Dating : The FLOODS: How I Survived Them

Our country was prone to great floods — Continental. It meant that when it rained, it poured. We were living nearby a major river.

My granny woke me up at 5 o’clock in the morning. It was dark. The power had gone out. I didn’t remember the last time it wasn’t raining. There was water in the house.

She was old. She wanted me to go and get the fowl into the kitchen. Also, our dog was drowning. She gave me a massive jacket as I went outside into the rain… and pretty much swam to the dog’s kennel. The water was muddy brown in the twilight. The dog was on the kennel. I untied him. The rest was up to him. He was a good swimmer and fared well until after the flood.

I remember being instructed to open the gate to the road in case it let some of the water out. More water came in. I floated back into our yard.

The water eventually dried up. Floods pass. I was about 8 years old when I saw thousands of little worms on our fields, all on the surface. They were everywhere. Our little fertile soil helpers had drowned, along with all of our crops. My grandparents knew what that meant. We were living in a rural area. We grew all our own food.

The matter of survival in this story is more to do with the hardships my grandparents have had to endure due to the flood, more so than a death toll. Thankfully, no-one was harmed in our village.

My grandfather said:

All our neighbors know just how to grow crops. But we know how to teach.

Both my grandparents came from long lines of field workers. They were the first in their respective family histories to graduate college and become School principal and teachers. We helped our neighbors however we could, for they had no other way to make a living.

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