Sent on 10 October: Another earthquake hit the Solomon Islands on Wednesday with a reading of 8.1 on the Richter Scale and we had to evacuate to high ground when a tsunami warning was issued. Communication on the island is very difficult so Steve Ade, my deputy, Smitty McMoore, the Chapter Director, and I had to go out in a car to find all of our teams working in the field to make sure they were aware of the warning. We rounded them all up and sent them to our rendezvous site at our shelter. While we were there one of the Samoan men dropped off his six children with us so he could go back out to find his wife. He knew we would look after them. I talked to Smitty and Mama Baker, a chapter leader, who were uneasy about where we were so I ended up leading two rickety busses and several cars to the top of a mountain that overlooked the island with the children and as many other Samoans as we could. Here we stopped at the top of a chief's pavillion, which is a large, open air structure. The Samoans sat us down in the chief's house (you are not allowed to stand except to walk in). They started to sing a prayer for the lives and souls of those who were still in harm's way. They sang beautifully. It was a tremendously moving experience. In many ways they are an amazing and wonderful people. Fortunately the tsunami did not hit -- it would have been a heart-wrenching experience -- and we went back down the mountain. I had been at work for sixteen consecutive days at that point and was so exhausted after I returned to our headquarters that I could barely walk.

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