27.2.2010-- The Earth Parts.

I should have written about it before, before the looting started, before the Teleton was hurried into action, before I could let it sink into my heart, my mind, what will forever be etched into my memory. But I couldn't. I just couldn't. I found myself being forced to talk about it with everyone (understandable) which left an already shallow depth of words nearly nonexistent. Evaporated. Drained. And now after yet another, after another, after another aftershock (temblor) I feel somewhat ready to put into words the night of the 27th, the night the days got shorter, the night I have felt more fear than ever in my life, the night I was so lucky.

(If you didn't already know that there was a devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile this last week, please stop reading and crawl back into your ignorant hole.)

It was a totally normal night. LL came and picked me up from work, we lounged around his house, and eventually around 11:30 we pull ourselves together, hop in the car-- probably the first time ever LL hasn't driven us to our get-together destination-- chauffeured by LL's younger brother, and head for a friend's apartment. Buy pisco and coke (a-cola) on the way there. Everything is so fucking normal. Looking back, so, so normal. We sit around the table- drink, converse, eat pizza (another first, believe it or not). A Chilean replica of GU. We lament that our good friend Tom is, after a 2 year run in Chile, is going back to Canada-- which is, in fact, the reason we're all together in the first place. Despedida.

Why don't we play Cacho?? Bueno... Well, I never learned how to play- not because I was interrupted by the earth parting, but it seemed entirely too complicated and why don't you have 5 people explaining a million rules to you at once in Spanish and see if you understand... Needless to say I pulled a NNansen and was 100% zoned out of the game. Usually I atleast try and play... Ni cagando esta vez. Start drifting off into a pisco induced siesta... In and out of sleep. Try to not be the loser sleeping on the couch while everyone was having fun. Fail. Zzz.

3:34AM: I didn't even feel the beginning tremors. I didn't feel them... Just was awoken out of my dreamy-half-awake state to LL and everyone in panic. He grabbed me and we huddled under the door frame (earthquake lesson #1). It became unbearable. The apartment building, I was sure, was going to collapse into a pile of dust. It was shaking the way a house made of jell-o would move. So easily unhinging. The walls began cracking, things falling off the shelves. GO GO GET OUT, GET OUT, RUN. Trying to dash down the stairs as they are moving violently underneath us. Just get out. Get. Out. Out before the building collapses upon us. How we got out safely is still beyond my comprehension...

Run out onto the street as a motorcycle falls over, as the bricks from the walls begin crumbling along side us. The trees and plants are shaking as if there is a hurricane. In the street we aren't safe-- the telephone polls appear to be tumbling, the cables snap. Are they going to fall on us? WHERE DO WE GO?

8.8 richter. 3 minutes. 7th strongest earthquake ever recorded. 700-800 times more powerful than the earthquake in Haiti that stole nearly 230,000 lives. Most terrifying event of my life. Shaking standing in the street, the power is out. For the first time, the Santiago sky bears unabashedly its stars. Car alarms blare in all directions. Time stands still. Grip LL, grip and don't let go. Trembling. On the verge of tears but paralyzed. Paralyzed.

But we have to go. Get home to LL's brother who is home alone. Alone-- not something I can fathom. JC drops us off on the corner and as we turn the first sight we encounter is the entire top of the Iglesia de la Divina Providencia (2 metro stops from where I live)-- an emblem of the Comuna de Providencia, fallen into the middle of the street. Crashed to the ground.

Its mangled wood, bricks, moldings lay strewn in the street, on the sidewalk as a massive pile of traffic and onlookers converged, with mouths agape. Silent. Golpeado.

...The walk home and following events are another story in themselves which will I will post tomorrow or the day after. Honestly, it's too hard to write in one post. It's almost been a week and it still brings me to tears. A reparar mi corazon voy yo......

(stay tuned for part II)