Last night we got a small sense of what the Thai people live with everyday. We had a great night watching movies with the American boys and then stopped by the Happy Snapper on the way home to listen to some great live music. I was singing along and the lead singer even handed me a shaker so I could play along. I was sitting there thinking that life was great. Around midnight we realized that we had better start heading home to bed so we'd be ready for work in the morning, even though we really didn't want to leave. Before we left Jodie said we should check out the bathroom there - a common thing - this either means it is very clean or very disgusting - this one was clean and original with a cute decorative little wooden ladder and other interesting things to be in a bathroom.
As I was leaving the washroom Jodie came up to me and said, "There has been an earthquake and we need to get to high ground right away." I thought to myself, wow, that really isn't something that we should be joking about, but then I realized that she wasn't joking at all. While I had been in the bathroom the owner had received a phone call, turned on the tv, announced something in Thai and then everyone had taken off. An English man told Jodie what was going on and all she could do was stand there staring at him with her mouth open. He told her, "Don't just stand there, GO!" So go we did.
We were heading up the hill that was directly beside the Happy Snapper when I realized that we had just been at Toni's watching the movie and that she was asleep and wouldn't know what was going on. I stopped and asked the English guy what to do. He swore at me and told me that I didn't have time to go back and get her. That was when I started to realize what was really going on, although it felt like a dream and still does. We got up to high ground, found a phone and started calling everyone we had numbers for to make sure they knew what was going on and that someone had called Toni (we didn't have her phone number). We were relieved to know that everyone already knew and were heading to high ground. It was at this time that we were told that there wasn't a guarentee that a tsunami was coming, the warning was there as a precautionary measure because there had been a 7.3 earthquake in Phuket (where I had been just 10 hours earlier - that freaked me out a bit) and although the earthquake was smaller, it was closer to the shore and that was why they were afraid. We were told that we would know within the next 2 hours if a tsunami was coming or not and that all we could do was wait.
We met up with our Thai friend, Gita, who has really been struggling emotionally since the last tsunami because she lost many of her staff and felt responsible. We met a new friend, Justin, who had come to Thailand in January to help clean up and was concerned that all of their rebuilding was about to be washed away again. We waited and prayed and prayed and waited, not really knowing what to think and not understanding anything that was blaring in Thai on the radios that were around us. We found out at some point that all the Mogon people that we had been working with had been evacuated and we were relieved about that. One of the YWAM teams was missing, but they must have found them at some point, but that was really worrying Gaan and Byrd so they left to find them. We were really wishing that we could be with the rest of the YWAM teams even though we don't really know them, but were happy that the 3 of us were together and also that we could be there for Gita. After the 2 hours were up we were sent home and it wasn't until this morning that we really realized what had been going on while we were up on the mountain.
Baiba, our friend from Latvia had been woken up last night to be told that another tsunami was coming. She, as well as many, many other people were running for their lives. She said that cars were everywhere and that they wouldn't stop to pick up hitchhikers. She said that people were running for their lives everywhere. She said that a volunteer bus had been hit in the panic and that 2 volunteers were badly injured. Teams were leaving their members behind if they were too slow or injured. It was pure panic. We feel really blessed that we didn't have any clue that this was going on. We walked out of the Happy Snapper and straight up the mountain so we didn't see any of this. The mountain was full of trees so we couldn't see the road and we weren't going any closer to the road so we had no idea how chaotic is was. This is the talk of the town this morning. I am sitting in a travel agent place writing this and a couple just came in and they are moving out of this city because they are afraid of another tsunami. There had been a tsunami warning 2 months ago as well and everytime these warnings happen it visibly tears open all the emotional wounds that were starting to heal again. I am glad to see how the warning system works and am confident that if there is another tsunami in this area the homes may be destroyed, but the people will be safe.
|
