I know people are dying because they can't get to a hospital. During more than four days in the small town, Peters and Kaczorek got to know the area well, and heard stories about the damages caused by Mitch. Although many of the sights of extreme poverty and homeless people were grim, one thing surprised Peters. Everywhere he went, Peters said, the children appeared happy and the people thanked him for his visit. Despite the losses they had suffered, people were optimistic about the future, he said.
People seem so resilient.
Although few deaths from the storm itself were recorded here, there have been increases in disease and hunger. Brother Michael Duffy, a Franciscan friar and nurse practitioner from Philadelphia who visited Guayape for two weeks as part of a medical team, said the area saw an epidemic of parasites and eye infections because of the storm. Duffy, a former Western Massachusetts resident and Elms College professor, had difficulty getting to the town, even three weeks after the storm. Once in Guayape, Duffy and two other nurses went to work in a new clinic in the town. In the adults we were seeing, because of the dirt and the dung everywhere, a lot of conjunctivitis.