last evening, just when we thought it was all over and done with, the wind picked up, sparks flew, and flames roared. the entire line of mountains behind our homes lit up, and due to the heat, and incredibly dry grass and trees, the fire grew quite quickly, and was approaching our homes. the oldest groups of boys took off yet again with their machetes, shovels, and rubber fire flappers (obviously i have no idea what these things are called, but they use them to put out fires). once they get to the fire, they cut down tree branches, which they use to swat at the fire. they lit a contra fire to burn up the mountain side, to keep it from reaching the houses again. they say this is the largest fire ever seen on the ranch.
groups were called out of bed around midnight to go up and help fight the fire, as it picked up yet again. it has continued throughout the day, with groups in two separate areas...one group up in our cemetery, and the others up the mountain near our boys' homes. they say it is more or less under control now...since the majority of it is already burned.
other issues...we seem to have a diarrhea/vomit epidemic taking over the ranch. kids, tios, volunteers, employees, we're all sick. the clinic has been flooded the past several days with these GI issues, and now after all the fires, kids have been coming in with asthma, itchy eyes, stuffiness, etc. we have resorted to purchasing purified water for the entire ranch, creating a special GI friendly diet for the next several days, and distributing extra soap to all the homes to make sure kids are washing their hands well to attempt to put an end to this madness.
1 comment:
that picture of the fire is great. well done annie and i'll see you sometime in the near future, hopefully.
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