Chatting with Our Maid about the San Juan Cosala Cleanup

We have a maid who comes for a few hours every Saturday, and she's become a great friend. Rosa is a little younger than we are and has worked for quite a few foreigners over the years. She doesn't speak English but her Spanish is very clear and she doesn't hesitate to tell me when my tongue tangles over past or conditional verbs. We talk a lot every week. I've told her that teaching me about her culture is as important a part of her job as the housework!

Her daughter, son-in-law, and three young grandchildren are temporarily living with her because their house on the carretera filled with mud from the tromba. Her son-in-law works in construction in another town some ways from here (Ocotlan), taking the bus to and from work. His employer gave him two weeks off with pay so he could work on the house. He, his wife, Rosa, and others got the mud essentially out but it's still too damp and smelly to move back in, not to mention that they still lack a refrigerator, beds, sofa, and other things.

Rosa said that someone from government, she thought maybe from the DIF, had been around asking what people needed as a result of the storm, and they had written down what her daughter told them. She added that a private group had come by, she thought maybe from some church, and had made arrangements to give her daughter a blender (an essential item in Mexican cooking!) and an iron. Her daughter would have to go to nearby Jocotepec to get these things, because when things have been brought here it's been kind of a mob scene at times.

Rosa also mentioned that psychological help here in the village was available for people who needed it, and she thought that was a good thing. We had had extremely heavy rain here around 8 AM one day recently, and I asked if any of her famiy had been frightened. Yes, she said: her grandson who is almost four was the only one of the three children to have seen the mud coming into his house and he was a bit worried with the rain. It sounded like he had been reassured pretty easily, though.

I asked if her daughter and her family had gotten mattresses from the distribution. They hadn't at first because her daughter hadn't known where or when it was, but then another day they had received one with the promise of more. Rosa mentioned the dispensas I referred to in my last post: besides the things I mentioned, they have included toilet paper (but muy poco, just one roll, she laughed), cans of tuna and sardines, dried soya, and more.

When I asked her if she knew how many families had lost their homes, she wasn't sure. A hundred, I asked? Not that many, she guessed. I mentioned an older couple west of us. Yes, and the people behind them, and a woman on the other side, and maybe about 10 families around there. On the eastern side, there were more. She easily thought of about 20 families she knew of in that area (where she lives but her home was fine), and ended up guesstimating something like 40 families. I've heard about twice that. We'll see in time.