Photographed by Anthony Asael
Can you believe that it is week 17 of 2010 and it feels like so many things have happened in so few weeks? Wow! We thought we said goodbye to the recession blighted old year of 2009. Now there is still financial crisis and recession which continues to shock the world, the growing fiscal deficits which call for the increase dependence on the World Bank and IMF. Many have sleepless nights over environmental risks; many mention ‘going green.’ Also there is the unpredictability of the weather leaving billions homeless and millions dead. There is ethnic strife, famines, increased civil wars, ongoing guerilla conflicts. So far this is quote an exhaustive list but far from complete, the losses of 2010 are profound. In contrast, hey, the upside is that gold has regained popularity with Central Banks across the world.
On a more local level when we visit the grocery stores we see prices increasing. To understand the conundrum that we are in we need to take a step back and see ourselves. We would be faced with obstacles no matter what. Let us put it this way the more mountains we climb the stronger our legs become, the fitter we get and the better we feel. Do not be sidetracked, be encouraged, and be excited by ‘tough times’ because these impediments would make us be the giant we all would like to become.
Folks have a wonderful day!
Photographed by Brenda l. McCartney
I remembered the first time I visited Montserrat after the volcanic crisis; a friend took me to visit the danger zone. Plymouth (the capital) was uninhabitable and totally abandoned, boxes of shoes lay in shoe stores, curtains blew from opened windows, and the town was so empty that you could hear an echoing sound from the wind in every direction. I did not cry and my friend asked if I was that cold. In hindsight, I realized there are certain losses that are deeper than tears. I carried the loss within me then and still now; for me it was a mixture of emotions.
In my later teens and into my early adulthood I enjoyed my island as everyone should. For example there were many Fridays I packed my clothes into a nap sack and did not return to my home until Mondays as I traversed every mountain trail, drank from many ghauts and rivers and rested under many trees that provided shade from South to North of Montserrat. I did not have a sleeping bag or tent but sheets and slept in the open under the sky. The spirituality of every track, soil, bank, hill, mountain and river that once thrust inside me had once again bonded me to those moments as I gazed at my ravaged town. I am thankful that I experienced those sacred places and they took me in before they were filled with debris or were obliterated.
Another of my memories was going with my mother to her work place which stood on St. Georges Hill. That location provided one of the most picturesque views of Plymouth and surrounding villages. Later, I visited the location during another visit where the impact from the pyroclastic flow blew out the inside of the building and banked the cliff the building stood on just seconds short totally obliterating the entire place.
One of the most amazing things is that while I am writing this post, is that I did not verbalize what I am writing but my daughter just stood beside me saying that she was painting a volcano. That is the power of connection. So even though she is a descendant who has not traversed the ghauts, mountains, hills and gullies of Montserrat there is soulful connection. Isn’t life a mystery?
As the news media is bombarded with various natural disasters Iceland, Haiti, India, China, Montserrat and so many others, I empathize with the losses but there is one thing we all have that can never be taken from us. That is our memories; the stories, the experiences and the collective understanding as these calamities are all unique as they have affected what we call home.
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