under the fire star

I'm very grateful to those who have written to ask how I am. We're still on vacation. Friends who went to our house to see if it had been affected tell us that it is okay -- we're about a mile from the coast, and the water didn't reach us. But I'm worried about our servants. Two of them live in our compound, so they're okay, but two more, and families of the two who live with us, are in slums very near the sea. Our friends said that our compound is full of people, the extended families of the staff, who are camping out there. They are handing out fresh water to displaced people nearby. Beyond that, we won't know what's really happening until we return on the fourth.

I hope that those who read this are safe and warm, and that all your family and friends are, too. I don't believe in the efficacy of prayer, but I can't help praying anyway -- for so many thousands of people, the dead and those who have survived.