Sunday, January 09, 2005

Storm




With the country still in chock after the thousands of people that died in South-East Asia, my parents have had to think about other things.

Letter from my dad:

[Last night we had full storm here with winds peaking at strength of a hurricane. The forest across the main road is completely devestated, it looks just like a giant has been roaming around. Loads of trees has been snached off a couple of meters above the ground. We have been without electricity the last couple of days. Some of the power lines are in such bad shape that they will have to be rebuild. It has been nice to have a wood fired stove to cook on! Take care of you and lots of hugs... God's blessing from all of us. Dad.]
(My own translation)

Natten som gick har det varit full storm med orkanbyar här, skogen på andra sidan Hångervägen är fullständigt skövlad som om en jätte slagit ner den , massor av träd är knäckta några meter upp. Vi har varit utan ström ett dygn och fick tillbaka strömen ikväll, men många hushåll får ingen ström på upp till en vecka, vissa ledningar är så förstörda att de måste byggas om. Det var skönt att ha en vedspis att laga maten på då. Ha det nu så bra många kramar och Guds välsignelse från oss alla genom Pappa.
(That was in Swedish...)


My parents live on the country-side, in Åminne (just outside Värnamo) in Sweden.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well now that I can afford to piss u off, I wanna say that sometimes u really judge ur dad too harshly. It's true that the storm is nowhere near the scale of a tsunami (and thank goodness it isnt), but it's also a lousy situation to be in for the people involved. Your logic is like well, I can't be upset about having only five bucks left in my wallet because people elsewhere don't even have a wallet.
Life's never fair.

Your dad's a nice guy. He might have made mistakes when u were younger, but he's getting old, and you could be nicer, u know?

Now I know I'm going to get a headbutt from the angry moose.

:D
S

Johan said...

This post wasn't the least sarcastic. Am I that bad?

My parents and especially my dad have most likely done a lot of praying for the victims. When talking to my sister back home she mentioned that there was more than 200 missing in our county alone (Småland). The people at home has donated record amounts in the perhaps largest disaster striking our little country in decades.

My father has worked with giving support to relatives to victims of the large ferry MS Estonia disaster that occurred in the Baltic Sea in 1994 with more than 850 victims, among them a former class mate of mine.

This ferry disaster in 1994, the murder of our prime minister Olof Palme in 1986, and the mass death of Swedish tourists in Thailand will be considered among the biggest historical events in Swedish recent history and are all events that have touched people in a very high degree.

This focus on Swedish victims have helped people understand the scope of the much larger disaster that has struck the region, and believe me, many thoughts from home are with the victims in the countries directly effected.

I forgive my dad for being concerned when there are trees falling down just outside the house the and power has been off for days. It is considered the severest storm since 1969. There is nothing he can do right now to help the victims more than he probably already has.

(Hope he gets to read this)
:-)

Anonymous said...

Shite! Now I feel embarrassed. Just when I thought I knew you...

DARN!!