Kaylee Heath and Her Real-Life Survival Story
For the last year, I have lived on a small island in Micronesia called Saipan with my husband and our two daughters–ages 3 and 2. If you haven’t heard of Saipan, you are definitely in the majority. Saipan is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is a tiny island, 5 miles by 12 miles, in the middle of the Philippine Sea.
How We Ended Up In Saipan
When my husband neared the end of graduate school, we decided to try something different, and we started interviewing for jobs in foreign countries. We ended up getting an offer from a place we had never heard of either–Saipan. I did little to no research on Saipan, and we took the job.
A few weeks later, we moved across the world with only four suitcases and two car seats. We had literally no idea what we were getting into.
We moved to Saipan a few weeks after super-typhoon Yutu hit the island, and everything was completely destroyed upon our arrival. There was little food. Peoples’ homes were wiped away. Power was out on the south end of the island for 6 months. Even an entire year later, families were still living in tents.
To say the least, it was a tough transition. It was a challenging place to live.
The Struggle Is Real
Within the first few months, we had ants in our food, all the time. One night, we woke up with a shrew in our bed. It was hot, sweaty, and the power went out in our home often. We transitioned from having access to everything to having access to very little. We went from grocery stores to markets, and regulated laws to “every man for himself.”
Being Self Sufficient Is Key To Survival
Over the last year, our family has learned how to survive without much. We have learned to prepare for typhoons, board up our windows, eat whatever was available, live without power, stock up on drinking water, husk and utilize coconuts, hang dry all of our clothes, and live in discomfort.
On Saipan, instead of ordering curtains, you hang up garbage bags on your windows. Instead of having scheduled days, you pretty much do nothing.
I started writing for this blog while our power was shutting on and off, while we were living in our moldy little apartment in the jungle.
Everything that I’ve written for survival on this website is applicable, to all of us.
It’s easy to think that life will always be as it is now, and that food and water will always be as accessible. That emergency room will always be open and Venmo will always be a way to transfer money to the bank quickly. That we will always have access to cash and our Walmart supplies.
Practicing Emergency Preparedness Is So Important
However, I have seen how people on the other side of the world live. And now, I know that practicing for preparedness is critical.
My best friends on the island (and the ones who lived right next door) were the people on Saipan who, before and after the typhoons, went around to all the tiny houses in the jungle to help those around them prepare and then recover. They were the ones with chainsaws, the ones with enough drinking water to share, and the ones with enough cash to help friends and family.
I have made the personal goal to take on this role in my neighborhood and community by being well-informed and prepared, even in simple ways.
Being Part Of The Solution
Because I have seen that emergency preparedness is not an illusive idea but an actual reality, I want to be part of the solution instead of part of the panic.