The Tsunami

The fishing village that is in front of Artlab and to the right side was wiped out on December 26th, 2004. The walls of the property to the right of Artlab and the property on their left are destroyed. The village has been rebuilt and the fishermen have been given new boats to start their lives again. Not one person lost their lives from that village.

The story has it that one of the fisherman was mending his nets on the beach that morning. The tide came up and grabbed his net, pulling it into the ocean. Since the net is all he has to make a living, he ran after the net to retrieve it. At that time, the ocean rose up and consumed him. As it did he started yelling, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus". The rest of the village saw the wall of water and also yelled out "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus". No one in the village was lost, including the man with the net.

Artlab is less than 30 meters from the ocean's waves. The tsunami destroyed the village only meters away, destroyed property to the right and left but left their entire complex untouched. Sharon, Sunny and Noel speak of the protection of God on their studio. How can anyone explain a wall of water that doesn't touch 100 meters of shoreline but touches both properties on either side and the rest of the beachfront?

The tsunami was real and these are the people (Sunny and Sharon) who felt the terror of it as they watched from their second story window of their home a few blocks away from the beach. It hadn't occurred to me that I would be anywhere near the tsunami's destructive path during this trip. Being in the wake of its destructive path has added yet another dimension to this already complex trip. I look out at the horizon and try to imagine a wall of water 30 meters high. I can't.