The Tsunami

I want to let everyone know I am safe. My travelling schedule in the south of India got me out of a danger area a few days before Christmas. It is hard to remember right now that Christine and I were ever having a relaxing, fun time on our vacation.

After we spent a week in Kerala we went to Goa for Christmas, which boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The environment was very laid back and mellow, and we would sit around reading all day, on the beach and in beach-side cafes. It was a wonderful, but odd, way of spending Christmas.

On the 26th, we spent our day as normal. There were no indicators that on the other side of India a tsunami hit. I did notice that day while I was swimming that the tide seemed unusually high, but I thought it was a few random waves gone amuck, nothing to be too concerned about. Christine and I wandered in from the beach to the town to go to a restaurant around 6 p.m. and we first saw the coverage about the earthquake and tsunami then. We both freaked out and called our parents right away so they wouldn't be hysterical. Christine's parents had already heard, but it was early in WI and I think I woke my mom and dad both up to tell them that I was ok. Having seen the footage of the waves, I knew my mom would be hysterical if I didn't get ahold of her before she saw the news.

Christine and I went to dinner and then walked back to our hotel on the beach. As we were walking we noticed the tide was pretty high again. We had an early train the next morning and during our time in Palolem we destroyed our room, our stuff was everywhere. So we were going to pack before enjoying the evening. We were psyching each other out with our worries, so I called Rima (our academic advisor, angel on earth) to say if the news had anything about Goa. She said they were saying nothing about the west coast. Christine and I chatted away as we packed, and I had the door to our beachside room open to keep an eye on the water, just in case. A few minutes later, I heard people screaming and looked up to see the beach being swallowed by water. I yelled to Christime, "We need to go now!" and I grabbed by bag, stuffed my wallet, phone, and passport in it, and she and I took off running. It was dark, and there isn't any real path behind our hotel. I had to wade through a trench that was filling with water, and Christine ran into a barbed wire fence that pulverized the skirt she was wearing and caused her to lose a shoe.

When we got into town away from the beach a little, every person in sight was panicking. All the store owners were frantically ripping everything off the front of their stores and locking the doors. All the taxis, Qualis's and rickshaws were rapidly filling with people. Foreigners in just their swimsuits, so with no shoes, were running down the road. Christine saw a family in a car and yelled at them that we would pay them anything they wanted if they would just get us out of there. We hopped into their car and sped away from Palolem, past everyone running. We stopped at one point on a hill to rest and talk to other people about what was going on, and all the semi trucks going by were full of foreigners, along with motorbikes with 4 or 5 people on them, people hanging out of the trunks of cars.

Everyone fled to Margo for the night, we were all trying to figure out what had happened, was it a tsunami wave, an after effect, or just a high tide? Most of the local people laughed at all the foreigners running away from a wave, and maybe looking back on it we ALL did panick a bit. But we had seen the news. We saw how quick it happened and how quick it could get out of control, and none of us felt safe there, and none of us were ashamed we ran out of fear.

The next morning Christine and I got a taxi to go back to Palolem to get our stuff. Everything was there and dry, so the water never made it inside, although it did come right up to our room. We packed and left, it was our plan anyway. All the shops in Palolem were still closed and the beach was deserted. We went back to Margo and bought train tickets to leave, and then set off to find a hotel room. Everything was booked, its peak season. We couldn't find a room we could afford that wasn't absolutely shady for two women to stay alone in the DAYTIME let alone at night. We were both tired and tense, and Christine just lost it. She has always been the one that has been calm and collected, never endingly patient and understanding with all the frustrating situations that we encounter. But that day, she lost it. We had had barely 5 hours of sleep between us, it was after noon and we still hadn't eaten anything, we were crabby, tired and stressed. We finally found a hotel that had rooms, after about 4 or 5 booked/shady ones. Even though it was really pricey for us, they took credit cards and I told Christine I wanted to stop. We were both 5 minutes from having nervous breakdowns. As soon as we got settled into our room, be both broke down in tears.

After wiping them away, we ordered Domino's and then settled down to watch HBO movies in our air-conditioned room. It was a luxury we both needed, to get some rest and try to return to our normal selves. The next day we hopped a train to Mumbai, where we are now.

I think she and I are still feeling the after effects of the stress, and I think the two of us are wearing on each other a bit. It is just so sad to be here right now. In addition to getting BBC and CNN we also get numerous English and Hindi Indian news channels that just show devastating coverage. People weeping over their dead children, sitting in shock in what used to be their homes. What is even more sad is that all these people were poor BEFORE they lost everything they had in the tsunami.

People keep asking how this could happen, how could their be no warning system, how could so many people be dead? There are so many people dead because the population of Asia is so high, as for the warning system, it doesn't surprise me that this would happen. The people who live in India are the ones who take the brunt of it from the developing world. I have read so many stories and seen so many times the way that the U.S. and other developing nations have actively worked against embettering the lives of people here and instead continue to perpetuate their poverty to ensure the West's superiority. And now, when there is a huge disaster the Western world comes to the rescue like some kind of cruel joke. If the countries of this world worked together to embetter the lives of everyone on this planet there would have been far fewer deaths in this tradegy. Yes, it still would have happened and people still would have died. But think of how this tragedy would have been different if, instead of fragile huts they lived in Western style homes. If, instead of corrupt villages governments, they had up-to-date warning systems. What would have happened then?