When we first heard that there had been a strong earthquake in Pisco and Ica we all felt quite shocked! It had happened so close to us and yet we had been completely unaffected physically. We immediately felt that we needed to do something to help these people, especially since we were actually in Peru - so relatively close to the affected area.
Therefore the five of us consulted with Fr. Victor Livori who agreed to send us to the earthquake zone. We used some money from donations from friends and families in Malta to buy food and other supplies to take with us to distribute to the people whose homes had been damaged or destroyed by the earthquake, and who had lost friends and family members in the tragedy. We went to a market in Arequipa with Mario, a Peruvian working with the MSSP here in Arequipa. He helped us select a variety of useful foods such as rice, pasta, beans, tuna fish, tomato sauce, oil, oats, salt and sugar. We also bought a lot of bottled water, and sweets to give out to the children.
We set off on Thursday 30 September in the evening, planning to travel all night by car and get to Ica in the early morning. It was exactly two weeks after the earthquake and we had no idea what to expect on our arrival. Mario drove us to Ica in a landrover belonging to Fr. Livori’s Parish. We were also accompanied by Fr. Silvio, an MSSP priest who was here on holiday at the time and Mario’s younger brother who wanted to come along to help as well.
The journey was long and rather uncomfortable but we were excited about where we were going. We were surrounded by sacks of oats and sugar and bottles of water, with a lot more above us, on the roof - quite a squeeze with 8 people in the landrover! We got to Ica at about 10am after passing through Nazca and other small villages. We saw many signs of the devastation on the roadside but we didn’t stop until we reached Pisco, where we went straight to the house of the Dominican sisters. We unloaded the landrover and had lunch at the Sisters’ home. After lunch we divided most of the food we had brought into 30 separate stacks and packed it in large sacks. We had decided to distribute the food and water to 30 families who were in great need of it and had come to ask the Sisters for help that very day.
A woman came to meet us and led us to the area which we had been asked to help. It wasn’t a very big area - not more than 30 families lived there. It looked very poor, and some of the children weren’t even wearing shoes on their feet when they came out to greet us. The houses looked damaged but luckily they hadn’t been destroyed completely by the earthquake. Everything was dusty and there were fallen stones everywhere. However, the people all looked so happy. They were welcoming and friendly and very grateful for our help. We really enjoyed the time we spent with them there, giving out the sacks of food. and talking to them. They were very curious about where we had come from and why we were there. We told them all about Malta and our mission in Peru. We played with the many children who were very fascinated with our cameras. Finally we got back into the landrover, said our final, reluctant goodbyes and drove off. We were so happy that we had met such friendly people and managed to help them a little bit, although we knew that the food we had given them would only last a couple of weeks at most.
We spent Friday night in a hostel close to the Sisters’ home, went back to their house for breakfast and tried to decide what to do with the rest of the food we had brought. We could simply have left it at the home of the Sisters for them to distribute at their discretion, but we preferred to see for ourselves where the food was going. We also wanted to see a bit more of the affected region to experience the situation of the people there more fully. Therefore we loaded the food back in the landrover and set off towards the centre of Pisco. When we got there we were utterly shocked by the complete devastation we saw. Most of the buildings had fallen or were badly damaged. We could see houses with broken furniture and clothes on the floor, abandoned by their owners because the walls and ceilings had fallen in. We could imagine all the people who had died in there; the smell of corpses still hung in the air and people were still wearing masks to protect themselves from the dust and smell. The most shocking scene for us was the remains of the church where 147 people had lost their lives in the earthquake. The middle of the Church was completely missing, only the bell towers were still standing. The death toll was written on the wall outside the church in green paint repeatedly crossed off and corrected as more corpses were found beneath the rubble. After visiting the centre we went to distribute food in various slum areas, mostly to women who we saw cooking meals in the streets for the people in their area. We handed them bags of food through the windows of the landrover. Some people even ran after the van begging for more food and water! The children were particularly happy to receive the sweets we were giving out. Everyone we saw was so happy to receive the little bit of help we could give them.
Overall, it was a very fulfilling experience because amid the destruction, we could see the hope, faith and unity of the people who had suffered so much. We left Pisco with pleasant memories of the heart-felt gratitude the people there showed us and a longing to go back to help them some more.