The Experience of a Nicoyan Woman
On September 5 we’ve already completed one year after the earthquake. It was tremendous. I had never experienced such a thing. I feel horror of tremors and more so of an earthquake. I never had any idea what it would be like. I felt like my house had fallen on me. After that I was traumatized. I had to go seek professional help because I could not sleep. You lie down and feel that another earthquake will shake you. But here we are, asking God that this does not affect us again.
My house was damaged. Two walls were quite affected. Afterward we heard the news that President.Laura Chinchilla would inject some funds to the municipalities to give financial assistance for us and that we should go to the municipality for both financial and technical support.
I thank the vice mayor, Adriana Rodriguez, who is in charge of that project. I went to her and it was immediate. She attended to me immediately and started doing all the documentation. I got my financial aid immediately. I thank her and the president because we are a lot of families that were affected.
The municipality has already given us all the financial aid. I started looking for the right people to do the work. Engineers came here from the Ministry of Health and also the engineer from the municipality, Melissa Salas. My house turned out just like new. It was completely repaired. I learned a lot. I learned that you have to face everything and whenever the government is providing us aid through the municipality, you have to feel good. I am very satisfied. There aren’t words to describe such things. I never expected something like that. It has left me nervous.
I hope to God that an experience like this never happens to us again. A big thanks to the government of Mrs. Laura Chinchilla Miranda for all the financial support and the vice mayor and the engineer named Melisa Salas.
That’s what we need, for officials to always be open to give us a hand and give us the necessary support.
Argentina Vega
San Martin de Nicoya
An Account from Nosara
For my entire family, the earthquake on September 5, 2012 was something unique that we never believed would discharge so much adrenaline. When the day dawned, it was like any other morning. When the tremor started, I was with my 9-year-old daughter and my 87-year-old grandfather in the outdoor kitchen and my 3-year-old daughter was playing at the gate of the house. My other daughter, who is 16, was inside the house, and I yelled for her to get out. I did it about four times but she never came out. I told God to prepare me to deal with a possible human loss but he was so wonderful that he protected my daughter with his strong hand and made me acknowledge that he is in control of everything.
What we lost was nothing, just material things like the house and a few things. The Nosara hardware store gave us $500 and from the dinner at Rancho Tico they gave us $560. We built an apartment on another lot that we have to live in because we can’t wait for the house. We haven’t had the resources to demolish the house, which is uninhabitable. It’s still there.
Anabelle Gutierrez Espinosa
Nosara
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