house walking around somewhat aimlessly so we stopped, walked up to their gate and asked them if they needed help to clean their house. The lady welcomed us in, as her husband unlocked the gate. She broke into a smile when she heard where we came from and immediately started showing us what their house looked like. Thick mud covered all the floors and the ceiling hung down from the mud deposited above it.

The lady told us that when the water started rising they scrambled to get ready to leave, but when they finally did the water was almost up to their knees. So they hopped into their boat and tried rowing in the direction of the road, but the water current was too strong that they had to go with the flow.

They managed to get to a nearby house that sat a little higher and neighbours gathered around and climbed up onto the roof. They were able to help a few more with the boat as well as gather some supplies. In total, they managed to rescue 23 people out of which 15 were children.

On the rooftop, they carefully prepared for the first night with a tarp for weather protection, 3 mattresses and a couple of blankets.

There wasn’t enough space for everyone to lie down so they took turns sleeping. They also made meals of eggs and coffee since that was all they had. They spent all that night and the entire following day till evening until search and rescue finally found them and took them to the city.

“We lost everything but not our lives”, she said as she pointed upwards in recognition of God’s protection. We again offered to help clean their house but they said they wanted to wait till they had running water and electricity to make cleaning easier. They told us we could come back a week later to help them haul the mud and junk out of the house, and then they would have the means to prepare us a meal in gratitude.

They hugged and thanked us as we gave them some cleaning supplies and then told us, “May God bless you and your families for letting you come from so far to help us!”