After living in Japan for 2 years, I had a false sense of confidence in my earthquake preparedness skills. But what I experienced last Wednesday was nothing like the little window rattlers I had felt before in Japan. I guess to preface this I should explain some of the fundamental differences in architecture between Japan and Indonesia. In Japan, nothing is accomplished without weeks and months of meetings, committee deliberation, and the accompanying mounds of useless paperwork. Everything is precisely planned and all possible variables are anticipated and contingencies based on these variables are also planned down to the last, minute detail. This includes planning for earthquakes, so most modern buildings and roads are constructed to withstand all sorts of seismic activity. My apartment seemed to be made of rubber, so that when earthquakes happened, the entire building would sway back and forth as if suspended in a safety bubble of Japanese ingenuity.
But that was Japan…a wealthy and highly developed country…and this is Indonesia, where the majority of the houses and buildings (especially in my part of the city) seem to be comprised of any and all materials that happened to be available at the time of construction. Shacks made with equal parts brick, wood scraps, and corrugated metal sheets line the roads. They house everything from restaurants to roadside equivalents of convenience stores to people to mechanic shops to mosques. The more “sturdy” buildings are usually made of brick and crumbling chunks of plaster, covered by ancient layers of flaking paint…all of which, by the way, is surrounded by the most stunning natural environment imaginable.
Anyway, now that you have a mental picture…so last Wednesday evening I was at home when the earthquake happened. Like I said, I am used to the earthquakes in Japan, which in my experience have seemed more of a shallow and quick, intense shaking. However here it was different…it seemed deeper, like a slow waving intense motion and I could hear the earth and rock grinding under my feet. While it was happening, there was silence except for the sound of the earth shaking and walls cracking. It lasted about 2 minutes, and then it was total chaos and human noise for about the next 2 days.
At the time, none of my neighbors were home, so I wasn’t quite sure what I should do. Two security guards from my housing complex ran up to my house and started excitedly yelling things at me in Indonesian…unfortunately, that being only my 3rd week in the country, my vocabulary was limited to things like “delicious” and “my name is…” and “that’s spicy!” (phrases such as “run for your life, a tsunami is coming” apparently aren’t covered until chapter 5 of my Teach Yourself Indonesian book) Anyway, through hand gestures and a few key words, I figured out that I was supposed to get out of my house immediately and go across the road to my University, which is situated on higher ground than my house. I grabbed my laptop and ran up to the main road where it was complete and total insanity. Screaming people had run out of their houses and lined the roads, while cars and motorcycles flew past honking their horns. Hysterical mothers were desperately trying to shove 5, 6, sometimes even 7 crying children onto motorcycles to get them to safety.
I got to the University and joined a growing crowd of other evacuees where we stood at the top of the hill looking out towards the beach, all of us keeping watch for giant waves coming in across the water. Cell phone service was out as well as the electricity, which was OK until the sun went down. In the dark people seemed more desperate and scared, and any little sudden movement by one group of people set off a wave of panic. Hundreds of us had been standing around for about an hour, maybe two, with no communication from city officials as to what was happening. At one point, the entire crowd started to freak out and everyone started yelling and running uphill into the trees…until this point I wasn’t too scared, but in the dark with a surging crowd of people screaming and running and me not being able to ask what was happening, I started to freak a little bit. Luckily, three law students took pity on me and used what little English they could remember from their required 2 semesters to explain what was happening. We walked up to a safer area on campus and I was finally able to get in touch with my friend to come pick me up.
I ended up staying at my friend’s uncle’s house, which was located in a safer part of the city with higher elevation. Because of the aftershocks and tsunami warnings, I ended up staying there for 2 days just to be safe. My friend’s cousins were so excited to have a real, live foreigner at their house (never mind the huge earthquake that had just destroyed half the province!) The entire next afternoon I was on display for neighbors and various other relatives. They all clamored around taking pictures with me, and groups of children from the neighborhood would come by at various times during the day to talk with me and take more pictures (apparently there was a rumor going around that “Miss Universe” was staying at the house down the street, so they all had to come out and take a look). Nobody really spoke English, and as I mentioned before, my Indonesian is pretty limited, but I had my two-way dictionary and my text book, so we all took turns looking up words and random phrases in order to communicate…it actually turned out to be quite effective, and their English and my Indonesian were much improved by the end of the day.
The beginning of Ramadan (a Muslim holiday when people fast from sunrise to sunset for 30 days) also coincided with the earthquake, so I was able to take part in the first night of “breaking the fast” (called “babuka puasa” in Indonesian). Since Muslims can’t eat or drink during the day, at night there are celebrations of big meals shared with family and neighbors, and everyone goes out into the streets to shoot fireworks.
I have been able to move back into my house, even though there are still aftershocks (I’ve felt kind of dizzy for the last week or so…I’m not ever sure if the ground is moving or it’s all in my head). Overall I am so amazed by the concern for my safety and the hospitality everyone has shown me during all this excitement. I can't say enough how awsome the people are here...more to come on that later...
Here's a shot of some earthquake damage at my university. This building got the worst of the damage...luckily the damage to my office isn't as bad.
My neighborhood fan club...
Sunset at one of Bengkulu's beaches (and yes, the sunsets are always this incredible)
