THE CLEANUP CONTINUES

Beautiful photo of our active volcano

The cleanup continues here in Guatemala after our two edged whammy last week. After Pacaya exploded ash and debris into the air....we were blessed with the first tropical storm of the active hurricane season...Agatha. As reported in the Church News all members and missionaries are safe and accounted for, but many members have lost their homes and are wondering about their crops for the season.

As we drove the streets of Guatemala City this week we saw people EVERYWHERE cleaning. They even had the army or national guard shoveling up ash. The people were instructed to just put it in piles or bags and they would come by and pick it up. They were NOT to wash it into the sewer and drainage systems...this would just cause everything to back up. I have been pretty impressed that things are as clean this quickly. Lots of bags around, but the main streets are for the most part clean.

One of the city workers
Everyone is wearing masks while they work...the air is a mess!!

Our main nuisance was the fact that the airport has been closed and we have been wondering if all will be well for our flight out. Things are back to normal at the airport...and barring any other volcanic activity we will be on our way tomorrow morning. Today I am hoping to do the report of all the things that we have done this last week.....so hopefully they will be in some semblance of order and make sense!!

Elder Fillmore on top of the clinic roof....
you forget that the ash is on top of everything!!

Our Tio Juan girls cleaning up the yard

The other part of this drama that has hit the international news is the giant SINKHOLE that appeared last weekend. This is actually in Zona 2 which is the area our dental clinic is in. All of you have seen the picture of the sinkhole.


What you probably haven't seen is the picture from the "other side". Notice the LDS church in the background just a half of a block from the hole.