Project Heal and Protect Charitable Trust » Rebuilding Paradise
Rebuilding Paradise
Same style. Same colour. Same everything. Yet changed forever.
The Taufua family have rebuilt their traditional beachside fale resort in southeastern Samoa almost exactly as it was before last September's tsunami smashed it to splinters, taking with it the lives of 13 family members and Waikato sisters Petria and Rebecca Martin.
But, more than 10 months on from the disaster, owner Tai Taufua remains so afraid of the turquoise sea that she has yet to feel its touch.
"I have not been in the ocean since. I used to live in it. People encourage me to go with them. I just can't."
Like all those whose thatched shelters used to dot the beach, Mrs Taufua is torn between fear, the need to make a living, and the need to distract her mind from those terrible memories. If only for a moment.
"After the tsunami I was so scared looking at the sea most of the time. When we came down here there was nothing much to do. We were just looking at each other and crying most of the time. No-one can move on if we don't stand together as a family to work something out. That's why we wanted to rebuild."
Tourism makes up 25 per cent of Samoa's GDP. It's also a critical source of jobs in poor areas where work is scarce. For every one person that works in tourism, another 10 rely on that income.
Last season's lost tourism income was made up in international aid. But the coming year will be the real test of the industry's ability to bounce back.
Tourists continue to visit the sunny Pacific country – visitor numbers are up 9 per cent on this time last year. But while the major resorts have been largely rebuilt, little trace remains of the 55 small family-owned beach fale businesses that used to pepper the sands on the southeast coast of Upolu island.
Driving around the worst affected coastline, from Lalomanu to Coconuts and Sinalei resorts in the south, The Dominion Post counted just three clusters of beach bungalows back up and running, with another half-built and set to reopen in time for the one-year anniversary.
And that's despite the New Zealand Government-funded 3.5 million Samoan tala (NZ$1.9m) Tourism Tsunami Beach Fale Rebuilding Programme (TTRP), designed specifically to support tsunami-devastated small tourism businesses.
Fear is undoubtedly a factor in the slow recovery – beachside villages have been rebuilt in the safety of the hilltop plantations and many Samoans are reluctant to return to land that harbours such terrible sores. But bureaucracy also plays a role.
Fale operators say the TTRP grant process is too long and involved, with too many conditions, including fale size, distance between fales, and escape routes.
The "simplified guidelines" for applicants stretch to seven A4 pages. Six months after the fund was set up, only 1.3m tala has been committed.
"The tourist office made us work so hard to get that fund out. We are still waiting on it," says Mrs Taufua, who first heard about the fund when it was launched in February. Her application was finally approved two weeks ago.
Her family was lucky – their cars were insured and they could fund redevelopments through donations and leftover business money, rather than having to wait for the grant. Others do not have that luxury.
Nynette Sass, chief executive of the Samoa Hotels Association, which is administering the grants, has defended the process. All aid must be accounted for, and SHA staff are helping families complete the paperwork.
There is some good news. So far, 24 grants have been approved, with another seven pending, suggesting more than half the original businesses will be rebuilt.
BUT even if every family was to follow the Taufuas' lead and rebuild their thatched, opensided pole-houses exactly as before, the area would never be the same.
The Lalomanu beach is steeper. The villages across the road are deserted, the crumbling ruins of abandoned houses standing as monuments to the great wave. Because the broken buildings lie on customary land, they will remain until families decide otherwise.
The protective reef was so smashed up that the previously calm lagoon is still constantly churning.
A snorkeller estimates that about 90 per cent of the reef is dead, although some soft corals survive. There are still large schools of fish, and a roaming turtle.
But there are also unwelcome sights – children's T-shirts still snagged in the coral.
Although divers have removed the worst of the debris – roofing iron and mashed cars – it will be up to the local communities to pick out the remaining reminders. The Samoan Government plans to grow coral polyps to reseed the reef. But that will take time.
Still, tourists seem undeterred. Taufua is almost full, with several groups of Kiwis – including three sets of returning guests – Australians, an Austrian and Swiss couple, and six Germans. The sun, bleached sands and glorious warm water do not disappoint.
Further around the coast at Saleapaga, Fao Fao Beach Fales owner Koroseta Legalo had to turn away would-be guests last week as her 12 fales were already full.
Before the tsunami her family ran 20 fales, a beachfront bar and restaurant, conference area, four self-contained units and four cars. All were wiped out.
But not returning to rebuild was never an option. She needs money to feed and school her five children and fund her brother's children through university.
"This was 20 years in the making. That's why we rebuild quick, because we love our business. Coming back to the beach – the first time I was afraid. The second was OK. We look forward for the children's school, our life, our future.
"Who knows, in 100 years a tsunami will come again. We know what we can do, we run up to the hills."
The family reopened in December with five fales, a bar and kitchen.
With a combination of a bank loan, a TTRP grant and donations from friends in Australia and New Zealand, they are slowly expanding.
The next step is a 12-room lodge, just back from the beach. The generosity is astonishing. Under a tent behind the restaurant are 12 shiny new scooters given by New Zealand friends.
The Legalo family are one of the few who have rebuilt their modest home on the flat sands, to be close to the business. But they have also built a new house "up the mountain, in case".
The idea of the TTRP's rigorous conditions is to encourage families to "build back better".
It's something Litia Sini manager Lydia Sini Toomalatai has clearly taken to heart.
Set up by her parents in 1993, the beachside resort used to look much the same as next-door Taufua, with traditional open bungalows raised on poles. Now builders are working furiously to complete 16 closed wooden fales with private balconies, raised on a 3-metre rock platform.
Mrs Toomalatai hopes to open the resort in time for the tsunami anniversary.
The family have also rebuilt using a combination of donations from relatives and friends, a bank loan and a TTRP grant.
The grant, which she will use to buy furniture when the money finally comes through, was approved last Friday. "It is not as simple as we originally think.
There are paperworks we have to complete, compliance issues we have to complete."
With bookings already coming in despite the half-finished rooms, she's confident about the future: "With the number of inquiries we are receiving, it's looking pretty good so far. A lot of people are still wanting to come back."
Past the largely abandoned villages of Saleapaga and Lepa, a horse grazes next to the sign to the Seabreeze Resort.
A rude wooden X obscuring the turtle insignia makes it clear the resort remains out of action.
But the graunching of heavy machinery suggests activity. Down the hill in the peaceful cove, government diggers are building a massive rock wall.
Owner Chris Booth is settling down to a quiet Steinlager after another long day rebuilding.
He's surrounded by tsunami survivors – Lucy, the fattest dog in Samoa, who has suffered fits since being smashed by a wave, and the two cats who somehow escaped drowning.
It's after 5pm but wife Wendy is still down the drive at the office working on the interminable paperwork. "The amount of bureaucracy – it's a job in itself."
But it's been a good day. One of the digger claws dredged up his old conch shell, more or less intact. There's a hole in one side, but nothing a clasped hand and practised blow can't overcome.
Seabreeze opened in 2006, when the Aussie couple traded their builder/book-keeper jobs for the tranquil cove. Three years later the site was again bare.
One fale, on the hill, survived and that has been the couple's base as they rebuild.
Mr Booth has just poured mass concrete and used 20-tonne jacks to right the house where he and Wendy were trapped when the wave hit – you can still see the fingernail scratch marks on the door jamb where they held on for their lives.
It took several weeks of trauma to even consider the resort's future.
But in the end the decision was easy. "We didn't want to go back to Australia and back to being a book-keeper and a builder.
These things happen occasionally. We had weathered the storm. We still want to be here. We had a lovely business we both loved."
They also wanted to support their 27 fulltime staff. Most of the "village boys" were re-employed in the rebuilding. And Wendy set up a handcrafts co-op for the women, funded by donations.
"From bad has come good. In one way we are quite lucky – to see the country rally, to feel the generosity of people we had never known before."
A lawyer and engineer gave their time. Auckland architecture graduate Scott Jury was booked to holiday at Sinalei resort before the tsunami. Instead he spent the week at Seabreeze helping with the redesign.
Most of the fales have now been rebuilt. Next up are the restaurant and pool. Much of the resort will be as before, with a notable addition – a second emergency escape path has been cut into the hill close to the Booths' house.
The resort was fully insured, but that process is still ongoing. In the meantime, they have taken out a loan. Though not eligible for the TTRP, the Booths also had help from the New Zealand Government, which invested money into banks, reducing interest rates.
WHEN Seabreeze reopens next year, it's likely the tsunami scars will remain in surrounding villages. But around the coast at Coconuts, the transformation is little short of miraculous.
When the waves ploughed through these flat lands, houses were pounded to matchsticks. One boat was left wedged in a tree.
Now the boat is moored at the end of the jetty, ready for fishing trips. Tourists on sunloungers take in the morning sun.
The beach is lined with neat rows of huts from the three completely refashioned resorts – Coconuts, Maninoa Surf Camp and Sinalei Resort.
Sinalei manager Sose Annandale looks out from the new restaurant pier, surveying the rebuilt beachside fales. Although much of the upmarket resort escaped the tsunami, Sinalei closed for six months, reopening in April. About one-fifth of their losses were covered by insurance.
The rest has gone on a big fat loan, that Mrs Annandale says will take a lifetime to repay.
Though her sister-in-law Tui and Tui's mother died in the tsunami, she and brother Joe believed returning to the beach was the right thing to do.
"It's always there in the back of our mind. It will be there until eternity. One has to move on, get more positive.
"When you have put a lot of effort and passion into something you don't want to let it go so easily. You don't let money, or the lack of it, be the reason you don't do it."
And their commitment has been rewarded – the resort is 80 to 90 per cent full, compared with the usual 70 to 80 per cent, albeit stimulated by special deals. Many are returning guests, eager to support the country's recovery.
Eventually, once they've caught their breath, the Annandales plan to expand. The Taufuas are also spreading their reach.
When the tsunami hit, they were halfway through building a huge emergency house up the hill behind Lalomanu, with commanding views of the bay.
That's now complete and circular saws are humming as builders cut timber for five new rental units.
Though the heart-shaped flower wreath on the grey concrete graves beside the house is a constant reminder of the family's loss, the future looks less bleak.
Ms Sass is also optimistic. She hopes all the beach fale resorts will rebuild within a year. "It will look a lot nicer than today." Perhaps, by then, Mrs Taufua will be able to join her guests for a swim.
By Nikki MacDonald
Posted with permission from the Dominion Post (07/08/2010).