The day started the same as any other. The sun was hot, it must have been almost 100 degrees, which isn’t out of the ordinary for Brasil, but on this particular day the heat seemed as though if you threw an egg on the street it would fry right on the pavement. I took my usual route through Bento Rodrigues to get to work. Stopping at the corner store by the farm to get my favorite candy before going to work on the docks. I had stopped there every day for the past seven years before work, it was my routine. I said hello to the store clerk Andre, who at this point is a good friend of mine, and we talked about the futball game the night before. Brasil versus Argentina, always a good game. I remember he asked how my wife was doing because at the
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Ana!” but of course my words were not heard from down below. I exhausted myself trying to be heard by her but there was no use. No one could hear me. I panicked, frantically wondering how my wife that was eight months pregnant was going to somehow climb up a tree or building if she was outside of the house at the time. In a matter of minutes, the village of Bento Rodrigues was gone. There were people running to find other friends and family members to find shelter to avoid touching the hazardous mud. I looked on as people were swept away and sent tumbling through the rapids. One moment there and the next gone, they disappeared as if out of thin air, and became one with the muck. It was so sickening to look at that I turned away and watched as the candy bar, I ate only hours earlier, came back up onto the roof in front of …show more content…
I looked to left and right and all around but they were all too far away. So I began to look for a way to get down to safety and find my wife, but there was no way. The building I was on top of was surrounded as were the buildings around me. I couldn’t even build a makeshift raft and float to my house because the mud was too think. So the only thing I could do was sit and wait helplessly for someone to come save me.
The heat was intense and I started seeing spots. Minutes that felt more like hours passed and helicopters were coming around to save people stranded on their rooftops. When I was finally rescued, the first question out of my mouth was “Is my wife, Ana, okay?” The man that I asked looked at me with an uncertain look, and my stomach dropped. I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw up again but I made myself swallow what was left of my candy bar back down. She had to be okay, I couldn’t believe anything otherwise.
The helicopter landed in a makeshift shelter area where people from my village and surrounding villages were being kept. When we landed I nearly fell out of the helicopter because I saw her. Sitting on a log with a blanket wrapped around her, which I chose not to question since it was so hot. I was just so thankful to see that she and the baby were
Ana!” but of course my words were not heard from down below. I exhausted myself trying to be heard by her but there was no use. No one could hear me. I panicked, frantically wondering how my wife that was eight months pregnant was going to somehow climb up a tree or building if she was outside of the house at the time. In a matter of minutes, the village of Bento Rodrigues was gone. There were people running to find other friends and family members to find shelter to avoid touching the hazardous mud. I looked on as people were swept away and sent tumbling through the rapids. One moment there and the next gone, they disappeared as if out of thin air, and became one with the muck. It was so sickening to look at that I turned away and watched as the candy bar, I ate only hours earlier, came back up onto the roof in front of …show more content…
I looked to left and right and all around but they were all too far away. So I began to look for a way to get down to safety and find my wife, but there was no way. The building I was on top of was surrounded as were the buildings around me. I couldn’t even build a makeshift raft and float to my house because the mud was too think. So the only thing I could do was sit and wait helplessly for someone to come save me.
The heat was intense and I started seeing spots. Minutes that felt more like hours passed and helicopters were coming around to save people stranded on their rooftops. When I was finally rescued, the first question out of my mouth was “Is my wife, Ana, okay?” The man that I asked looked at me with an uncertain look, and my stomach dropped. I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw up again but I made myself swallow what was left of my candy bar back down. She had to be okay, I couldn’t believe anything otherwise.
The helicopter landed in a makeshift shelter area where people from my village and surrounding villages were being kept. When we landed I nearly fell out of the helicopter because I saw her. Sitting on a log with a blanket wrapped around her, which I chose not to question since it was so hot. I was just so thankful to see that she and the baby were