...We Heard A Tale Of Tragedy

Or two.

Obviously we heard about the earthquake and resultant tsunami in Japan.  There was a moment of panic, as Anna has relatives in Japan and then I heard that tsunami shock waves had reached Hawaii.  But we soon got online and heard that all was ok....for our loved ones that is.  The death toll is still rising and the lasting effects are still being discovered.  I have nothing else I can say about it other than please keep those affected in your thoughts and prayers and do whatever it is you can to contribute to the rescue and cleanup operations.

But the tragedy I'm referring to happened closer to home.

When we mentioned the name of the home that we work in to a Chilean family friend of Katie's, she said that she recognised it, but couldn't think why.  When we spoke to her again, she said that it was because there had been a big fire there in the 90's and lots of people had died.  We were obviously shocked to hear that and made a mental note to ask one of the staff about it.

It didn't come up again until the other day when we were eating lunch with one of the ladies from the office.  It turns out that there was a fire caused by an electrical fault in one of the pabellons (wards) in the home.  It happened during the night and there had been a big joint birthday party that day, so everyone was really tired and was sleeping deeply.  The Tias and Tios on duty tried to rouse everyone and got a line of residents passing buckets of water and directing hoses at the fire.  But it had gotten too big too quickly and that ward was for people with more severe physical disabilities as well as mental, so most couldn't escape.  31 residents died in that fire and there was nothing anyone could do about it.  I know we weren't here when it happened and can't even imagine the horror, but just hearing the story made us feel like we knew the people that were lost.



Sorry, this is a bit of a depressing post for the weekend!  But I wanted to share the story and will have a much more uplifting post for next week!


Take care. xx