Wima's Wrath Continues...

We slept on the floor Friday night with the only thing between us and the hard, brick surface was a doubled-up hotel blanket. My pillow was a couple pieces of clothing and Amanda's was our duffle bag. A little side note here...Amanda has been sleeping with earplugs in for few years now because I snore a little too often and a little too loudly. Amanda very wisely brought the earplugs with us to the shelter and if we didn't have them with us in the school that night, I really don't think either one of us would have gotten a wink of sleep. It was difficult enough to sleep as it was. Amanda told me later that she woke up every 15 minutes shifting her position from one hip to the other (you're not supposed to sleep on your back when you're pregnant). By Saturday morning, the hurricane was now over land and we were smack dab in the heart of this hurricane...we were in Wilma's eye. It wasn't as clear as I would have expected...the reason for that is once a hurricane moves over land, it rapidly starts to deteriorate and the first thing to go is the eye...it quickly fills in. It was relatively quiet and dry in the eye of the hurricane with only an occasional gust of wind to around 20 mph. It was at this time that a large chunk of the evacuees further surveyed our surroundings to see if there was anything else we could put to good use. We found some buckets to start collecting rain water to assist in toilet flushing (no power means no operational water pumps which means the toilets at the schools didn't flush without extra water). Amanda and I also tried to use a calling card that she wisely brought with us from the States, but we couldn't get it to work. There was a trick to using a U.S.-based calling card that we would find out about until Saturday. One of the evacuees, Joe, was extremely kind and let me borrow one of his international calling cards and I made a quick call to Steve Kersh, the Chief Meteorologist at my TV station. He quickly updated me on where Wilma was and I quickly told him we had moved locations and to call our families to let everyone know we were still doing okay. A HUGE thank you goes to Steve for being such a wonderful (and calm) messenger to our families. Thank you so much, Steve!! We went back up to the classrooms and I told everyone what was going on with the storm...the good news being that the storm was over land and weakening and the bad news being that we were only half way done with the storm.

Amanda and I were sitting in the classroom organizing our stuff and taking inventory when Carlos, one of the evacuees who could speak some spanish, comes into the room with someone I had not seen before. The gentleman's name was Jose and he lived just one street over. He had come to the school with his two daughters (Coral, 16 and Ambar, 13) to see if there was anything they could do to help. He told Carlos that if there was a couple that needed extra care, he would taken them back to his house to be more comfortable and for better care. Thankfully, no one in our group was injured, so the next consideration was for pregnant women. Carlos came to Amanda and me and told us what Jose was offering. As you can probably imagine, our initial thought was to say, "Thanks but no thanks." But then we talked a little more about it. Amanda was down to only half a protein bar and after that very rough night of sleep, we decided it was worth the risk. We gathered up our things and walked over to Jose's house. The house was a very small two-story concrete dwelling and was part of a long row of homes and business all tightly packed together. Here is a picture of the front of the house with Coral at the door:

Here is a picture of Amanda with the whole family, from left to right, Jose, Coral, Ambar, and Josefina (Jose's wife and mother of Coral and Ambar...more on Josefina later):

Jose could speak just enough English so that we could get the gist of what he was trying to say. Amanda and I both took Spanish in high school and that helped a little. Overall, we were able to communicate well enough to get the point across and even crack a few jokes here and there.

As soon as we got to the house, Jose offered to make us some food and we graciously accepted his offer. They cooked us each a chicken breast and we split a fried egg (yea protein!). That was the first warm meal we had eaten since breakfast on Thursday. After eating, Jose offered us a bed upstairs for a nap. Again, we took him up on his offer and we upstairs and slept very well for a couple hours. When we woke up, we went back downstairs where Jose and the girls were preparing dinner. After another wonderful meal, the five of us sat around for a little while and talked on a variety of topics. Amanda then asked Jose his reason for going over to school and offer to help. His answer was two-fold, simple, and straightforward: First, Jose wanted to do whatever he could to help because he is a genuine, kind-hearted individual who believes in helping others in need. Secondly, Jose knows how important tourism is to Cancun. After Wilma leaves, it will take quite a bit of time for Cancun to rebuild, but it's critical for the tourists who go through this incredible experience to leave Cancun feeling as good as possible. If the tourists leave Cancun with a completely bad experience, they will tell their friends and family not to go...and word will spread. But if they go through such a horrid experience but are helped through it by the people of Cancun, they'll be much more likely to tell their friends it's okay to go and may even go back themselves.

After that discussion, Jose offered us the opportunity to take a rainwater "sponge bath". It wasn't much, but after not showering since Thursday morning, that sponge bath felt so wonderful! Jose then offered the bed to us again and after a half-hearted attempt to let us just sleep on their couch and loveseat, we climbed the stairs and went to bed. Outside, the backside of Wilma was raging. It wasn't quite as bad as the front side because the storm had spent most of the day over land and had weaken a little, but it was still going strong as the wind rattled the boarded-up windows and whistled through cracks in the walls. With earplugs in, Amanda and I slept very well that night. The next day would bring the first day of calm after the storm. The story will pick up there with the next installment.