Love in Action

 

Relief Report on Hurricane Victims in Grenada

Uplifting the Isle of Spice through Master's Love

By Vincent Nguyen, Virginia, USA (Originally in Aulacese)

Grenada is a peaceful island nation with a population of approximately a hundred thousand located between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Tourism is the country's leading source of foreign revenue followed by agricultural exports such as cocoa, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. For this reason, Grenada is known as "The Spice Island of the Caribbean," being second only to Indonesia in nutmeg production, and providing a third of the world's supply of the spice.

However, on September 7, 2004, Grenada's tranquil ambience was disrupted when it was hit with full force by hurricane Ivan, marking the first such event on the island in 49 years. Upon reaching Grenada, Ivan intensified into a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph). The most devastated areas of the island were St. George, St. Andrew and St. John in the south, where more than 90% of the homes were destroyed, including the residence of the Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell, and the Governor General, Sir Daniel Williams. The island's two main crops - cocoa and nutmeg - were completely wiped out; and it will take from seven to ten years to re-grow the nutmeg groves. In addition, most of Grenada's major tourist hotels were badly damaged.

Responding to our merciful Supreme Master Ching Hai's instructions, on September 24, 2004, a small group of initiates flew to Grenada to conduct relief activities. On their arrival, the initiates discovered that more than two weeks after Hurricane Ivan had struck, electricity and telecommunications still had not been restored to the island, and a number of households did not have water. Consequently, after sunset, the whole country remained in total darkness. Most stores were closed, while the rest were only open until 12 noon, and not even the stores or government offices had electricity or working telecommunications facilities. Many storeowners were still busy fixing their roofs, windows and other structures damaged by the hurricane, and the streets were blocked by fallen electrical wires and poles. Accordingly, the authorities enforced a dusk to dawn curfew to allow security and emergency personnel to restore some of the electricity and telephone lines and broken water pipes. Also, several large airlines had indefinitely suspended flights to the island so the relief team members were unable to buy materials from either local or foreign vendors.

During the relief work, the initiates employed a taxi driver and traveled through the three hardest hit areas of Grenada, including the beach near Marquis Island. They stopped to comfort many families whose homes had been completely destroyed, offering them monetary gifts and Master's sample booklet in the hope that God's love would bring the victims some comfort and security.

Despite experiencing their island's worst hurricane disaster in almost fifty years, the people of Grenada maintained good spirits after the storm. A number of the locals read the Bible, and some even said that perhaps God had heard their prayer and thus sent them the gifts from the fellow initiates. One mother of a family of eight in a house shattered by the hurricane was thankful for Master's grace and asked for the address of The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association so that she could write to Master.

The day the relief team members left the beautiful island of Grenada, their driver, a local Grenadian, told them that many people from his community had asked him to convey their gratitude to the Supreme Master Ching Hai for Her timely help during such a critical time. The group of initiates prayed that the country would be quickly rebuilt, and the people of "The Spice Island of the Caribbean" would be fully blessed with God's love.