A Week Later

Took me a while to get to this, but I finally found some time to sit down for a bit and write a post. I want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and messages. They meant a lot. The last week has been a bit strange, with lots of ups and downs but I feel somewhat back to normal now.

I want to give an account of what happened. It feels a bit strange or narcissistic, but it was an unbelievable experience, and something that I will want to look back on.

WHAT HAPPENED:
Last friday me and mike had an "Asado" at our host families house, it was a sort of farewell to the family and a way for us to invite some of the friends we had met in Santiago over to our beautiful house. We had a great time, and like most chilean gatherings it ended pretty late, around 3am. I went to walk out our last guest, and as we were standing outside of the house chatting, it happened. It was subtle at first, and we thought of it as just another "temblor" (tremors are really common here like home). But as it went on and slowly got stronger, it dawned on us that this was something bigger. At that point I felt like part of me left and watched the rest of that night happen.  Hard to explain but it was all very unreal. The top part of the facade on the building across the street dropped off, in one quick swoop. The lights started going out and santiago fell into complete darkness. At this point my anxiety and imagination took over and I was picturing all of santiago collapsing around me. The street moved like how you may have seen in videos. my friend described it as a "serpiente" and he is right. It was quite fluid actually, as if the earth would open up and the building would just fall through. The earthquake lasted 3 minutes or so. which is an eternity.
In a panic I remembered my family and ran back to the house to check on them. I found them huddled under the entryway, too scared to cry, breathing too hard to speak, we just huddled and pleaded with it to pass. It did of course. And for a moment we just waited, hearing only the sounds of our hurried breath. We carefully, slowly stepped onto the street and looked around to see if there would be more. in an instant the street was full of people doing the same, unsure of what they might find, or who might be hurt. There was a murmur of neighbors checking in with each other, i didn't need to know the language to understand what they were saying. Each had the recognizeable look of disbelief and confusion. We also felt the quiet panic that in some other place there might be a fate far more grave ours. I struggled to regain my composure, and my breath. I felt void of reason or power. We all just of looked at each other, glad that the other was alive. Collectively we had that sudden realization of how fragile life is, that always happens after an event like this. The mothers quickly turned to their children, fathers talked about what to do next, children reached out for arms to hold them. and I stood there no longer a stranger, no longer a gringo, but a neighbor, a chilean, a fellow human. I looked up into the sky and suddenly it was filled with stars, like you might see in a desert. There in the sky was an almost full moon that looked down with the sympathetic indifference of the heavens consoling our shaken spirits with the reminder that what happened that night was not an attack, not revenge or punishment but a crack in the ever changing landscape of our living planet.

NOW. one week later, the city moves on. and that feeling of unity, of brotherhood, the awareness of our fragile lives slowly fades. I feel pulled in a million directions right now, and a bit unable to anything. I decided to go ahead with my plans to go to Patagonia. I am not needed in the recovery efforts in the south right now, I have nothing to keep me here, and I have a plan that I set out to accomplish. So here I go. Feels a bit strange to leave Chile. A country I now know in a more an intimate way, and one that I have come to love. Sunday I head to Mendoza, Argentina and then off to El Calafate (Moreno Glacier).

Thanks for reading my post, and again thank you for your heartfelt concern. I feel very lucky to have so many wonderful people around me wherever I go.