Earthquake in Illapel
During my time in Chile, I lived through my first major earthquake, avoided death and lived to tell the story. I experienced firsthand the trauma of living through one of mother nature’s most dangerous catastrophes. The earthquake showed just how unpredictable life is and how it should be cherished intensely every single day. Why was I in Chile? I was there serving a mission for my church, where I was able to teach people every day about Christ, serve in any way possible, and become part of the Chilean culture. When someone chooses to serve a mission, they have no idea where they will go, what language they will learn, or what foods they will eat. Every single day you’re walking for hours, talking to strangers, …show more content…
As we entered our home, we saw everything from our cupboards and shelves had fallen to the ground. Little items in the kitchen broke such as our blender and plates, and our bathroom sinks had been loosened from the walls. Other than small things that could be fixed easily, no extensive damage was found which was very unusual. Normally an earthquake with the magnitude that we experienced, would have left at the very least the walls of all the homes cracked. We crawled into bed, absolutely exhausted from everything we had experienced, although since we had never experienced an earthquake before we didn’t know that we would also have aftershocks throughout the entire night. We went to bed, and in the middle of the night had several other small temblors. My companion thought that we would have another earthquake, so she was prepared as she slept to run out the door. During the night, I had to stop her from bolting out into the street and stood with her hugging a column in our house (which the locals said would protect us in case our house fell over) until the early morning hours. We didn’t get any sleep, the next day we walked around in a daze, unsure of the things that had happened. Yesterday seemed almost as if it were a dream or nightmare, depending on how you look at it, and everyone just wished life would go back to normal. Our days seemed long after the earthquake, as we worked hard to help clean up the mess. We tried to sleep with all of the aftershocks every single night. Overall there were an additional 400+ earthquakes within the following 48
During my time in Chile, I lived through my first major earthquake, avoided death and lived to tell the story. I experienced firsthand the trauma of living through one of mother nature’s most dangerous catastrophes. The earthquake showed just how unpredictable life is and how it should be cherished intensely every single day. Why was I in Chile? I was there serving a mission for my church, where I was able to teach people every day about Christ, serve in any way possible, and become part of the Chilean culture. When someone chooses to serve a mission, they have no idea where they will go, what language they will learn, or what foods they will eat. Every single day you’re walking for hours, talking to strangers, …show more content…
As we entered our home, we saw everything from our cupboards and shelves had fallen to the ground. Little items in the kitchen broke such as our blender and plates, and our bathroom sinks had been loosened from the walls. Other than small things that could be fixed easily, no extensive damage was found which was very unusual. Normally an earthquake with the magnitude that we experienced, would have left at the very least the walls of all the homes cracked. We crawled into bed, absolutely exhausted from everything we had experienced, although since we had never experienced an earthquake before we didn’t know that we would also have aftershocks throughout the entire night. We went to bed, and in the middle of the night had several other small temblors. My companion thought that we would have another earthquake, so she was prepared as she slept to run out the door. During the night, I had to stop her from bolting out into the street and stood with her hugging a column in our house (which the locals said would protect us in case our house fell over) until the early morning hours. We didn’t get any sleep, the next day we walked around in a daze, unsure of the things that had happened. Yesterday seemed almost as if it were a dream or nightmare, depending on how you look at it, and everyone just wished life would go back to normal. Our days seemed long after the earthquake, as we worked hard to help clean up the mess. We tried to sleep with all of the aftershocks every single night. Overall there were an additional 400+ earthquakes within the following 48