The force that extinguishes tsumamis | Life in Oceania
Directly from Oceania, from the Solomon Islands, the stories of Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni, missionary of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
Hello everyone!!!
Rising water levels are a reality that the entire Pacific is experiencing dramatically. In our own small way we see that slowly the beach down the road is diminishing more and more. Within four years it is practically gone, we only see it when it is low tide.
Our people like to build houses right on the shore, overlooking the sea, but slowly they will have to dislodge them. On some islands, what they call “artificial” islands because they were built by man by piling up mountains of boulders and rocks in places in the lagoon where the water is very shallow, they try to cope by erecting stone walls along the edges, which are systematically knocked down by the tides and, just as systematically, rebuilt the next day.
There are entire archipelagos at risk of “extinction,” both of lands and populations, and we really don’t know what to do because the problem cannot be dealt with by us here, and the people of “dry land” do not feel the danger that we constantly feel.
Another bogeyman that our sea gives us from time to time is the tsunami. Every other time we have tsunami warnings that we run into…. There are no sirens or loudspeakers to warn people; you just hear about it. And then you see columns of people on foot, with backpacks on their shoulders and children by the hand, quietly and orderly going into the interior of the plain where we are.
Our street starts from the main road (which runs parallel to the coast) and comes directly to the sea after a kilometer and a half. Our two houses are made of concrete, and our house is on the second floor.
It was Friday, so the girls were all at their homes, so we said, let’s stay! On our own street is the convent of the Dominican friars and the Salesian school. We phoned the friars and they told us that they were all in bed sleeping (!!!) and our Salesian brethren were also already in dreamland. “If all the religious are in place, the tsunami is not coming,” we told the Australian girl volunteer who was terrified and switched from her cell phone to Facebook to Skype to get the news of the situation minute by minute!
I conclude by telling you that there is always time to love each other and help those around us. It is work that never tires, gives strength and a charge that extinguishes the most frightening tsunamis. At the end of the day, the peace it brings inside lulls you, so there is no more insomnia or stress.
“Life is beautiful only if you give it” (Blessed Clement Vismara).
Until next time.
Source and Image
- Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni