The start of the line up for Tamale Baskets.

This was the start of the crowd lining up for Tamale Baskets early yesterday morning. People started gathering at 6.am. If they weren't on the list to receive, they had to wait.

Many of these people, with small children waited all day. Around 2.30pm it started raining. They wouldn't go home. We managed, thanks to the kindness of so many people who have donated baskets to give a basket to everyone who was waiting.
By the time they got their baskets, they were wet, freezing cold but not willing to go home without that basket of food.

We had to bring out donations of clothes and give warm clothes to women and children who were shaking with cold.

It usually does not rain in December, in fact, our guardian, Don Bartolo says the last time he remembers it raining in December was in 1975!


By midd day there were so many people , we had to call the Bomberos, ( the paramedics )
because we could not control the crowd. Too many people were pushing and we were afraid that babies or small children would be squashed. There were several hundred people trying to get into the line.

The Bomberos came and helped control the crowd and stayed for the rest of the day to help us.