If all that aid had gotten here, people wouldn't still be in tents. We've advanced considerably in the construction of houses'' in the mudslide area. We are a people who have our own way of life. He was cutting grass by a roadside with a machete, hard work in the blazing sun. After he completes 80 hours of work, aid organizations will give him rice, beans and cooking oil.
All aid is given in exchange for work now - aid agencies say that reduces dependency.
We old people can take it, but the kids can't.'' His problem is similar to that of many survivors. In Rolando Rodriguez, he had 14 acres of land. The new plot he has been given, and where the government says it will build him a house of cement-spackled Styrofoam, has less than an acre to plant. But she conceded the government couldn't buy that much land in the mudslide area because prices were too high. Bonilla plans to attend a small anniversary ceremony in Rolando Rodriguez for the victims of the hurricane.