Child of the Sea by Doina Cornell

Author:Doina Cornell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Birth of a New Nation

‘I’m sure we should be able to see the islands by now,’ said Dad, peering at the horizon. ‘My fix shows we are only a few miles away.’

We all stared at the horizon, but there was nothing there but sea.

‘Hey, what about there!’ cried Ivan, jabbing with his finger. We all looked and thought we could see a black dot. Then another dot appeared.

‘They must be palm trees,’ Dad dug out the binoculars. ‘Yes, they are. No wonder we couldn’t see anything until now. If the island’s no higher than a palm tree it wouldn’t be visible from more than a few miles away.’

Mum altered course and we headed for the dots, which slowly turned into green feathery fronds, and brown trunks appeared underneath them. We motored through the reef pass and across a large lagoon to the main island.

The capital of the Ellice Islands, Funafuti was just a small town and as we walked down the dusty main street everyone greeted us with a cheery ‘Talofa’.

‘Let me see if I can get an interview with the Chief Minister,’ Dad said enthusiastically. ‘He’ll be Prime Minister after independence.’

At the Government offices they said the interview could take place straight away so we rushed back to the boat for the tape recorder. Ivan and I stayed on board to do some schoolwork.

But it was too hot to concentrate, the air was so heavy and humid. I put down my book and wiped my face.

Outside something began to hammer hard on the deck.

‘Rain!’ I said.

We ran onto deck and stood there, feeling the welcome coolness on our skin. I felt a sudden urge to jump into the sea. After the rain, it was as warm and smooth as syrup. But salty. The rain squall passed, but another came just after – so we stood on the deck, and then jumped in the sea all over again.

In a gap between squalls we saw Dad rowing back, as fast as he could, Mum trying to protect the precious tape recorder. They made it a moment before the rain started pouring down again.

‘Was the interview good?’

‘Oh yes. But quick – get all the buckets, anything!’

We put out every available receptacle, buckets and saucepans, and within seconds they were full. The islands relied on rain for their water supplies so we needed to collect our own. Dad blocked the scuppers that normally drained any water off the decks into the sea, and unscrewed the cap that led into our fresh water tank. Down poured the rain, and within half an hour the water tanks were filled with 40 gallons of rain water.

‘You two next,’ said Mum when Dad had finished and the rain was still falling hard. She shampooed our hair and we stood on deck and let it all rinse off. Then she washed all the clothes. And still it rained.

‘These islands don’t have much,’ said Dad, when the rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun. ‘The Minister was telling me.

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