Earthquakes

     As we shared in the last post we had a couple earthquakes here in Barat. The first occured on a Thursday afternoon while John was conducting a comprehension check on a translated story. Living in a stilt house, we can feel some vibrating when the kids run up and down the stairs or from room to room. The swaying we felt made us all, except Whitman and Evangeline, stop and wonder. When we recognized it was not running children or strong winds, which have never caused the house to sway before, we realized it must be an earthquake. 

     The tutors all quickly began checking the internet or calling their family members. One, who is a new mother, quickly went home to check on her daughter and the grandmother in charge. 

     Shortly after, John returned to comprehension checking and I returned to homeschooling. Whitman became slightly grumpy as he had not felt it. The following night, we experienced a larger earthquake. Our neighbors, who live in brick houses, ran outside and began conversing. Though the whole neighborhood was up, our kids slept right through it. 

    The next afternoon, the national climate, geology, and meteorology agency advised all people, in the recent earthquake areas, to avoid the shore. The concern was if any additional earthquake of greater magnitude occurred it could produce a tsunami. We live in a fishing village, on the coast. If you don't live directly on the shore, you live at the most 200 yards away. That afternoon, 99% of our neighborhood cleared out. They walked, drove, or rode to the nearest hills, about a 15 minute walk away. There they proceeded to camp until the national agency said it was safe enough to return home, which turned out to be exactly one week later.

The foundation John works for donated tarps, rope, and ramen to those camping.

As Evangeline missed her friends, she was thrilled to visit their tents.

     After educating ourselves on the situation, checking earthquake monitoring agencies, and weighing the options, we decided to stay put.  A couple men remained in our neighborhood as well to watch their houses as many were afraid of robbers and to care for their goats.  

     There was much destruction caused at and near the epicenter, about 80miles from us.  We were thankful in our area there were not any deaths nor building damage aside from a crack or two.    

     Earthquakes are not a predictable phenomena.  They cannot even be compared to weather which is often forecasted accurately.  The whole week our neighbors were camping it rained.  I had the strongest desire to educate each and everyone of them about earthquakes, fault lines, structure safety, and tsunamis.  I was confident that if they avoided a tsunami risk out there camping, they would all come home with colds.  Though there is a place for education, much of which still needs to happen here, I learned that wasn't the thing truly giving me peace during this time.  

     This biggest lesson I've learned from this ongoing and far reaching COVID pandemic is we can try to make wise choices with the information we have, but ultimately we are not in charge and have to trust the one who is.  With that in the back of my mind, I, Erin, realized my neighbors needed that peace more than good education on earthquake and tsunami likelihood, trends, or factors.  Besides if you watch a monitoring agency like the USGS, you can become quite paranoid because of the number of earthquakes happening daily across the globe.   

      Thankfully we have remained safe and all our neighbors have returned home, with only a few colds.  Even as this pandemic seems to rage on into 2021, we rest assured in the one who is sovereign over it all!