Watch out for cyclones!

Directly from Oceania, from the Solomon Islands, the stories of Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni, missionary of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians

Dearly beloved, this time, I am going to tell you about the weather.

You should know that in the Pacific (which continues to be not so peaceful!), cyclone season will arrive within a month.

I remember when I was studying geography in elementary school and reading about cyclones, typhoons, monsoons, I used to wonder why they are all “oni.” Well, now I know why, and I must say that they are indeed “ONI.”

Cyclones scurry around the Pacific without a precise trajectory; sometimes they turn back or change direction to the face of weather forecasts. They consist of very strong wind gusts, up to 200 km/h and often flooding rain as well.

Banana trees are the first to be landed because they don’t have much of a root system, while coconut trees, which are “accustomed” to this climate, are shaken by the wind and lose all their ripe nuts, much to the delight of coconut pickers who don’t have to climb up to twenty meters for their harvest.

The rivers are scary: they swell and turn brown with mud, so much so that in the sea they form long streaks of dark water that struggles to disperse.

Along the island’s northwest coast, all the bridges that invariably are swept away by floods every year are being rebuilt.

It happened that the embankments near the bridges were reinforced with rock walls held by strong wire nets, and punctually they were stolen! On the radio, they advised the people not to do it again!

However, people have devised a system to save their homes. Since they are made of wood and leaves, they would not survive the gusts of wind, but when the time comes, they dismantle the walls so the wind passes through and does not bring down the structure. If they are permanent houses (wood or brick) they have large windows that are left open. This does not always work: nature is known to be stronger than man, but quite a few homes are saved.

And always during the cyclone there is a frog that sings only when everything is flooded and has a really distinctive croaking sound. You never hear it during the year or in any other weather situation, not even during torrential rains, but only at the end of the cyclone when everything is under water!

And life goes on: slowly, as school resumes, the girls will come to us and we will have new adventures, new stories, joys and tears, challenges to face.

Looking at the girls we have had “in our hands” over the years, we are definitely encouraged: they have made a big leap forward and it is nice to meet them and see them happy, accomplished, confident.

Even when they come crying on our shoulders they always have so much strength and hope inside.
We sisters have become a point of reference, whether it is when they have to fill out paperwork for their new jobs or when they do not know whether to leave their cheating husband or keep him.

We carry all these daughters of ours in our prayers, that there may be no lack of Grace to help and guide them in life, just as we carry all of you in our prayers, that also in this year there may be no lack of strength and hope in facing with courage and joy the challenges of everyday life, a place where friendships and relationships are met and built that engage our lives so that it may bear fruits of love and peace in our families and in the world.

Until next time!

Source and Image

• Sister Anna Maria Gervasoni