After being confined to a number of government office complexes, hotel rooms and vehicles I finally had a chance to get out into the Mountains and see some of the people that have been affected by typhoon Morakot.It was late afternoon when we left the town and headed into the mountains. It had been raining off and on for two days, the bitumen in town was slick with rain and oil, but as we travelled higher into the mountains the road surface became even more of a challenge – it wasn’t there!
Where the narrow mountain roads had once been piles of road and rock debris created a muddy undulating avenue, courtesy of the heavy machinery that had cleared access routes. On the right of the vehicle high mountains of shale stretched into the sky, still unstable and still falling lightly; on the left a precipitous drop to what had once been a wide clear river was guarded by temporary road barriers and string.
The river, apparently once wide and clear, is now a collection of narrow streams contained by thousands of tones of fallen mountain debris. But this is one of the lucky places – there were no houses in the route taken by these landslides. These mountain areas are the home of Taiwanese aboriginal people, no one else can buy, or own land in these areas. The people who live in these villages in the shadows of these awesome mountains are poor, agriculturalists, (Christians predominantly), whose families have inhabited these lands for centuries.
With one of our vehicles loaded with rice and other food we drove into the forecourt of the village church to be met by a dozen primary aged kids who were willing to take any excuse to put their home work aside – even if it meant unloading boxes of snacks and drinks. 89 people live in this village, primarily grandparents taking care of children and farms, while the mums and dads travel and live in nearby towns to try and get work and income.
And these are the lucky people (this time).
