Gender and tsunamis

So it's the morning of the first day of a four day gender analysis workshop. I’m the one organizing the workshop. There’s 20 participants, and we’ve hired an experienced consultant from Port Moresby. Things are going well and we’re just getting into it after morning tea.

Then the host from the venue we’ve hired pulls me aside to another room and tells me that "just for my information there has been a warning of a tsunami". I look out the window and see school kids, teachers and adults frantically running down the street, away from the coast. I ask if it has actually hit or if it is just a warning. She tells me that some reports are saying that there is water already up to the marketplace and other reports saying it is just a warning. I call my office. No answer. I call Richard’s office. Again no answer. Hmm, not a good sign, I start thinking. I then talk with a guy there who has been in contact with the disaster office. He tells me that at the moment all that has been given is a 24 hr warning. Still, with all the people fleeing for the hills I figure it is my duty of care to tell my colleagues in the workshop who are currently oblivious to what is happening outside. At the same time, I don’t want to cause any undue panic.

I take the consultant aside and brief her on what I have learned. She asks me to share with the group – I carefully pick my words – making sure I don’t use any words starting with a ‘T’. I calmly start telling the group, “There has been a disaster in the Solomon Islands and there has been a 24 hr warning issu…”. I am stopped mid-sentence as a colleague that was in the office has rushed over to our side of town. There is panic written on his face and he starts blurting out about the tsunami and if we “all want to die then we can stay here…”. Great! So much for my 'keep things calm' approach. He then runs out. I finish telling everyone that currently it is confirmed to be just a warning. One of my colleagues who is a woman of great faith suggested we pray. We all held hands and calmly prayed together. Those praying reflected on all the numerous accounts in the Bible where God had moved water and calmed storms. We then decided to convene again tomorrow granted everything was okay so people could go find their families and make whatever phone calls they needed to.

The shops were all shut, people were running up the hills with their bags full of their valuables, one lady even had her pig in her bilum (bag)! I'd been told pigs are very valuable and visually it had been confirmed for me.

Thankfully all it ended up being for us in PNG was a warning (unfortunately not so for some families in the SIs). And a wake up call that we need to look into some disaster mitigation procedures instead of the office going into a frenzy!! The gender workshop will continue tomorrow….