Sometimes, it is hard being far from home. Birthday, holidays, special
events. I can hardly believe that
for the first time since I can remember, I didn’t ski a single day this
winter. But with seasons being not
only backwards, but also simply different, ski season passed by and I hardly
noticed. It’s no wonder, then,
that when I first heard of the Black Forest Fire, my initial reaction was How strange that there’s a fire in the
middle of winter.
Growing up in Colorado, forest fires are a way of life. I remember the Hayman Fire like it was
yesterday, and 8 years after it burned, I worked at a summer camp where the
damage was still incredibly evident.
Last summer, the Waldo Canyon Fire became Colorado’s most destructive
fire, and we sat in the living room glued to the television, and watched the
eerie glow on the mountainside from our porch for days. This year, the Black Forest Fire blew
that record out of the water.
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| 2012's Waldo Canyon Fire from our back porch |
I first heard about the fire Wednesday morning when I got an
email from my mom. The email told
me that there was a fire, some family friends had been evacuated, and there
were some pictures. Unfortunately,
the internet in my community is frustratingly slow, and all I could read was
the subject line: Black Forest Fire.
My imagination went wild. I
immediately called a friend in Lima who looked up information online, while I
anxiously waited for my emails to load.
The hardest part for me was lack of information. In the age of multimedia that we live
in, most news updates were videos, which my internet can’t load. It also wasn’t possible for me to sit
in my Municipality checking for updates all day. Most of the time, I found myself imagining the worst and
wishing I knew more between scattered texts from my mom saying things like We are on mandatory evac, packing the house
now. Got your stuff as much as I
could.
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| Black Forest Fire from the front door |
Even stranger was when the fire made it onto Peruvian
news. Suddenly a large number of
people have seen videos of where I live, but under the worst circumstances.
Lack of connectedness is always a struggle. It is hard hearing about major life events like cousins getting pregnant or friends getting engaged, and knowing that I will still be in Peru when the baby is born or the wedding takes place. But through all the stress of hearing about the Black Forest Fire from very far away, there was one incredibly amazing consequence.
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| Helicopters dipping buckets into the pond |
Sometimes, it is hard being far from home. But the Black Forest Fire showed to me
the number of people here who care for me and are concerned for my
wellbeing. It reminded me that I
may be missing some things back in the States, but I am also gaining so much by
being here in Peru. It made me
truly feel that maybe I’m not that far from home after all.
I am incredibly grateful that my parents are back at home,
and that thanks to the hard work of many, the fire is now 85% contained. My heart goes out to those who lost
homes in this terrible fire. Know
that tucked in the mountains of
Peru, there is a tiny little community filled with wonderful people who have
you in their prayers.
