Today Madgascar was hit by a Category 4 cyclone named Giovanna. (Why the name of a cyclone in the Southern hemisphere hitting an African island has an Italian name, one will never know.) First, let's just address the elephant in the room: I am apparently haunted by epic weather phenomenon...there, it's out. Katrina, Rita, and now this. I am hesitant to apply for homeowner's insurance letter in life, my premiums will break the bank. Second, we are ok! Granted I am writing this from my village with no electricity so I have no way of speaking for those volunteers along the East Coast, but Fonohasina fared well.
We were alerted of the storm two days ago, and a majority of us forced to evacuate. I got home to Fonohasina in a panic - buying candles, getting buckets of water, nailing my windows shut, the whole kit and caboodle. The villagers were alarmed...that was all. No candles, no buckets, no nails, just intrigued by what the weird white person was up in arms about. So I went to bed to be woken up around 10pm by the sound of massive wind and rain against my tin and straw roof. The ceiling had already begun to leak in various places, so I put out buckets accordingly. Thankfully I was able to sleep through the night. At 6am things went biserk. I heard large objects flying around outside and incessant moo-ing from cows. (For a minute I thought the cows themselves might've been airborne, you know like the movie "Twister", but then returned to reality.) I hunkered down and had a Top Chef marathon until my computer died. Once the wind died down around 9am, I slowly pushed my door open to assess the damage. A few of the neighbors were doing the same, so I threw on a raincoat and decided to walk around. My neighbors cow house was blown to smithareens (cows were still there.), many roots were strewn about on the ground, and some very large trees had taken a tumble. Our village waterpump now looked more like a bush. Then the villagers ran up to me saying I had to go back in my house, that we were only in the eye of the storm and the other side was coming at 10. How they knew this I had no idea. So it was back to my dark cave for another 2 hours.
Now I am able to have my door open, the rain is still pretty heavy and so is the wind, but by tonight the coast should be clear. Throughout all of this I have been amazed by the Malagasy people. The minute they were able they began helping one another pick up and rebuild. Men have been walking by my door with huge tree limbs on their back, as they have immediately cleared the rubble and put it to use as firewood. Today was also the deadline for the silk weavers to bring their portion of the fiber content label price to me. (Great timing, right?) Once I heard the intensity of the storm, I had resigned myself to fronting the costs at the pick-up tomorrow. Nope, more than half of the weavers (some living more than 2km walk away) knocked on my door soaking wet, to turn in their money. It was a great reminder how excited and dedicated they are to this project.
I hope that all of the communities out east are safe, my thoughts go out to them today.
Thanks for the soggy Valentine, Cupid.
