Protecting a home the Eastern way

Mark Faccin

Friday,  January  7, 2005

For most of Grand Cayman’s residents there has been a considerable amount of cleaning up to do in the wake of the storm. But for Mark Faccin the post Ivan clear up was considerably less arduous than many of his neighbours.

Although Mr Faccin’s apartment in West Bay was surrounded by badly damaged apartments, when he returned home after the storm to his apartment, which was very close to the sea, it seemed considerably less affected than many of those around it.

Mr Faccin was certainly surprised by how little an impact Ivan appeared to have made on his place, especially as he watched his neighbours stand aghast at the holes where their roofs once were, or sifted through knee deep water to find personal possessions they once cherished.

Thanking his luck, Mr Faccin got down to clearing the little bit of water that had managed to seep in and give the place a bit of a spring clean before his girl friend returned from overseas.

“As I was putting the living room back together, I found a coin with a square hole in it in the corner of the room. I knew it wasn't mine, so I assumed it was my girl friend’s” said Mr Faccin. “I put it on the counter and continued mopping the floor. When my girlfriend got back I showed her the Chinese looking coin and said, “is this yours?” 

She said “Yes, when I bought the coffee table at that Feng Shui place in town it had a little booklet with it saying to put this coin in the corner of the room to protect it.”

As you can imagine Mr Faccin was rather curious. Both apartments on either side of him had extensive ceiling and flood damage; they had mold & mildew multiplying on the walls. “Not only that,” he added, “the buildings across the street from us were gutted and lost their roofs completely. So did we have good luck, or did we have luck from the Feng Shui coin protecting the room, or was it just a huge co-incidence? I don’t know; perhaps I should have put that coin in my car.”

Feng Shui is an ancient Eastern art of creating living and working environments that are in tune with nature, and Maureen Powers, the former manager of Grand Cayman’s Feng Shui store commenting on Mr Faccin’s story said:

“It doesn’t surprise me as I have heard of this type of thing many times before, where flood waters or even fire seems to miss one home while destroying another. Often the home that has been missed has residents who are in tune with their environments, homes where people have made a conscious decision to create a protective environment.”

Ms Powers also believes those who have an awareness and more importantly a respect for the natural environment in and around where they live, are likely to create safer places.

“Nature is an important factor in all environments and perhaps if we all had taken more care of and had more respect for the natural indigenous environment in the Cayman Islands, more people may have escaped the damage caused by Ivan. In particular the felling of indigenous trees certainly made the flooding far worse; those lost trees would have soaked up a lot of the flood water that found its way into people’s home,” Ms Powers added.

Regardless of the powers of Feng Shui Mr Faccin remains grateful for his escape from the wrath of Ivan and who knows perhaps a small Chinese coin on the corner of Seven Mile Beach may have saved us all.

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