Dooms Day

7:50 A.M. of October 15, 2013, Pok! Ouch! Something just hit me, the walls were shaking, shaking very hard and long.  I can hear something breaking, and falling, I can’t move .In front the antique figure of St. Joseph was falling, and that was heavy, and everything else where spontaneous. Earthquake!!!

I jumped off my bed, and kept telling myself, “don’t panic- don’t panic “.

I remembered my emergency training, from my previous job about “triangle of life”.  It is a controversial theory about how to survive a major earthquake. You have to stay in a sturdy corner, near a wall, a door, or beside a table, sit down and wait until the shaking stops.  With courage that I will survive, I stood up from my bed, and hid near the door and prayed.   I grabbed my shorts (and speaking of, I was in my undies. I find it very comfortable to sleep when you are barely naked. But unexpected calamities like this I wasn’t ready) and speed running going downstairs.  Thank God I am still alive.

This didn’t just happen once, but definitely a major life experience of which intensity 7.2, strike Cebu and Bohol.  All I could have thought about that day is my Mama, Papa, my family who are all in Bohol, Lola Lucing who stayed downstairs with the company of some house helps, my friends, and loved ones, Chesca and Ysa.

My mind kept questioning, could this be my last day? I don’t want to die ugly, with debris all over me, or my body dragged lifelessly.  This kind of thoughts is not something you can uplift yourself but by denying death. I am not ready, I still wanted to live and enjoy life. Worst, there was no electricity, and phone networks are out of reach and my phone were off with not enough battery to call. It was, hot, restless and hopeless.

As we speak we still are experiencing aftershocks. And people are traumatized of this happening. Some trying to pick up pieces left for them, and some...to God is with them.

This is how my place looked like after the tremor:

And as I was looking at the pictures posted in the internet, especially in Bohol, my heart bleeds with misery. Century old churches were gone, the beautiful Chocolate Hills were destroyed, and the rest of it, damaged. God must have a message for us ,to realize why this unfortunate event happened.It is about time to keep our minds open, repent and do penance to make this world a better place.

Pictures in Cebu - Bohol (courtesy of Google Images)