From 60 to zero, and back again - shaken up in and by Peru

Jump to Comments

The world is certainly a tricky place. One day you’re celebrating a significant anniversary and you’re happy and sassy and thankful and feeling cozy and the next day there’s an earthquake in Peru. At first when I heard there was an earthquake outside of Lima, I felt bad, but not scared, because my daughter lives far to the north of Peru..in a town well out of harm’s way. Then my wife reminded me that every Peace Corp worker in Peru is in Lima for medical checkups. The heart, which just a few hours ago was all warmth and cheer suddenly sank.We called Washington…and finally got a call back. All Peace Call workers in Lima were supposedly accounted for and safe, but no details. I felt a little better but I wanted more. Parents can be greedy like that. Then..an email…thank God:

Dad, hey I am fine. I am sorry that you are worried. I tried to call but there are no phone lines. My hostal is situated in an old second story building. I was with a ton of volunteers and all of a sudden the floor started shaking. For the first 20 seconds we stayed put thinking it would pass, then things hanging on the wall started shaking. We all ran under a doorpost. Things were shaking really bad and a window got knocked out and shattered three feet from us. Some idiot drunk ass backpackers were hanging out in the balcony drinking, but luckily everbody was and is okay. This earthquake was a 7.9 and originated in the jungle were everything, especially the buildings are really primitive, so keep these people in your thoughts, they are the ones who are suffering.

Damn…and..whewwwww. In the middle of all this, our electricity went out in our neighborhood…I may have aged a little faster tonight than the calendar would allow. We’re back, fully cooled, fully electrified and my daughter appears to be safe.

Your kids leave and they are out of your control. Truth be told, the control deal was over a good long time ago. You wanna keep them safe, but you want them to be able to handle the hard times themselves. On the other hand, EARTHQUAKES??? That’s not supposed to be part of the deal.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Bringing the Peace Corp Love to Peru, one, uh, turtle at a time…
• Hundreds Dead, Thousands Injured as 7.9 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Peru
• Looking at Peru Quake History
• After the rubble

14 Comments

Filed under friends and family