The day started with a nice peaceful sunny jog to Flamingo beach. At the end of my jog, I met John at Ana's Panaderia for breakfast... a carne (beef) and manzana (apple) empanada (I know it kind of defeats the purpose of jogging). I then hopped in the shower to get ready to teach the kindergarteners at the Brasilito school.
In the middle of my shower (I think I was on the hair conditioner part of my routine), I heard what sounded like a helicopter. Then I realized very quickly that this was much more... I can't really remember what all happened but I stepped out of the shower and things were shaking, so I automatically started calling for John. I was clenched to the wall (which was moving) that is in between our bathroom and bedroom (because it was the closest thing I could find to a doorway).
My mind was racing trying to remember if a doorway was what I needed at this point or if I needed to duck and cover my head. After screaming out of shear terror ...my faithful husband comes running into the room and makes it to me and covers me with his body. It was crazy I could see so much love in those few moments as I saw him running toward me (when he was just as scared as I was). I was so thankful to have him with me.
So, back to the 7.9 terremoto. I've never seen a house shake the way it did. It was going up and down and sideways all at the same time. It's like our house was in a bouncy gym. I wouldn't have thought it would still be standing or that it would at least have had severe damage. After what felt like forever (but in reality was probably 10 seconds), we hear screams outside from our neighbors and everyone is yelling to get out of the house.
So, I grab the following items (dress, sleep pants, panites) - and of course I'm running out the door with my towel on.
John somehow manages to bring these items...granted it is 8:42am in the morning bright and sunny!
We were all pretty shaken up, but everyone was ok. The owners of the place were talking about how the houses were built with these experiences in mind... but they had never felt one so strong. We had our car radios on (since power/internet were down) trying to figure out if there were tsunami warnings. Thankfully, the tsunami warning was cancelled about 30 minutes after the quake.
We waited outside for about 2 hours and decided to go back in. In the course of the next few hours we felt 3 more aftershocks...very small. Each time, we would run outside and sit on our beach chairs. Luckily, the only damage we experienced was some glass inside our house breaking, a few tiles fell off the roof, and some rocks/dirt that fell in our yard area. It could have been so much worse and I'm just so thankful that we were ok along with all the people we have met in Costa Rica. I believe there were only 2 deaths in the whole country and one was from a heart attack.
That night, we had a small bag packed just in case we needed to sprint out the door at night. Since last Wednesday we've felt about 4 more earthquakes with one on Saturday being around a 5.7 earthquake.
On Thursday we headed off on a mini trip to visit a preacher that spoke at our church a few weeks back and had been doing missionary work in Costa Rica. We decided since he lived extra close to the Riu hotel (all inclusive) that we would spend the night there since the rates were so good. So, we get to the Riu all excited, and the hotel is like a disaster area. There are about 100 workers working furiously to paint over cracks, repair walls, and the pool side bar was being held up by metal stands while they are trying to weld/repair the columns. It was a mess!
We got there early so we couldn't check in yet. So, we enjoyed the free food/drinks and swimming for most of the day. Once we checked in...the walk to our room was so scary. The ceilings and walls had cracks everywhere...many of their restaurants were closed for repairs. We kept thinking of course it can't be structural but it looked bad. Then, we heard that the night before, the hotel was having people sign waivers to stay in their room, so most people were sleeping on the lawn chairs outside. So, sadly to say we left :( Just in case you are wondering the Riu is still standing!
We then found out that the missionary (Paul) we were going to meet returned home from Nicaragua on Wednesday and had a bad case of dengue fever...so he couldn't get out of bed. Please send lots of prayers his way!
The 5 pointer yesterday was so funny. Our friends Didier, Jasmine and Emerida had us over for lunch. Jasmine saw us in Brasilito and an hour later she is calling us over to have lunch...they are so sweet (and the gallina (hen) was quite tasty!)
The earthquake happened in the middle of lunch. Jasmine's first reaction was 'Tranquillo'. Sadly, I am not very tranquillo when it comes to earthquakes. Later that night, John's soccer game got cancelled and we went to a church service with them and at the end of the sermon I caught what the preacher said. He said that as Christians we shouldn't fear the earthquakes, etc ... I think I still have some work.
Here are just a few examples of how God used earthquakes in very positive ways to carry out his purpose years ago. Thanks again to all of our family and friends that were thinking of us and praying for us over the past week!!!
And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord
descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. Matthew 28:2
And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of
the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and
everyone's bonds were unfastened. Acts 16:26
No comments:
Post a Comment