I needed to go across the city to the Eastern Suburbs in our city of Christchurch almost two years after the big quake- New Brighton to be more precise. If ever you want to sense a heart break for a past beyond and similar to the loss a loved one ( not necessarily as a death rather of being rejected ) or loss of a homeland come and experience what we have had in Christchurch.
Where houses once stood there are houses derelict, dejected and tumbled down. Not from inaction or neglect rather from the aftermath of our earthquakes. Empty pieces land on prime corner sites where once little shops stood. Shops which are and were the last of the peasant ventures. Here families worked and starved together on the meager returns from selling bread , milk and 20 cent lollie mixtures to kids with pocket money to spare.
Boys toys in the shape of machines designed to rip up pieces of road and replace them with other pieces of road hang like praying mantises waiting for prey. Pumps are busy pumping water and make shift sewage systems are gurgling through human waste. The Romans, the great empire builders always said "get rid of the shit before you doing anything else". We attempt to do our best. At times the best falls short of what needs to be done. We neglect the most vulnerable and look after the most powerful first.
There are the men in their hi visibility vests all busy, all knowing that they have work to do for years ahead. Every sight and site promises a brighter future. All promising a tomorrow when everything will be all right again.
Then I get to the beach, the grey sea tumbles onto grey sands. On shore the tsunami siren waits for its call to action. A grey sky hangs and also waits and waits. Grey clouds tell me there has got to be a silver lining somewhere.
What was your journey today like my friend? Did you too see parts of what once was and never ever will be again?
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