Funeral in a flood
20.07.2009
The extraordinary events of January 2009 will live in the minds and hearts of the villagers of Votua for years to come.
Persistent torrential rain caused by two deep troughs of low pressure over the island group of Fiji caused destructive flooding between January 8 and 14, 2009. Among those who will remember these floods for generations are the 650 villagers of Votua, who live on the banks of the Ba river on the western side of the main island of Fiji.
A death
A few days before the downpour began, Rupeni Mara, a 64-year-old elder of Votua collapsed and died of a heart attack while working in his garden. His body was put in Nailaga mortuary, about five miles from the village, to await his funeral on Friday, January 9.
The rain poured down in torrents. On the following evening as the estuary tide pushed water back up the river, the Votua villagers prepared for the approaching danger. They placed their possessions on top of beds, tables and shelves. At one end of the village men tied a 75 meter long rope between a number of houses leading to the double storey school in case people needed to take shelter there. They brought water, food and kerosene cooking stoves. Some people placed their pigs and goats on flat roof buildings.
The flood
On Thursday night, the water began to rise relentlessly to three, four, five, six, and up to nine feet above ground level throughout the village. Six boats searched the village in the dark, alerted by calls for help. They ferried people to the school but without any possessions. The swirling currents made loading and off-loading people dangerous. Boats sometimes had to make several approaches to the school steps. On the upper storey of the school between three and 400 people were packed like sardines - women and children inside the classrooms, and men outside on the porch. No one could lie flat. Sleep was impossible as they stood or hunched together in wet clothes, sweating from the humid night and the body heat of their fellow villagers.
The electric power and water mains shut down during Thursday night.
People prayed the rosary and sang hymns and periodically checked the height of the water. Some of the old ladies spoke of the end of the world. Others lapsed into an exhausted silence.
The water subsided a little over the next few days but reached its highest point on Saturday night. Then Vikatore Rakata, the Eucharistic minister, brought the two ciboria of consecrated bread from the flood-threatened tabernacle in the nearby church. On the Sunday morning, he ferried Ramoce, the catechist, to the school to conduct the weekly worship service.
The villagers, true to their communal lifestyle, shared their food with each other. They cooked any animals or fowl rescued from the flood waters.
This flood surpassed, in the Ba area, even the infamous 1931 flood. From Thursday evening until the following Wednesday morning all of Votua and many other parts of Ba province remained under water.
The burial
Mobile phones were vital, in arranging Rupeni's burial. His grieving family received a call on Friday morning from the Nailaga mortuary that with electricity cut off, his corpse should be removed immediately. Burial in Votua village was clearly impossible. After a number of phone calls the elders decided that they would try to bury Rupeni in the nearby Catholic hillside cemetery of Varoko.
Two boats set out from Votua - one with the coffin accompanied by the village catechist, Ramoce, and the other with an elder, who knew the layout of the cemetery plots, and a dozen young men to dig the grave. On arrival at the morgue, they placed the body in the coffin, carried it to the cemetery where the catechist conducted the burial service during a pause in the rain. They wrapped the coffin in one small mat instead of the four or five large mats traditionally used. These had been prepared, but were left behind in the village because of the floods.
Afterwards the catechist, Ramoce, remembered that Rupeni had told him, and his own wife, that he did not want expensive traditional mats to be wasted on his funeral. Instead, he wanted those mats to be donated to the Church. Ramoce wondered at the extraordinary circumstances that brought about compliance with Rupeni's wishes.
The clean-up
As the flood waters began to recede the lack of water from the mains made the clean-up difficult. Villagers washed themselves and their muddy clothes in the river and brought buckets of water from it to clean out their houses.
All the villagers' root crops and vegetables were completely destroyed. The Red Cross, initially, and later the Government Disaster Management Authority began to supply food and drinking water daily. The distribution of food was not without its problems and complaints but it was much appreciated. The villagers now await seed from the Agricultural Department for planting.
The people of Votua are grateful that nobody in their area was killed in the floods. They are still in shock, however, from the destruction and devastation they have witnessed. They wonder about the future. Can they refurbish the damaged houses and furniture and replant their food? They ponder the possibility of raising the foundations of their houses or of moving the village to higher ground. They also discuss the spiritual meaning of the flood. Is God calling the people to repentance and conversion?
Votua will not easily forget the second week of January, 2009. The circumstances of Rupeni Mara's funeral will be long remembered. But if it is true that we discover our deepest selves in a time of crisis then, once again, Fijians have proved to be a courageous, wise, resilient and communitarian people. Friends of Fiji in many parts of the world are responding generously to this heroism and to the efforts of the people of Fiji to rebuild their lives.
Fr Frank Hoare has recently returned to Fiji after his term on the Columban International Leadership team in Dublin.
