Another letter from my sister in the Maldives

My aunt Anne has asked how the Maldives are currently faring.   Well, the most interesting and traumatic parts are all done with.  As you know, the Maldives were not hit hard comparatively speaking, perhaps due to lack of population, so there were less people available to be affected.  40 islands were lost, so now the island count is 1152, down from 1192.  We’ve seen the lists of resorts that are closed down, only 16 or so from the tsunami, there are 80 still in operation.  Also, the death count total is around 75.  Those who have no confidence in the government think there may be as many as 500 dead.  Reasons for the disparity would be distrust in the government, but also that some of the islands simply kept to themselves, were fairly self sufficient in growing local fruits and vegetables, and the fisherman trading with the other islands may be the only contact.    Hmmm  I’m thnking that if there were fisherman away from the island at the time, their boats would have stayed afloat, as they all did, and they would certainly have told someone that their island was gone, so I personally don t hold much water there.

Some of us are feeling twinges of survivors guilt, you know, having been affected so very little.

There are families whom we know who have returned to their home countries, mostly having been away from male at the time, and so stayed home or returned home. 

Luckily, there s not much to say.  Perhaps next time I shall make you all jealous with stories of us snorkeling off a tropical island, eh?

-Kim

Author: LMAshton
Howdy! I'm a beginner artist, hobbyist photographer, kitchen witch, wanderer by nature, and hermit introvert. This is my blog feed. You can find my fediverse posts at https://a.farook.org/Laurie.

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