of dear Samoa...

Most of you have hard about the destruction and chaos that has descended in the South Pacific, specifically Samoa. Most of you might not know that I used to live there, doing service for the Baha'i Faith for about six months. I became extremely close to the Samoan community and feel extremely bonded to the people and the place. What has happened recently with the tsunami has been utterly heartbreaking. I am posting to ask you to please keep them all in your best thoughts and prayers in this extremely challenging time.

I am attaching an email from one of my dearest friends who lives in Apia, Samoa, as she writes me a personal account of what has happened:

"Here life seems surreal. No time for sleep. News drifts in on people we know on the south coast. Lalomanu has been decimated. Do you remember Tafua beach fales- Loumepa's place? (she and her dad are Baha'is) Its gone. Soumepa and Tili are in the hospital, the little girl has drowned. It's dreadful to see the destruction.

Here is my account of what happenned in our house:

I was making breakfast yesterday when the house began to shake. It's

not uncommon to have tremors and I usually stop what I'm doing and

marvel at the peculiar sensation of the earth moving. It got stronger

and pottery rattled; items from the third floor loft began falling

over the railings. I was loosing my balance as I went to wake Ben for

school. " Think you better come stand in the doorway Ben!" I called.

As the house began to sway and shake forceably I added " get outside!"

and Ben bounded out of bed. The violent shaking continued, meanwhile

Steven emerged and Joe who had been wondering who was hitting

the boxing bag so hard.

(this always causes a bit of shaking

upstairs). Our home is well designed for earthquakes, being of a pole

construction; it would take alot for it to fall. But as we stood

outside waiting for the quake to stop I wondered what you do when the

gound begins to open? Yikes.....I wondered whether there might be a

tsunami....After five minutes of feeling the earth move beneath our

feet (I actually felt motion sickness) it subsided and we returned

indoors and got ready for school.

I turned on the radio as we drove..

Half way down the mountain the alert came. The coastals areas had been

told to evacuate, sirens were sounding. Ninety five percent of Samoans

live in coastal areas! A bit later we were visited by Joe's Japanese

friends, the 2 Judo sensei . They came up the mountain on motor bikes

and reported on the chaos in Apia. Apparently people were running

everywhere, trying to jump onto crowded buses. Some were hanging on.

The ocean had been sucked out and the reef was bare. Police were

waving people away from the beach

road and pointing up the mountain.

Then we started hearing police sirens as they sped over the mountain.

The south coast had been hit by a seven meter wave. Poutasi, Sinalei,

Maninoa, all the villages we know so well. We were having lunch at

Sinalei only last week and I knew that the restaurant on the pier

would have vanished. I suddenly realised how fortunate we were that

Joe hadn't gone surfing! He gets up at 5:30 most mornings for an early

morning surf. Last night I'd heard him talking to one of his buddies

about going out. He was telling his f

riend that today's wave was going

to be the BEST and biggest of the year. (he reads the surf forcast on

the internet). "what?" I had said in amazement. "Tomorrow is the best

wave of the year and you're NOT going out??" He said he was a little

tired from the intensive Judo training and his surf board had a crack

in it. But what a strange coincidence that the tsunami would hit along

with the "best" wave of the year.

We have relatives in Poutasi. Steven's cousins Sui and Joe

and Ginger's older sister Annie. We tried to call but no answer. We

eventually heard that Sui has been swept out to sea and drowned. They

were in the car trying to escape and it was overturned. Her 95 year

old mother survived! (our)Joe's surfing friends just had time to jump

onto a small boat and get

far enough out to deep water and safety. The

surfers who tried to make it back to shore were lost. Coconuts Beach

resort got wiped out and tourists have disappeared. All the resorts on

the south coast and all the villages were affected; any building by

the sea is gone. I heard on the BBC news that some lives have been

lost. There have been many.

Steven has been reporting for CNN (phone interviews) and this morning

a reporter from CNN flew in and will be staying with us.

Today Steven is accompanying His Highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese

Ta'isi (the Head of State) around the island. Iosefa is taking the CNN

reporter out and translating for him. I am at home feeding visitors.

The death toll currently stands at 110 but when we today traveled the

south coast area where the waves hit we saw more bodies being

transported to Apia and we heard of many still missing.

Will keep you posted.

Love,

Wendy"

The Baha'i House of Worship, Apia, Samoa:

My Baha'i friends in the village I taught in for a while:

Again, the village:

A Buddy:

Me with my dearest friends, Wendy & Steven:

The Baha'i Montessori School in Apia:

This is Lalomano Beach, seriously one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever experienced, now completely devastated:

before:

after:

if you feel like you can donate anything to help with a relief fund, please click here.

**later....

i have had a couple people ask me if there was any destruction to the Baha'i House of Worship. As it is located on the top of the island, it remained safe and undamaged.