Dr. Raúl Martínez, Director of the Health Center

Orbelina Soza Meirena, President of the Posoltega

Sister Cities Committee

On behalf of the people of Posoltega, we thank you for your outpouring of support in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch. Each of you who is receiving this newsletter has helped in some very important way, and we deeply appreciate every contribution.

We have received monetary donations from individuals, schools, churches, businesses, foundations and service organizations. Just as important have been the scores of volunteers, musicians and business sponsors who have made it possible for us to carry out three major relief efforts: the November 19 Disaster Relief Concert; the truck caravan that traveled to Posoltega in November; and the Chiquita Banana container shipment that will go down this month.

Former site of village of Rolando Rodríquez

The area of the mudslide has been declared uninhabitable by the national government, and there are approximately 1500 families that will need to find a new place to live.

We are tentatively estimating that for $100, Sister Cities donors could buy a plot of land for one family. Please consider making a donation now, or watch the media for more details as the rebuilding plans progress.

While the rains of May will bring the hope of new crops, they will also exacerbate the desperate need for land and housing. Hundreds of families are still staying in extremely crowded refugee centers located in schools.

To relocate so many people is a gargantuan task and will require the coordinated effort of a number of international organizations. In order to do our part, we are counting on the Bloomington community to support this rebuilding campaign. ¨

Thanks to the work of committee volunteer Michael Gasser, we now have a new web site about Posoltega and the Sister Cities Committee. Visit our web site at:

Soon after Hurricane Mitch, we received much appreciated donations from the Cinergy Foundation and the Lifton Family Charitable Trust.

Recently, through the efforts of Altrusa International of Bloomington, the committee has been awarded a grant from the Disaster Relief Fund of the Altrusa International Foundation, Inc. This grant is being used to purchase school supplies for children in Posoltega. ¨

The Chiquita Banana Corporation has offered to transport at no cost 18 pallets of goods to Posoltega. So far we have five tons of rice and about 175 boxes of donated clothing, shoes, school supplies and toys. We collected the goods at a record pace. Our initial goal was to be ready to ship the goods by January 31, and we easily met our goal.

We will be looking for volunteers to help load boxes onto a truck when the final shipping date is arranged.

A note of special thanks goes to the Monroe County Recycling Center, the Backstreet Mission, and Opportunity House for the large quantity of goods donated. We also greatly appreciate the support of numerous Bloomington school children in collecting schools supplies, clothing and toys for children in Posoltega. Countless other individuals and organizations also helped to make this project a success. ¨

date have been for basic grains, milk, medicine, oil, sugar, soap, ambulance repairs, and cots and mattresses for refugee centers.

In addition to these items, hurricane victims have received urgently needed clothing, household supplies and tools from the Sister Cities caravan that arrived from Bloomington in November.

The community of Posoltega will continue to need emergency supplies for months to come. Nicaragua is now in its dry season, and no crops can even be planted until the rains come in May. ¨

• Attend monthly meetings, the first Tuesday of each month, in the First Presbyterian Church. (Call 335-0851 for the current meeting time.)
• Participate in a delegation to Posoltega.
• Invite someone who has been to Posoltega to speak to your organization.
• Initiate a sister relationship between your organization and a group in Posoltega.
• Contribute to the Hurricane Relief Fund, the Children's Lunch Program, or The Scholarship Program.

Make contributions to "Bloomington-Posoltega Sister Cities Committee" and send to:

For more information:

Despite the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, Posoltega¹s young people are looking to the future. Growing numbers of Posoltega students want a university education. And a new source of funding will help make their dream a reality. First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington has begun a scholarship program to assist such students. Dan Conkle, the coordinator of the program, said that church members had already pledged enough money to fund 13 scholarships. Scholarships of $150 per year will pay for food, supplies, and travel expenses.

Students qualifying for entrance to a public university in Nicaragua have most costs paid. However, many Posoltega students have no money for the added expenses associated with living away from home. All these expenses will be covered with the scholarships. Conkle hopes the program will create personal ties between the students and

their sponsors.

The Bloomington-Posoltega Sister Cities organization has provided assistance to university students in the past. The new scholarship program will expand that effort as more students attend. Conkle said additional scholarships are still being solicited by the church.

We wish to recognize the work of several very important people in Nicaragua. Without the hard work and cooperation of these individuals, we could not carry out our projects in Posoltega.

Orbelina Soza Meirena, President of the Posoltega-Bloomington Sister Cities Committee, has been involved in Sister Cities activities since 1988. She has directed the Children’s Lunch Program since its inception, and she is now running one of the refugee centers, with financial support from the Bloomington committee.

Verónica Reyes Soza, Chair of the Posoltega-Bloomington Youth Committee, organized the youth committee in Posoltega, and since Hurricane Mitch she has been organizing and working with community volunteers in the extensive clean-up effort.

Bloomington-Posoltega Sister Cities Committee

Friday dawns, October 30. . . The floods of Friday at eleven o’clock in the morning were caused by Casitas Volcano. The rivers overflowed completely and took houses with them, animals, and all the people. . . But we never imagined the great damage that had occurred in the villages above, until on Saturday when we heard the mayor talk on a battery-powered radio, because there was no electricity. . .

The currents destroyed completely everything since the avalanche brought sand, mud, rocks and trees... People were watching the bodies pass by in the currents, floating like leaves, like branches."

everything in its path, huge trees with all of the roots... Some [people] were picked up alive by the helicopters.

The helicopters up there were picking up injured people, with broken bones, bruises, all kinds of people. In reality it makes one sad. It makes one sad. My mother remained there for two or three days [trapped in the mudslide] until she was rescued by a companion.. . But we also had the misfortune that some family members, such as my father, down along the highway, . . .he was found dead. Some friends told us that they buried him there. We had not been able to find him....All this really makes one sad, as it is a desert there now, and now we are here in this refugee camp because, imagine, we didnt get out with as much as a second shirt."

Miguel Angel Jarquin:

"On Wednesday, on Thursday, there were two loud
rumbles in the night. And on Friday there was another rumble, between eleven and twelve, and this was the loudest one. It seemed like seven or eight helicopters were coming. You know what a helicopter sounds like,
right? Just one makes a lot of noise, and with seven it makes a terrible, terrible sound from up there. . . But it was not helicopters. Instead it was the mudslide of Cerro Casitas. . .It passed [nearby], taking with it a part of [the community of] Versaya, all of El Porvenir and all of Rolando, living only seven houses behind. We didn’t find out for three days because one couldn’t see anything. Everything was covered with clouds, so you couldn’t see…
They didn’t come to get us until the following Friday. They found us there and told us "Get out!" because the hill was ready to collapse again.. . We came on foot with all of the children. On foot, walking! We left at six in the morning and we arrived at two in the afternoon. . . We came here [to the school] looking for refuge."