Rain and Quakes

Dear Friend,

I am lying on my bed listening to the rain outside. I love the smell and sound of rain, especially when you are safe at home in the afternoon after a long day of work. It is so peaceful and calming... until the thunder comes, that is. You know that great smell rain has? Well here I get to smell that smell all the time. In Indonesia the houses have two front doors, one that is wooden and one that has a metal screen. Then there is also a backdoor that leads out to the kitchen and washing area. That door also has the two doors. During the day both wooden doors are opened and just the screen doors are closed. This allows the wind to blow through the house instead of having an air conditioner. Since these doors are always open, I can be sitting at my table and smell that great afternoon rain smell without getting caught outside in the rain. All the floors are tiled, in the house and out the backdoor where the kitchen and washing machine are. There is an non-roofed space where we hang our clothes to dry during the day. When the rain hits the tile it makes a crisp popping sound, a little like the sound of a fountain. I also have a metal roof over part of the back area, which adds a melodious tone to the rainfall. It is raining now and the peacefulness inspired me to write you.

Since the massive earthquake in Japan, I have been thinking of my earthquake experiences. My friend, that I went to grade school with, is now working in Japan and she said it was worse than any earthquake she had ever experienced. In 7th grade we went on a field trip about safety and they had a little room that looked like a kitchen that you could stand in. They would make the room shake like an earthquake with a magnitude equal to the Kobe earthquake. That was strong and scary to feel even though it wasn't real. This current earthquake was so much stronger than that! I can't imagine how scary that must have been! Especially for a teacher in charge of little children. They had to evacuate the building and everything. I only remember having a real earthquake during school once, and it was so small we didn't even evacuate the building.

Growing up in Japan, earthquakes were an expected event. My mom always left our door ajar when we went to bed, not to let the light in, but to prevent the door from getting stuck if there was a big earthquake. She wanted us to be able to get out of our room easily. If your clothes are on fire, you stop drop and roll. If you experience an earthquake when you are sleeping this is our families routine: grab your pillow, hold it over your head, stand under the door frame of your room and if the earthquake persists, run to the dinning room and get under the table. I only remember having to run to the dining room table once when I was really little. Normally the earthquakes are small and my whole family stands under the door frames of our rooms, look at each other with our pillows wrapped around our heads, smile at the silly sight, then ask the question, "Did it stop?" "I think so." "Okay, well good-night again." Then we all go back to bed. Sometimes we would go turn on the TV to see where the earthquake originated from and how strong it was. Typically they were only 3's.

I remember one small earthquake that woke me up in the night. It was still early and the rest of my family was still awake. I ran to my door with my pillow clutched over my head. My sister was in the restroom right next to my room and I could hear her struggling to open the door. It was locked and in her haste and panic she was having trouble unlocking it. The sound of her trying to get out scared me so much that for a while I stopped closing the door when I used the restroom at home and I rarely ever locked the door after that.

Another time my family and I were at McDonalds for breakfast, a family tradition of ours. We were sitting on the second floor by the window. Sometimes we would feel the building shake and my dad said it was because a heavy truck drove by. Sure enough, looking out the window we could see a truck had just past. Just as we were finishing our breakfast we felt the floor shake more than normal and my dad said it was still just a truck, but when we looked out the window there was no truck in sight! What happened next was SO funny! My family of 5 tried to get down on the floor under the small tables at McDonalds, except my dad. He sat there eating until we pulled him under the table. We were sitting in a booth where the chairs don't push back and there definitly was not enough room for all of us under there. We all started to laugh at how ridiculous we looked. We were finished with breakfast and quickly got into our car to run home and see how big of an earthquake it was. Of course the information wasn't on the TV anymore because we lived at least 15 minutes away, but we still hurried home, just in case we could see.

Those are my small earthquake experiences. My stories are kind of silly and I am in no way trying to make light of what happened in Japan. Not at all. It is a devastating event. Watching the news and seeing all the pictures and footage is just unbelievable to me. To see my strong country smashed into devastation in a manner of seconds is jaw dropping. I know the whole country wasn't wiped out, but to see even a part of it harmed is unbelievable. It is amazing to see the strength of the Japanese as they work together to get through this all. May God's light be seen through all of this!

Keep praying for Japan.
RES