for the next generation.

”On the other hand,” she muses, “we are a strong people who have been hit hard in the past. When something bad happens, we say to sit down for a while and breathe deeply. Think about what has happened. Then we remind each other that we may have fallen, but we are not dead. We must get up.”