Poppy Wilson's Story

Poppy and Max Wilson outside Lalomanu Hospital.

Time - 7am
Day - 29th September
Samoa
In my sleep I felt a strange rumbling and I thought it was a massaging machine but as I woke my Dad was yelling “Get out of the Fale” He grabbed me by my foot and dragged me outside.I realised we were in a big low rumbling earthquake that went on and on. When it stopped I went back into the Fale and got dressed. At that point dad joined me and talked to me about staying close as he suspected that something else could come after the earthquake.
I said “Dad I need to go to the toilet”.
Dad replied “Yes but if you here me calling come no matter what”.
I went to the toilet block and locked the door behind me.Then I heard screams and my Dad yelling
“POPPY, POPPY, POPPY”
I bolted out of the toilet I was very frightened because the tone of my Dad’s voice
was very desperate and I could also hear other people screaming and yelling…
“RUN, TSUNAMI”
I saw Dad by the Fale and ran to him.I dropped the Fale keys in the hidey-hole.
Dad said“RUN IN FRONT OF ME”
He pointed to the cliff behind the toilet block that I was just in. Dad was right behind me yelling“GO, GO, GO”Every time he said GO I ran even faster.Maxwell was already well ahead of us.We ran over a rubbish pile.I dropped my beautiful fan that I had just bought the day before for 5 Tala.We started to climb the cliff using the roots and branches of the trees.

Maxwell was climbing in front of me, my dad was behind us both yelling
“GO GO, don’t look back”
We got about 15 meters up. I couldn’t reach the next tree root
“Dad I can’t go any further” I screamed.Dad yelled to Maxwell to grab my hand.
Dad pushed my feet from underneath.Maxwell cried“If I’m going to die, at least I’m going to die with you guys”.
Dad replied“Don’t be so stupid just GO”
Then the first wave hit the cliff.A yellow car was tossed up against the cliff. At that point I became very frightened .I climbed the cliff so fast that I can’t remember climbing it.At the top of the hill we were all alone.I was so frighten I was balling my eyes out.Then I saw movement in the bushes and I said
“Hey other people”but a stupid pig appeared instead.2 other Children turned up.
They were really frightened and crying for Their Mother and fathers.
Then 2 Samoan boys came running towards us.One of them was yelling for his Mum.
Dad stopped them from going down the cliff and told them to stay with us.
Dad turned his attention me and the other little girl to calm us down.
While dad wasn’t watching one of the Samoan boys went down the cliff.
We never saw him again.Eventually the other children’s parents appeared
over the rim of cliff.Dad told me to hold onto another little girl who was also crying and very frightened as he went to look for our friends Jenny and Sophie.
Dad reappeared with Jenny and Sophie Jenny had a sore foot.
After a while there was lots of people with us. Most of them wanted to go back down,
but dad said
“Don’t, We don’t know what’s coming next
Then as a group we started to walk away from the cliff,through the bush. Going inland We came across a Samoan man who told us to go to the hospital which wasn’t far from where we were.We arrived at the hospital and we cleaned all our scrapes and burses with wet cloths.
I saw a woman crying over her dead baby.The hospital got really busy and frightening so we walked further up the hill on a sharp gravel road in bear feet.
We found a house that was half built.Other people had already started to gather there.
We sat down and dad found some water to drink. After I drank the water I vomited.
Strangely I felt much better after that.We cleared an area for us to lie down
as we believed that we would be staying the night.Then some Samoans turned up with woven matts and pillows to make us more comfortable.In the house with us were a lot of badly wounded people and 2 families that had lost children.
Then a van came with cooking rings and food.They set up a cooking area and prepared us food to eat.After a while the wounded were taken down to the hospital.
Then cars turned up and before we knew it we were on the back of a ute and driving down the road.We drove past the hospital and it was over crowded with lots of injured people.Then we drove past what was our resort, which was totally destroyed.
I saw a leg and a head poking out of the sand on the beach.It took us 1 hour, 50 minutes to drive thought the destruction zone to Apia.
We arrived in Apia on sunset and went to a motel to stay the night.At 4:30 the next morning the church bell rang.We all leapt out of bed and ran out side,
Up the stairs to the top story of the motel thinking it was a warning for another Tsunami.But they were just calling people to early church.
The next day dad got us on the late flight back to New Zealand.We left Samoa with just our shorts and tee shirts.We had lost everything else
to the Tsunami.The Samoan’s of Litia Sini at Lalomanu lost everything
including family and friendsBut they still made us their first priority.
They are truly kind and loving people.We are collecting money to help them rebuild their lives, so please give generously.


Poppy Wilson
Age 10
Speech date - Friday 16th October 2009
Coatesville School