Maria log day 26, October 17, 2017, Thursday

Thursday, October 17, Day 26

What a day Elaine had!

When she went to feed the horses this morning, Raquel, the woman who owns the property, was outside and flagged her down. Uh-oh.

When Elaine first approached Raquel about moving the horses to her property, the request was for three months which are just about up. Plus, we built the shade for the horses without asking permission. We rationalized that it was necessary and temporary: we put it up in two days, we can take it down in an afternoon. Elaine was prepared for that "uh-oh" conversation.

Nope. Raquel is very happy with us being there.She likes the horses; she loves the way we take care of them. She likes the way we respect and care for her property; she thinks we are a positive presence. All the neighbors like having us there; many of them are extra eyes on the horses, making sur they are safe. Raquel wants us to fence the rest of the property as soon as practically possible. She also wants us to build a lockable gate across the entrance road. So do the neighbors because it wil keep out people who have no legitimate reason to be back there.

Looks like the horses have a home for a while.

Not only people are affected by the hurricane. Horses (and other animals) are too. The problem with all aid - as we have seen - is distribution: finding the people with needs and getting the aid they need (as opposed to "what we have") to them. It's the same whether it's aid for people or aid for horses.

Our friend Annie is on the mainland putting together a coalition of fundraisers to get rescue supplies for horses here. She's working on the "supply" side. Elaine had a meeting with the mayor's office about using the Picadero (a covered arena for horse shows) as a distribution center. She went it with a long list of requests and cam out with everything she asked for.

I am humbled by people like Annie and Elaine who are getting things done. But apparently not everyone is. Annie's efforts suffered a setback when someone, out of spite and her own ego,  from Rincon posted a really negative comment on Facebook. That post got back to one of the major aid contributors. It took Annie a whole day to undo the damage this woman did. It is really difficult seeing things not get done - at all levels - because of politics and ego.