One Family's Resilience - Text

When I took this picture of a rock fall, by the side of the road, several people emerged from a dirt path close-by. The found it a bit odd that we were photographing the rocks, so I explained that my husband was a geologist. They then invited us to walk back in to see the real damage. I met a family whose adobe home on top of the hill that generated the rock fall had been severely damaged. Amazingly they had all gotten out with only minor bruises. The lady invited us to climb the hill to see the home. They had built it 14 years earlier, but already four days after the quake, the front looked mostly like a home under construction. The entire interior had collapsed – see bathroom picture. Saturday morning they had built a lean-to out of bedspreads and had wrapped up many belongings in plastic in case of the rain that is sure to come, though thankfully it hadn’t yet. She gave me her address because she really wanted a photograph of her children which I will send shortly. Human resilience is very inspiring!