Church aids victims of Hurricane Felix

Local plea for aid: Deacon Armando Kramer, Father Edwin Bryan and Father Donald Richardson are looking for donations to send to victims of Hurricane Felix in Nicaragua. Deacon Kramer and Father Bryan are from the area while Father Richardson has done missionary work there for 28 years. So far 10,000 have lost their homes and 100 died in the hurricane that struck last week. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — For most area residents, reports of natural disasters in foreign countries are just passing news stories with no personal connection to the lives of people here.

But three men — with ties to both Central America and Gallup — are hoping local people will take the time to learn about the victims of Hurricane Felix and will be generous with donations to help in relief efforts.

Felix, a Category 5 hurricane, hit the Nicaraguan coastal city of Puerto Cabezas Sept. 4. According to news reports, the hurricane destroyed more than 10,000 homes in the region, devastated a number of nearby Indian villages, downed power lines and uprooted trees across the region, contaminated drinking water, and killed at least 100 people and thousands of animals. Many of the drowning victims were Indian fishermen who were working out of boats along the seacoast.

The Rev. Edwin Bryan-Diesen, 30, a native of Nicaragua, was recently ordained as a new priest in the Diocese of Gallup. Of Miskito Indian and African-American descent, Bryan-Diesen returned to his hometown of Puerto Cabezas Monday. Although he had originally planned this trip for the purpose of taking care of immigration-related paperwork, now Bryan-Diesen said he will be working out of his Puerto Cabezas church to assist his home community.

Armando Kramer, a member of the Miskito Tribe of Nicaragua’s northeastern coastal region, left for Gallup immediately after the hurricane destroyed his rural home. Kramer, a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church, had planned to visit various churches in the Gallup Diocese to make presentations about the many needs of the Puerto Cabezas region. Now he will be talking to people about the very severe needs of the hurricane victims in the region.

The Rev. Donald Richardson worked as a missionary in Nicaragua for 28 years and continues to make three-month visits to the country each year. A friend of both Bryan-Diesen and Kramer, Richardson is hosting Kramer during his visit here. In an interview with the Independent on Friday, Richardson interpreted for Kramer and sometimes for Bryan-Diesen, who said he is most comfortable speaking Spanish, although he also speaks his native language and English. Kramer does not speak English.

Although hurricanes threaten the Nicaraguan coastline on a regular basis, the three men agreed that the Puerto Cabezas region hasn’t been struck by such a powerful storm since 1930.

According to Kramer’s first-hand account and information Bryan-Diesen has learned from his family members, Richardson said the hurricane’s high winds and flood waters have knocked down power lines into Puerto Cabezas’ streets, electrocuting countless animals — pigs, chickens, dogs, and horses. As a result, the city is filled with the odor of dead bodies — animal and human. Houses have either lost their roofs or been completely knocked to the ground.

Bryan-Diesen’s family members survived the hurricane, but they lost the entire roof to their house. “No one was killed, and they’re very happy about that,” Richardson translated. “It’s just the physical damage that’s been done to the structures.”

Kramer reported that the price of food has doubled since the hurricane struck. Regular phones are out until the power is restored, and cellular phones are only useful if their owners can find electrical generators to recharge the batteries.

Kramer divides his time between helping with a church in Puerto Cabezas and living in a rural village. Many Miskito Indian people continue to live in rural villages, explained Richardson, where they fish and raise small crops of rice, beans, bananas, and cassava. They enjoy “very strong bonds of family” and their community social life is centered around each village’s chapel, he added, but the poverty level among the people is high. Simple huts — that collapsed easily under the hurricane winds — make up the typical housing, and many people still wash their clothing along riverbanks.

Kramer lost his entire farm, explained Richardson, when his house was knocked over, surrounding coconut and mango trees were blown down, three feet of water engulfed the area, and all his animals were swept away.

During his monthlong stay in Gallup, Kramer is scheduled to make presentations at parishes in Farmington and Grants, and Show Low and St. Johns, Ariz.

Bryan-Diesen said he was not sure how long he would remain in Puerto Cabezas before returning to Gallup. He thanked local community members for the hurricane relief donations that had been given in the last week, and said that the Nicaraguan people who will be helped by the donations would be returning such support with their prayers.

The Rev. Lawrence O’Keefe of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup is coordinating the collection of financial donations to assist the hurricane victims. Donations, which will be used to purchase food, medicine, and building supplies, can be mailed to: Sacred Heart Cathedral, 415 E. Green, Gallup, NM 87301. Please note on the check that the donation is for Hurricane Felix relief work.

Information: (505) 722-6644.