Fragility of Life

World news has dominated the local news for the last 3 weeks. Many local people have friends and family working in the Middle East so each report of increasing tension or violence in Libya, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia is met with great concern here. Several people from this country were also apparently killed in the earthquake in New Zealand. The news carried the story of one young woman's last text messages to her mother as she lay trapped in the rubble. She was at a language school there to improve her English so that she could be employed as a nurse. So far 5 from this country have been identfied by DNA. She is among the 11 who are still missing.

But now the focus has switched to Japan. The destruction and loss of life is astounding and reminds me very much of Aceh. The main difference is the huge numbers of cars caught up in the debris. But the sheer enormity of the MESS left behind is mind boggling. More than 1/4 million citizens of this country work in Japan. Most are in the Tokyo area but several thousand were in the area devastated by the tsunami.

There were tsunami warnings here. All along the eastern coast people were warned away from the shore line. Fishermen were not allowed to go out and most pulled their boats way up the beach as far as they could. Several areas did report unusually large waves up to 1-2 meters high, but there were no reports of injuries or damage.

And now the radiation concerns. Yesterday people all over the country were frantically forwarding a text message that said that radiation from Japan would be blowing our way soon and so everyone should immediately paint their throats with Betadine and use an umbrella when they were outside. News stations on TV and radio were busy last night and this morning playing it down as a hoax. The government says they will be watching but that it is extremely unlikely there would be any problem because the prevailing winds blow out over the Pacific Ocean, not in our direction.

Japanese colleagues report the relief of finding friends and family are safe. But others whose travel takes them through the Tokyo airport have reported major delays and difficulties with local transportation.

All of this again a reminder of how fragile our lives are. Everything can change, irrevocably, in an instant.

Cool tropical weather...

It's been awhile since I wrote, though not for lack of things to write about!

It's been one of those rare cool spells here, dark and gloomy and threatening to rain any minute. I have actually been wearing a sweatshirt to bed for over a week now! The weather is due to a series of "wind convergences" or "low pressure areas". Locals complain of being cold, but even I have hardly broken a sweat all week and indeed sometimes feel downright chilly. It's amazing becase I haven't seen my thermometer go below 79F!

At times like this the price of fish soars - the fishermen don't like to go out in the rain especially if it's windy. It's also a really bad time to try to go snorkeling. Though we are in the tropics and close enough to the equator to be out of the typhoon belt, the ocean currents at this time of year can be chilly. I have snorkeled at this time of year in the past and gotten so cold that coming out of the water and sitting in wet clothes in the rain in a breeze felt warm by comparison!

I hear from the country south of here that they too have had a lot of rain recently and everybody's sick (colds).

I guess we have indeed gotten the La Nina they promised a few months ago would follow the dry El Nino last year. I certainly am enjoying the cooler weather and best of all, there have been no power interruptions for a long time!