Earthquakes

Alright, time to let you all know that I’m alive and okay. 🙂

As many of you have heard by now, either by world news or from my family, there have been not one, but two major earthquakes in Kumamoto prefecture, where I live. I had experienced little tremors here and there while in Japan, but those were nothing compared to these big ones.

The first earthquake hit 9:26 Thursday, April 14 as a 6.4 at its epicenter in Mashiki. I was in the bathroom, about to do my business, when I heard the window frames shake. I thought, “Why, it’s another little tremor,” until it started getting louder and louder and soon I had sunk to the ground, bracing myself in the doorway. I couldn’t really process what was happening at the time, but my phone was trying to help by blaring “*BEEPBEEPBEEP* JISHIN DESU. *BEEPBEEPBEEP*JISHIN DESU.” You guessed right, it was saying, “*BEEPBEEPBEEP* IT’S AN EARTHQUAKE,” over and over again. Super helpful when you’re being tossed around like a rag doll and don’t know Japanese very well. There really wasn’t much damage here, in Kyokushi where I live. A few things fell off the top of the fridge, but nothing broke. Though, in Mashiki as well as Kumamoto City, there was much more damage and buildings and roads collapsing. The Smith family and I were mostly freaked out (minus Norman, he went to sleep afterwards) and stayed up together during some of the bigger aftershocks. We had church camp the next day and decided to go on with it, because, usually, there’s one large earthquake and then it diminishes from there, right? HA.

Keiko, my friend, came over early on Friday after spending the night in shelter at the local elementary school. Her apartment was very damaged in the earthquake and part of her ceiling was falling in as well as some good sized cracks in her wall and belongings thrown everywhere. On Friday evening we all headed to the camp which was in Yamaga, in a giant wooden cabin that could easily house 25 people. We separated into rooms and I was in the “single ladies room” with Keiko and Sue Hahn, another missionary that works with Norman and Susan. Throughout the day and in the evening, we were still feeling (what we thought were) aftershocks.

The fallen oven at camp from the second earthquake.

lots of tiles fell out of the bathroom at the camp.

We took a break from being inside and took a walk. Found a shrine that was broken by the earthquake.

The second earthquake hit at 1:25 AM, Saturday April 16th as a 7.3 magnitude with its epicenter in Kikuyo, closer to where I live. I was thrown awake and Keiko and I grabbed for each other (or maybe I did more of the grabbing?) and clung together until the main shock was finished. It was VERY hard to go to sleep after that–two huge earthquakes two nights in a row and we could tell the second one was much worse, but somehow we all managed it.

God was obviously at work for where we were going to be during the earthquake. The building we stayed in was built to withstand a hit from an earthquake and the fact that most of the people who lived right at the epicenter were not at home during the earthquake, but with us at camp. If the Smiths were at home, Norman and Susan would have had a bookshelf or two fall on their heads as would the kids. Keiko’s apartment was even worse and Sue’s apartment had broken dishes and debris everywhere. The night after the earthquake, we had another family come stay at the camp ground, because it was a lot safer than their house, especially since it was supposed to rain, and with rain and earthquakes comes a large possibility of landslides. The camp ended up being a real blessing, even if the schedule didn’t work out exactly as we had planned it. 🙂

All of the houses have blue tarps because of broken roofs.

Saturday, Keiko and I went with Sue to her apartment to help clean up after the second earthquake. We could really see the damage as we got closer and closer to the city, many house have clay tile roofs and many were damaged in the quake (including the Smith’s), brick walls separating houses had toppled over, and a multitude of cracks riddled most of the houses’ walls. Sunday, I went over to help Keiko grab somethings out of her apartment. Her area was even worse because many of the apartments houses are much older. We saw one house that the entire wall on one side fell off, you could see straight inside. There are also houses that are leaning heavily to one side and will most likely fall over in the near future.Thankfully, her apartment wasn’t as bad as we thought, but after every aftershock, it gets worse and worse.Definitely not livable, so she’s staying in my room at the Smiths. She will most likely have to find a new apartment to live in, because of all the damage.

Sue’s apartment disaster.

Keiko’s apartment

Understandably, we were all freaked out. Keiko and I did everything together, even going to the bathroom was a freaky thing, because you never knew when an aftershock might come. We just had another as I’m typing this, a rather large one. Things tried to jump off the shelves again.

In the Kumamoto area, supply trucks can’t get in very easily because of the main expressways being destroyed in the earthquakes. That also means gas can’t be shipped in here, so all of the gas stations are closed because they’re sold out and can’t readily get more. Plus, the homes in the main city have no water at all and some places have no electricity. In the city, sirens are constantly going off and helicopters are flying over head. Driving in, there’s army vehicles everywhere trying to organize an assist in the clean up and distributing water and food.

Today was a good day. A large group of the missionaries from ABWE in Kyushu area came to help clean up around Hilltop, where Marty and I work, and help Keiko and Sue clean up their apartment. It was a real blessing having them here to help and they brought gallons upon gallons upon gallons of water and tea for everyone in the Kumamoto City area because they have no running water for at least two or three days now. They delivered most of it to the local elementary school which is housing well over 1000 people from the area who took shelter from their homes.

The gas tanks tried to take a dive. Thankfully they didn’t, and Marty’s fixing them.

damage inside the school.

A water heater fell into the kids’ yard.

Just some of the food and water the missionaries brought.

Off to deliver!

I never thought that I would be in the middle of two major earthquakes ever in my life. God’s plan for me in Japan is definitely interesting. 🙂 Kyushu was considered a safe haven from earthquakes because they so rarely had them. That has maybe changed a little, now. One of the most interesting things that came out of the earthquake is that this huge island, that usually moves about 2.5 centimeters in one year, moved 97 centimeters in two days. That’s 3 feet for the Americans. 3 FEET. Wow, haha.

All in all, everything here is kind of rough right now, and the way we spend everyday has changed into helping friends clean and fix their homes. I’m alright, but very tired from little sleep and emotionally drained.

Please pray for all of the families less fortunate than me. Many have lost their homes or have no water and food to get to. It will be rough for a little bit, but God will provide. 🙂

Please feel free to comment or message me if you have questions about the earthquake or anything really. I’m still a little frazzled so I probably forgot something.

Yay, Work.

Time for the update that everyone was waiting for! Yes, I survived the first day of work!

I was definitely nervous about it, but since I only had the kids for a total of two hours, there wasn’t much too much to be worried about. For the first three days, they will only come for a couple hours to get accustomed to school, then they will stay for lunch for the next three days, THEN they will stay the whole day. That’s when it will be very interesting.

All-in-all, the kids did great! We had a couple criers in the beginning, but two out of nine is not bad at all. One girl, Nao, as soon as she stepped into the building she saw the toys, dropped her backpack, and absent mindedly waved bye to her mom while she began to play. No crying from her. I’m sure as the days get longer, there may be more kids crying more often, but I really think God blessed me with a nice first day.

Now with my job starting, hopefully I can start to piece together the rest of my schedule. I will eventually be meeting with two ladies who will help me learn Japanese and I can spend time simply fellowshipping with them and talking.

Wow…I’ve been here for a little over 5 weeks now. First time living away from my parents and I’m in a foreign country. It’s great—the scenery, the culture, the bills… Oh yeah, I’m an adult and I have bills to pay, and the catch is they’re all written in Japanese! Yay! Thankfully, I’m living with an amazing family, whom at least two of them (if not almost three) are fluent in Japanese. Praise the Lord for that one. ;D Really though, it’s an interesting thought that the first time I’m paying bills and have my own health insurance and car insurance is when I move to another country. Some places allow automatic payments from your bank account, but most bills you can actually go to your local 7/11 or any other convenience store (which are everywhere and have delicious food, btw) with an ATM and pay your bills there! Japan is a highly cash based society, so most people pay their bills with cash through the ATMs in convenience stores instead of using debit cards (which are very rare here). Don’t worry, I planned for the bills.

Upcoming schedule for me so far is working Monday-Friday from 8:30-2:30 most weeks (except holidays, YAY GOLDEN WEEK). The weekend of April 15^th, we are having a church camp for three nights-two days, where all the families from the Sunday bible studies and some others are coming to simply fellowship, pray, and listen to God’s word. So please pray that it will go well and we’ll have enough food to feed everyone. 😀 Also, in the beginning of June, a family is coming to stay and intern with the Smiths. The family consists of a husband, wife, and two children that are two and four years old. Currently, the Smiths are trying to decide where to put them. I may or may not have to give up my room for two months, which is totally fine with me since, you know, the Smiths own the place, or there’s a couple other options. But, if you can, pray that it will be a good visit for them, that they will learn a lot from the internship, and that we will know what to do with the kids for two months. 😀

That’s pretty much it for now! If anyone wants to know anything specifically, please feel free to leave a comment or message me. I’m going to try really hard to update weekly now. Most likely on Saturdays.