News from the pacific ring of fire

Let me tell you the story about the earthquake yesterday, that even made it into the german news.

Around 8 in the morning, I was something between asleep and awake as suddenly my mattress started moving. I was confused but knew right away it would be better to not stay inside the house. In my weird sleeping boxer shorts I grabbed my wallet on the way to the door, you never know if this might be the last time to leave your house. The metal sheets of the fence outside were bumping against each other causing a weired loud sound, some stuff fell down on the floor.

It didn’t hold on that long, I thought it was only a small earthquake but as i never experienced one before i had actually no idea. According to the radio -that made me listen to a guy who was reading out facebook posts and twitter tweets- it was 6.0 here in Duamguete which isn’t that harmless. 7.2 at the epi center which is in neighbour island Bohol, about 90 km away.

Thanks to whoever, the earthquake didn’t cause serious damage here in Negros. Unfortunately we can't tell the same about neighbour islands Cebu and Bohol where many buildings collapsed with the the result of plenty injured and even dead people. At least all public schools and offices were empty due to muslim holiday yesterday.

There were quite a lot aftershocks, even until right now while I’m posting this – and it's already the day after! The good thing, it made me meet the new neighbours outside several times to whom i hadn't spoken so far.

I kept observing  my reliable analog measuring device - watch video -

It was good to have a reference beside of my own sense of perception as this was a very confusing moment to me. Although I knew there are earthquakes and learned in school about fire rings, volcanos and plate tectonics – it is completely impressive to experience it on your own in real. The reliable solid ground isn’t that solid - and not reliable at all. 

It’s like nature wants to remind us that - even if we climb the highest mountains, heal cancer, program robots and build nuclear bombs -  there will be always something more powerful that humans won’t be able to control. I’m thankful for this reminder.