Alright, alright! I'll stay.=) Now last night was the craziest night of my life. The biggest earthquake I've ever felt happened last night. Then the water came up and destroyed a lot of homes and things. The earthquake was huge. Way bigger than anything I've felt in California.
I was in my bed, just getting ready to fall asleep. We started to feel the shaking, not much at first. I thought we would just ride it out. I soon realized that that was not the appropriate course of action.
I jumped up out of bed, and Vince got up after he saw me. As we got up, the quake got stronger. All of us made it to the porch at the same time. The electricity went out, so it got real dark. The four of us made it down to the first platform at the same time just about. It was really shaking by this time. It felt like the earth was moving 5 feet at a time in all directions. We were all off balance, but we all jumped onto the sand safely, and at just about the same time.
The earth was moving so much. It felt even worse when we were on the sand. I've never felt anything like it. It was loud, the houses were moving back and forth visibly. The bungalow next to ours was damaged beyond repair. Similar structure, but all of the concrete stilts were cracked and the bungalow started leaning towards ours.
We quickly decided to get what we needed, and head for high ground. We all grabbed our passports, and a few other things and got out of the house. The water was already coming up when I looked back at Erwin and Thoma. When we got to the road, there was a beemo full of people headed for the nearby mountain. We followed them up, and stayed there for about 5-10 minutes.
Somebody ran up with a baby that was all wet and sandy. So Vince and I went down to see if we could help. We walked through the village shouting "Hello!","Anybody!","Gunung, Now!"(Gunung means mountain). We found a few people and told them to go up to the mountain. The water had already come up to the road by that time. We found out this morning that more than half of the homes and bungalows were destroyed. The stairs on the bungalow next to ours were demolished. Many houses came down in the quake, and then more were damaged by the wave.
Many people died in the town down the road(Teluk-Dalam). We don't know how many, but apparently more than 40. Once in a while someone will bring news of a dead family member, and we can hear people just wailing and crying. It's horrible.
It was a huge quake, and there is a good chance that another tsunami went out and devestated other countries. We have no idea. This could be the worst place, or we could be the luckiest. As far as our house, it was one of the only ones not damaged. It's like angels were holding up the structure, and bringing us to safety.
We spent the night in the street up the hill, and now we're even farther up the hill in the village of Botohilitano(Botohili for short).
So what now? I've been here 5 days and there's been a major catastrophy. We've felt more than 30 aftershocks since the first quake. The ocean is rising and receding like crazy. I don't know what to do. Do I stay here, and try to help any way I can? Do I go back to Malaysia and wait for the team to get here? Do I need to leave this place to tell my family I'm ok? Do I need to leave to help more? I expect an answer to this Lord. I'm not angry with you.
I believe that you are good, and I believe that you will guide me. I'm here, and I'm willing. I'm scared of disease, and I'm scared of a food or water shortage. I'm afraid if I stay I'll be an added burden on Morris right now.(The guy I'm staying with) I don't know what to do. You know what I should do. Please make it clear.
Amen
All content copyright © 2005 Timothy Jones (a.k.a. nobody)