Viva La Radio & Tsunami Dreams

Did not get the best nights sleep but was eternally grateful early this morning when the people in my village woke me up at 2am to move to higher ground after they'd heard the Tsunami Alert on the radio. Apparently the Vanuatu tsunami alert was for 12am-3am so we were a little late. A text was sent to me to warn me of the tsunami alert earlier in the evening but we don't have cellphone reception in our village! There were strong waves reported in the Solomon Islands but not yet in the northern islands of Vanuatu at the time we headed up hill. It was extremely unlikely that we'd get a tsunami but we live in a very low lying northern facing village just a few feet from shore, in bamboo houses no less, so even strong waves could be dangerous. So I grabbed my pillow and my dog, Marie, and headed out into the pitch black.

Then the whole village crammed into one house on top of a hill and tried to fall asleep while the patriarch of the group insisted on blaring the radio. I tried to fall asleep while listening to the radio reports of people calling in and saying they had moved their village to higher ground between every song of string band music, reggae and random 80s pop. This resulted in me falling asleep and dreaming of witnessing a tsunami attack on our village. The water drew back and we could see all the fishes flopping on dry land and then Marie went out to chase them and then it crashed down on us and i'm running running running until I woke up in the morning. We weren't really in any danger. But I think what happened to similar small villages in American Samoain 2009 really hit home for the people of Vanuatu.

Although it was hard to sleep with the radio on it just goes to show that radio is no where near dead. Yeah it may not be the place to make it or break it in the music world but it has it's place. It's the best news source for all of the smaller pacific countries since they all have big rural populations without tv access or power. I'm sure it's the same in other rural areas in the world. Having a story of another village moving to higher ground in between every song though redundant is a constant guilt trip on those that haven't taken any action yet. Peer pressure you know, if they weren't being reminded constantly on the radio they would just be like nah I'm going back to bed.

Dj: Hallo what is your name?
Caller: I'm a chief in Tisman.
Dj: Hallo chief what's going on where you are?
Caller: Well we've moved everybody up the hill and we're all here together.
Dj: ok well that's good. you stay put.
*stringband song starts*

Then today I got on the internet and found out what all the fuss was about. Holy ichi ni san shi tsunami! Check out the youtube footage below. Biggest Earthquake ever recorded in Japan! Massive tsunami eating up the northern coast! We have it so lucky on the East Coast of the States, the occasional Blizzard is nothing compared to the constant barrage of earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, and hurricanes these islands out in the Pacific are getting.

Tsunami in Japan


More tsunami in Japan