Instalment 25; Did anyone see where my island went?

Today I had an epiphany. Maybe I didn’t, I’m not really sure what an epiphany is. I had a moment of pure joy and sadness, a change in perception. Agnus and Alice came to my house for study group. Agnus has never had a chance to study before, never read anything really about the world, never watched TV, or DVDS. The article they had to read was on ‘Global warming’. It was an introductory exercise, to show the student how to take notes. They were to read the article and make notes on it, then hand the notes in. Agnus couldn’t really understand the English in the article, and so I read it out to her and translated it into Bislama. Have you heard of ‘Global Warming’? I asked. No. I explained that the world was heating up, the polar caps melting and the seas rising. Agnus looked at me as if I was a mad woman. I read the article. Agnus listened to the article with such intensity. As I got through it her eyes started to glass. I watched her face and it touched my heart. It was the face of an old woman who lives in a hut with out electricity and running water, who has never driven a vehicle or flown in a plane, finding out for the first time that the earth was polluted, the fish were dying and the seas were rising. In a far away, unimaginable land, with unfathomable machines and technology, her brothers and sisters were killing our home.

 

It went on say, just to rub salt in her wound, that Vanuatu was the first place on record, where people have already had to evacuate because of an island that disappeared under the rising sea. Agnus jumped, “that wasn’t rising sea!” she exclaimed, “that island sunk”. I tried to explain that it just seemed like it sunk, but in fact the sea was rising. Agnus recalled how long ago weather used to be reliable, people used to know when to plant crops, there used to be fewer cyclones. “This is because of the global warming”, she said. I agreed. Agnus has an amazing brain, just a small amount of information, which she never before has had the opportunity to have, creates whirlwinds of connections and realizations inside her. When I got to the end I tried to explain why we cant all just use wind power, what people are trying to do, I talked about money and oil companies. Agnus sat quiet for a moment, and then tears started streaming from her eyes. It made me cry to, and I cried for the world as though I too had never known it had any problems. I could feel the magnitude of it all from a fresh perspective. As Agnus and Alice left, Agnus said:  “I am crying because I am sad for the world, and I am crying because I am happy I am learning, I am learning magnificent things, things that will change my life. It was always my dream to learn. It was always my dream to learn such things. I really am the luckiest person I know, thank you, thank you, thank you God”.

 

Agnus is 61. She is the oldest person around and I assume that the end of her life will not be too far away. The life expectancy in Vanuatu is 63, and so 61 is very old indeed. She has the body of an old woman, who has struggled through many hardships, walked many thousands of miles and slept many nights on woven mats on the floor. There are times, if you watch the way that her body moves, you can see she is slowly wearing out, you can almost feel the stiffness and pain in her muscles.  Her life has been lived without good medical care, or hot water, it has been a life lived in the blistering sun. Yet, I have never heard a single complaint leave Agnuss lips, she is the most grateful and thankful person I have ever met.