Chris Mulryne (a corps officer from Ipswich) and I landed in Lima, Peru yesterday afternoon to help draw up plans for the Army’s longer term response to the recent earthquake. It was a long day. We left our hotel near Heathrow at 4am to check in for a very early flight out to Amsterdam. There we made a quick change and caught the direct flight to Lima, Peru. It was a long flight – although we were fortunate to have a good tail wind which sped us along in 11.5 hours instead of the anticipated 13. Still, one’s backside can get pretty numb after 11 hours sitting in economy. We arrived early in Lima and all our bags arrived, too – which is a minor miracle these days based on the reputations of Heathrow and Schipol airports!
We were met at the airport by Major Luz Nesterenko. She and her husband Alex are the Divisional Commanders of Peru. The country is one division of the South America West Teritory (which includes 4 other countries within it).
It was great to meet up with Luz again. I last worked with them 9 years ago when I was deployed to the Republic of Georgia (former Soviet Union) to run a feeding programme for a month and they were the Regional Commanders. Age must have caught up with both of us – as neither of us recognised the other - not a good way to start off this new chapter in our working relationship!
Alex and Luz are great people. They have 3 kids, the oldest being 14 and the youngest just 4. They’ve been DC’s in Peru for about 3 years and now find themselves leading a response to a major earthquake.
It’s when I come to places like this and see how officers such as Alex and Luz live and work that I understand and see for myself what real pressure is about. They have a nice home, but it’s built on top of DHQ, so they are never away from the work. Life at the moment is absolute frenetic for them. They have 26 officers in their division – Luz wasn’t sure how many soldiers, but they have only 12 fairly small corps so it’s not a huge number. From within hours of the earthquake hitting the town of Pisco, their relief teams have been in place, giving out hot meals, blankets and medicines. They are currently operating 6 distribution kitchens, serving 6,000 people a day with hot food. Early teams were asked by the local authorities to help recover the bodies. I have photos (not suitable for publishing) of SA personnel dragging the bodies from the rubble and bagging them for collection.
Pisco is a town of 120,000, and it’s estimated that over 80% of the buildings have been destroyed. I’ll see it for myself later today as we are heading out there in a few hours – so I’ll post some pics to this blog asap.
Many people have lost their homes and have no where to live. Others still have something but are afraid to live in it because of the aftershocks which continue till now. The relief teams have been given some rooms by the local authorities and are staying there working 20 hour shifts.
Today a team of reinforcements arrive from Chile. They are expecting about 12 Salvation Army volunteers to arrive to provide some relief to the teams who have been working non stop for a week now. But these reinforcements will themselves increase the pressure on Alex and Luz – they will need meeting, organising and accommodating. And of course, Chris and I turn up too, adding to their logistical problems. My prayer is that we’ll be an asset and not a burden!
Alex didn’t get home till midnight last night – he left Pisco at about 8pm to start the 4 hour drive back to Lima. As Chris and I had already been up 24 hours we retired to bed after dinner so will meet Alex this morning and discuss the way forward. We have been asked to do interviews with the State TV station this morning before we head to Pisco at lunchtime.
In the midst of all this chaos, Alex and Luz try to keep family life and routine going for their 3 kids – doing the school run and maintaining ‘home’. When I look at this lovely family I see what ‘pressure ‘ really means and realise that my life is an absolute doddle compared to theirs.
If you read this blog today perhaps you could offer up a quick prayer for Alex, Luz and their 3 sons, that God will watch over them and help them through these day.
We were met at the airport by Major Luz Nesterenko. She and her husband Alex are the Divisional Commanders of Peru. The country is one division of the South America West Teritory (which includes 4 other countries within it).
It was great to meet up with Luz again. I last worked with them 9 years ago when I was deployed to the Republic of Georgia (former Soviet Union) to run a feeding programme for a month and they were the Regional Commanders. Age must have caught up with both of us – as neither of us recognised the other - not a good way to start off this new chapter in our working relationship!
Alex and Luz are great people. They have 3 kids, the oldest being 14 and the youngest just 4. They’ve been DC’s in Peru for about 3 years and now find themselves leading a response to a major earthquake.
It’s when I come to places like this and see how officers such as Alex and Luz live and work that I understand and see for myself what real pressure is about. They have a nice home, but it’s built on top of DHQ, so they are never away from the work. Life at the moment is absolute frenetic for them. They have 26 officers in their division – Luz wasn’t sure how many soldiers, but they have only 12 fairly small corps so it’s not a huge number. From within hours of the earthquake hitting the town of Pisco, their relief teams have been in place, giving out hot meals, blankets and medicines. They are currently operating 6 distribution kitchens, serving 6,000 people a day with hot food. Early teams were asked by the local authorities to help recover the bodies. I have photos (not suitable for publishing) of SA personnel dragging the bodies from the rubble and bagging them for collection.
Pisco is a town of 120,000, and it’s estimated that over 80% of the buildings have been destroyed. I’ll see it for myself later today as we are heading out there in a few hours – so I’ll post some pics to this blog asap.
Many people have lost their homes and have no where to live. Others still have something but are afraid to live in it because of the aftershocks which continue till now. The relief teams have been given some rooms by the local authorities and are staying there working 20 hour shifts.
Today a team of reinforcements arrive from Chile. They are expecting about 12 Salvation Army volunteers to arrive to provide some relief to the teams who have been working non stop for a week now. But these reinforcements will themselves increase the pressure on Alex and Luz – they will need meeting, organising and accommodating. And of course, Chris and I turn up too, adding to their logistical problems. My prayer is that we’ll be an asset and not a burden!
Alex didn’t get home till midnight last night – he left Pisco at about 8pm to start the 4 hour drive back to Lima. As Chris and I had already been up 24 hours we retired to bed after dinner so will meet Alex this morning and discuss the way forward. We have been asked to do interviews with the State TV station this morning before we head to Pisco at lunchtime.
In the midst of all this chaos, Alex and Luz try to keep family life and routine going for their 3 kids – doing the school run and maintaining ‘home’. When I look at this lovely family I see what ‘pressure ‘ really means and realise that my life is an absolute doddle compared to theirs.
If you read this blog today perhaps you could offer up a quick prayer for Alex, Luz and their 3 sons, that God will watch over them and help them through these day.
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