http://theo-spiltmind.blogspot.com/2009/10/doves-and-devastated-fishermen.html
The Doves and the devastated Fishermen
By Theodore Sam, World Vision India Communications
The doves are sitting in a row on the power cables above the village. Neatly perched and grunting quite contentedly. Or lamenting the devastation below?
"Those are our doves; we grow them," says Yesebu, a resident of Thimmapur village in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Balanced on the power cables, the doves look down at their ravaged village, cruelly washed away by the floods.
I have also just met Barathi, 12, who narrates to visiting World Vision staff how she had escaped the flood waters.
"I was very scared when the water came into our village. I thought I would drown and die. I was crying. My brother put me in a small boat and we went to higher ground with the rest of the villagers," says Barathi.
 Together, with about 40 other families, Barathi, her two brothers and their sister lived on the banks of the Krishna River. The villagers are all migrants who came to Thimmapur village about five years ago to make a new life for themselves, fishing.
Now, they have lost everything. And despite their being fishermen, they are afraid to return to the river.
Unbelievable destruction
The entire length and width of the village has been destroyed. The destruction is unbelievable. Capsised boats, tarpaulin roof tops buried under debris, houses made of hay caught among branches, dead snakes, fallen power cables… It would take months and probably years to bring back some kind of normalcy.
The more than a hundred villagers, including numerous children, took shelter at a nearby school during the night of the flood. But now, they've been asked to vacate the school building.
Yesubu tells me their village had never had a school before. So, the people came together and decided to hire a teacher who would come and teach the children every day. The entire village had pulled together to collect money to pay the teacher her salary every month. What will happen now?
A couple of days later, when the World Vision staff are returning to their rooms after several long days of hectic work, the images of the fishermen of Thimmapur, their destroyed homes, Barathi, and the doves cross my mind again. And I remember an old gospel song, I have heard just once before:
When Noah had drifted on the flood many days
He searched for land in various ways
Trouble he had some but wasn't forgotten
He sent him His love on the wings of a dove
On the wings of a snow white dove
He sends His pure sweet love
A sign from above
On the wings of a dove.
I don’t know if those doves are still sitting there watching their destroyed village…I don’t know if the fishermen have started fishing again…I don’t know if Barathi is fine…
But, somewhere, deep down, I feel it will turn out well again. I hope and pray that, on the wings of a dove, the people will find their answers.
People who want to make a donation, may do so through World Vision New Zealand’s Asia-Pacific Emergency Relief Fund by going to https://www.worldvision.org.nz/Donations |
