Reconstruction
Conce is rising again. I feel really proud to see the stores open, people on the streets running errands, the buses, the chilean flags in every other window telling the world that we fell down, but we're strong enough to get back on our feet.
Also, reconstruction. All over Concepción you can see the excavators bringing down the damaged houses (there are seven tall buildings that will have to be demolished) and the piles of debris (mainly brinks and big chunks of concrete) more or less neatly piled up in the border of the sidewalks.
And then come the construction workers building everything again. These guys are really happy, because they're in high demand now. Same goes to glass and wood and cement manufacturing companies, even the small ones. People who sells these products are filling their pockets with money, which is not a bad thing per se... except for some people that are taking advantage of the situation by raising their prices out of proportion.
All in all, things are looking good, except for the water. There are still big parts of the city without water (my parent's neighborhood, for example!), meanwhile some streets are flooded because when the water came back at full force, it broke some pipes that were damaged by the earthquake. The other black point is the people that lost everything (specially near the coast). They're still living in tents, on the hills or any high place they can find. The fear of another tsunami is still present. No wonder, since we are still having some pretty strong aftershocks (7,2 one day, 6,7 the next one and so on).
In related news, I had to go back to work. Here in the university we don't have water either (in fact, I'm one of the lucky ones: the day I came back, my coworkers joked about me being the only showered person in the office, LOL), thanks God I'm only working part time.
The campus is OK, just a few craks on some walls and some ceiling that fell down, but nothing serious. Classes begin in april 5th.
Every contract pending is now frozen because of the adjustment in the University budgets... except for a few lucky ones. Again, I'm one of them! Yeah, I never told about it here, but finally I'm going to sign a contract! I got the happy news last january and I was supposed to sign in march, but with the earthquake everything stopped and I was really afraid I wasn't going to get it after all.
But thanks God my boss told me to bring all the documents anyway, because my contract was assured. YAY!
Another piece of good news is that they offered Rodri to teach a course in the new career the university is offering, Library Science. It's just a little course, but he can still work at his current job while teaching it, so it's a win/win situation.
Things are definately looking brighter!
Also, reconstruction. All over Concepción you can see the excavators bringing down the damaged houses (there are seven tall buildings that will have to be demolished) and the piles of debris (mainly brinks and big chunks of concrete) more or less neatly piled up in the border of the sidewalks.
And then come the construction workers building everything again. These guys are really happy, because they're in high demand now. Same goes to glass and wood and cement manufacturing companies, even the small ones. People who sells these products are filling their pockets with money, which is not a bad thing per se... except for some people that are taking advantage of the situation by raising their prices out of proportion.
All in all, things are looking good, except for the water. There are still big parts of the city without water (my parent's neighborhood, for example!), meanwhile some streets are flooded because when the water came back at full force, it broke some pipes that were damaged by the earthquake. The other black point is the people that lost everything (specially near the coast). They're still living in tents, on the hills or any high place they can find. The fear of another tsunami is still present. No wonder, since we are still having some pretty strong aftershocks (7,2 one day, 6,7 the next one and so on).
In related news, I had to go back to work. Here in the university we don't have water either (in fact, I'm one of the lucky ones: the day I came back, my coworkers joked about me being the only showered person in the office, LOL), thanks God I'm only working part time.
The campus is OK, just a few craks on some walls and some ceiling that fell down, but nothing serious. Classes begin in april 5th.
Every contract pending is now frozen because of the adjustment in the University budgets... except for a few lucky ones. Again, I'm one of them! Yeah, I never told about it here, but finally I'm going to sign a contract! I got the happy news last january and I was supposed to sign in march, but with the earthquake everything stopped and I was really afraid I wasn't going to get it after all.
But thanks God my boss told me to bring all the documents anyway, because my contract was assured. YAY!
Another piece of good news is that they offered Rodri to teach a course in the new career the university is offering, Library Science. It's just a little course, but he can still work at his current job while teaching it, so it's a win/win situation.
Things are definately looking brighter!