ThinkPint2

Greta was in line to get on the bus and soon was boarding and sat next to a woman who appeared to be a bit younger than she and from the Pacific Islands, if she had to guess. She, as well as a few other people on the bus, had badges on which said P.S. Gathering, April 10-14.

Greta wondered if she should talk to her, which she did not really want to do, or just get out her journal and start writing. She had no choice, the woman spoke to her.

“Are you traveling far?” She asked.

“Yes, for me. I’m going to the land where my family lived in Illinois a long time ago, but I’ve never been there.”

Greta gave the brief version about Central Illinois and ancestors who were farmers and wanting to see the land they farmed and Rt. 66. Then she looked at the young woman and noted she seemed somewhat misty-eyed.

“I wish I could do such a thing,” She seemed noticeably choked up and then continued, “I should be use to this, and I better get use it for the next few days (pointing to her badge, but not explaining it), but when someone talks about doing what you are doing, thoughts flood over me. Excuse me.”

“Excuse you?” Greta queried.

The passenger asked, “Have you heard of Kiribati?”

Greta shook her head yes. It was a part of history most people knew of the 2030’s when the this Pacific Island nation, first had no fresh water, and then went almost totally undersea. A population of 200,000 had to relocate. Now in the 2060’s the former island chain was not even visible in the Pacific Ocean anymore. Greta was sitting next to someone connected to a place she had only read and heard about in school, the canary in the coal mine in the Pacific for climate change as it became known in the 2020’s.

The woman’s story unfolded over the next hour and Greta interspersed her own story of ancestors. Then the talk stopped, for now, as her seat mate started to take a nap saying she was very tired.

Greta, though, got out the journal designed specifically for this trip and decided it was time to start recording her adventure. What a beginning, she thought, as she got out her pen, opened the book, which had Rt. 66 or Bust on it, and started to write.

Rt. 66 or Bust

April 9, 2064

My seatmate right now is from Kiribati, or at least her relatives were from there. Her name is Anota. She was named after the former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong. What a story she is telling me. I told her about my great grandparents and she told me her great grandfather chose to stay on their Pacific island atoll rather than leave in the 2030’s when the seas came in and flooded their island earlier than the world expected. Lack of freshwater was the big issue Anota said. People had to rely on rainwater, as the underground water was too salty. No water, no life.

Anota’s great grandfather remained, but family understood why he decided to stay rather than leave. For him it was too late to change his lifestyle. Her grandparents became climate refugees and initially moved to Fiji as the President had purchased the rights for land for them to move there in the 2010‘s. The President tried to move the people systemically over many years, keeping their dignity as people in the best way possible. He developed training programs in skills other countries would desire. It worked sort of, some went to Australia and New Zealand with marketable skills, but the world was not ready, or did not want, to absorb all of them as climate changed. Climate justice at its worse.

After Fiji, Anota’s parents emigrated again, and finally Anota ended up in Canada without any family. She knew life in Kiribati only from what her grandparents told her. Her parents were too young to remember much of the islands as they left there before age 5. Anota told stories of her grandparents describing fishing life, what were called king tides that inundated the island, close family and communal ties, very religious people, and a cultural heritage going back 4000 years on the island. Abota did not describe an idyllic life on the atolls, but one of poverty and disease, but nonetheless it was devastating for all to have to leave for a problem they did not really cause, that is, carbon dioxide and other gases in the air.

______________

That was all that Greta wanted to write now. She put down her pen and considered the emotions going around in her head. No sense of place. Family dispersed. No history remaining. She had written only the bare facts, but what were the emotions behind the facts for Anota.

Now Greta wanted Anota to wake up and talk with her again, and ask what her badge meant. Where was she going. So much more to talk about and now she hoped Anota wanted to say more. Greta had questions, but what was appropriate to ask?

Another hour passed before Anota woke up, clearly she had not slept for a while before this trip started.

Greta straightened herself up and then asked Anota, “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your life and ancestors?”

Anota shook her head no, and turned the ball back to Greta, “Do you still feel like you are a Kiribati person even though you have never been there?”

Anota returned the question with a question, “Do you still feel like a Midwest person thought you have never been there?”

Greta understood immediately that the answer for both of them was “Yes” and shook her head yes. She got it.

Greta then was ready to ask, “What is the badge and what is the Gathering that starts tomorrow?”

Anota began to explain she was attending a Gathering that highlighted Past Stories being kept alive. The P.S. had a double meaning as the people attending had been considered a P.S., a mere post script of disruption, during the worse times. The P.S. people were the most deeply affected; the least listened to; and the most dispersed in the many climate diasporas. They were attending from all over Canada and they all had in common being climate refugees and wanting to share and save past stories of their various cultures.

Greta now looked around the bus and looked at each P.S. Badge. She wanted to know these stories and said, “Do you know everyone on the bus with a badge?”

“No, but I will in the next few days? The ones that are on this bus are meeting tonight for the first time before we travel on together tomorrow. Would you like to come this evening to meet some of them with me. You are a climate refugee as well and you are trying to preserve your family stories before The Big Change happened. Maybe you are are a P.S.er at heart.”

Greta could not believe this first day of travel. What kind of world have we developed in the the 21st century? She did not know how to answer that question, except she knew the answer lay in the 19th and 20th centuries and the response, or lack of response, to reacting to scientific information in a timely fashion. She knew more people died as a result of climate change than in World War II. And the number of people relocated and refuges was staggering, over 700 million. Absolutely staggering and still going on now.

Greta wondered how she would be different as a result of this trip and who and what she might encounter.

She was ready for the bus to stop for the day and meet some of the rest of the P.S. people.