Introduction

The Story
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9

A Few Personal Stories
Francis
Faith
Anne
Silva

Once Upon a Time - Page 4

The Hurricane

One day, the British consul arrived in Chuburna, urgently looking for us. A hurricane was coming. We had to leave at once. He was arranging transport. We got together and talked about it, then thanked him for the kind offer and explained that there was no way we could leave. As far as we were concerned, we'd been "led" to Xtul, and we couldn't possibly abandon it. He told us we were crazy (he was probably right!), and then he hurried away, leaving us with dire warnings.

The warnings were no exaggeration. Hurricane Inez was a category three storm that proceeded to flatten the entire village of Chuburna and others along the coast. Thousands of lives were lost. It arrived the following evening, and as the winds grew, we could do nothing except huddle in the big stone ruin, peeking over the wall as coconut trees flew by at 90 miles an hour. One end of the building collapsed - its huge boulders crashing down. We were at the other end.

When the wind died down, we assumed it was all over. In fact, we were simply in the eye of the hurricane. Just as we were starting to take stock of the damage, it all started up again with the coconut trees now flying back the other way.

Two days later, when the storm had died down, huge sacks of supplies began arriving from the United States - flour and powdered milk and other basics that, to be honest, were quite a refreshing change from what had become our daily diet of tortillas and fish and fish and tortillas!

For the next month, we helped rebuild the village -- mending roofs and barns, building temporary homes and cooking for families whose houses had been destroyed. And in the evening, long discussions would stretch into the night as we tried to unravel the mysteries of human existence, the meaning of life, and other deep subjects - along with the rather more mundane question of what we were going to do next!

Meanwhile, for some of us, including me, who were still under age, our families, who had been in touch with the British consul, were getting concerned and sending messages that they were not pleased by our apparently reckless behavior. One way or another, it seemed like time to go back.

Because of the British quarantine regulations, however, the dogs could not return to England. So Faith and a half dozen others volunteered to stay at Xtul, and we'd all figure something out later!

For those of us who were leaving, Xtul gave us its own kind of farewell. As we set off down the trail to Chuburna to catch the truck to Merida, there waiting for us, once again, was the old man with the stick and the dog.

"You are leaving," he said. "But one day there will be another place for you. It is a beach without an ocean. And the sand is all red. And there are animals. Muchos animales."

For someone who had never seen red rock canyons and the pink sands that go with them, it was a fair enough description of Angel Canyon, the future home, 20 years later, of Best Friends Animal Society.

Next page: The Process Church