Jaibalito, the current state

 

Went to Jaibalito, curious, to see whats up after all the stories i heard left and right. Had an appointment with Tilda a german ex-pat from Santa Cruz who is helping out with the women and children who lost their house and is coordinating some of the relief, we met up at Hans’s Posada. 

 

The Posada Jaibalito has functioned as shelter and soup kitchen intensively the first 2 weeks after Agatha. Amigos de Santa Cruz, Hans, David and other organizations and private people have been funding this initiative which has been of great help to the community. When i arrive i meet a group of tourists, Dr. Clemmens who is having a meeting with Bernd, a journalist from the “Deutsche Presse Agentur” and Tilda. She explains that Jaibalito received help the first days after Agatha from the government, private organizations and teachers, from San Pedro to Santa Lucía Utatlán, bringing cooked warm meals to Jaibalito. The government also brought the military, 2 boats of them, accompanied by the police, going house to house with the message.. that Jaibalito will have to evacuated its entire village to a new location, “Laguna Seca”, high above Santa Cruz. 

 

Collectively the village has decided to stay put with the result that the government let the residents know that “they are on their own” and it is unlikely they will start any structural repairs anytime soon.

 

The major problem in Jaibalito is the river (like other towns around the lake). It ran out of its path and destroyed and damaged some houses. Part of the population got evacuated the 29th of May to Santa Cruz and San Pedro and most have returned having found shelter with family or in houses-rooms made available by the local ex-pat community.

 

The Jaibalito river brought down rocks, big ones. Imagine the one big rock Agatha left at the yellow bridge in Panajachel but then several of them, some grouped together, having destroyed  the gabiones above Jaibalito, on both sides, that used to direct the river down towards the lake. The storm deposited a huge amount of small and bigger rocks in the river bed and filled it up. At a critical place above town, where the river protection is damaged (gabiones), big rocks are blocking the river and will form a sort of natural dam.

Privately funded organizations have been analyzing the situation in Jaibalito. “Amigos del Lago” has taken an aerial flight above Jaibalito and contracted a civil engineer. Plan is to break the rocks, one by one. Idea is to buy a generator and special drill. It will be able to break down the rocks and drill a hole in the big ones so gunpowder can be applied to blow them up in a controlled way. Amigos de Lago is working on getting the funding for this project, as of today the 18th of June, they are in that face but moving forward.

 

Ongoing problem is the “deslave” next to the Jaibalito public school. Parents are scared more will come down; none of the Jaibalito children are receiving school at the moment. Plans are to open the school the 1st of July, depending weather.

 

My personal opinion:

 

1. Jaibalito is a “danger” zone. It should be evacuated by any sane government, including huge parts of Panajachel and other villages around the lake.

2. The public school, i don’t know. Is seems safe. Although it is pretty close to the mountain, and a fair amount of rocks came down, one of the two buildings seems to be at safe distance from it. Rocks are falling down on fairly flat grounds. Even if part of the mountain came down there is a chance that part of the school will survive. This puts the school in a better situation then some of my neighbours here in Panajachel.

3. I met tourists in Jaibalito, constantly. If you are interested in checking out the village and the work they are doing, while having a good meal during the day with a beer maybe, then go. You definitely won’t be the only one.

 

For donations, information, support, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it from Santa Cruz (4571-0053), or check out the website from “Amigos de Lago” for information on their work, all around lake Atitlan.

All photos were taken the 15th of June, 2010

 

Volunteering in Jaibalito, follow the link [July, August, September 2010]

 

Arriving at the dock in Jaibalito. Most “deslaves” came from high in the mountains. Word is that the road there is responsible, debris left/dumped while constructing the road came down.

 

Jaibalito needs manpower. Children are amongst the ones cleaning the basketball court. The stones are being hauled to the dock where men are using them to build up gabiones. Most future work will have to be done in the river. It’s a small community, pretty busy with daily survival. Today the 17^th part of the wooden walkway (on the right) has collapsed due to the rains on the 16th.

Left: The basketball court

Basket ball field on the right.

 

Jaibalito’s public school. Photo taken from the mountain side where the rocks came down. Rocks are still falling down regulary. If the school continues in the blue building for example, they will have to make sure the children will not play outside on the soccer field.


Photo taken from the school, second level

View of the public school from above. The circle in white displays a part of the mountain that has loose rocks falling down towards the school. The circles in red are the two school buildings.

The river, Photo 1

The river, Photo 2

The river, Photo 3

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