Earthquakes

I apologize for what may seem to be a "boring" blog post.  This one is more informational than anything.

Many of you have probably heard that there were a couple of other earthquakes here in Ecuador.  They happened at 3:00 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. yesterday.  Being the heavy sleeper that I am, I did not wake up for the one at 3:00 a.m. and subsequently found out about it the following morning.  We are all ok and there has been no apparent damage here in Guayaquil.

We are in Guayaquil, and the epicenter of the earthquakes is about 150 miles from where we are.  The earthquakes measured at a strength of 6.8 and 6.7.

I was fully awake for the second earthquake.  Katrina, Emily and I had gone to get something to eat at a pan de yucca/smoothie place.  I had just handed my money over to the cashier when the earthquake hit.  At first, I did not realize what was happening.  Because I was standing at the counter where they were making the smoothies, my first thought was "What is that guy using to make the smoothie??" when the earth started shaking.  It was the strangest feeling - I felt as if my feet were going one way and my top half was going another.  A glance outside told me that the city was doing the same - a strange sort of zig zag.  I began feeling nauseous and my head started hurting.

I would like to note here again that the earthquake did not do any damage that I am aware of here in Guayaquil.  The only danger we might have been in was right after the earthquake.  The people here are truly traumatized from the Ecuador earthquake a month ago.  The workers at the food place we were at were terrified - I could see it in their faces.  They ran out the door and shoved us along with them.  Once outside, we could see the pandemonium.  People were fleeing from buildings, running in the streets, crying and making phone calls.  It was insane - we were being pushed around and there was complete confusion.

We decided to go back to the hotel and met with everyone else there. It took about a half hour for everything to calm down.

The buildings here are primarily made of cement, and that's one of the reasons that people are so scared.  When the earthquake hit a month ago, hundreds of people died from cement buildings collapsing.  That is why the death count remained low until work crews began digging through the rubble and hundreds of others were discovered dead. 

Because of the earthquakes and the ensuing panic, our professors and BYU no longer feel safe about us staying here.  The original plan was for us to come back to the states this upcoming Wednesday, but now we will all be home on Sunday as that is the earliest we can get in.

Some of you may want to feel sorry or sad for us because our trip was cut short.  Yes, there are many of us that are disappointed.  The last few days of the trip were supposed to be our "fun" days where we go on many adventures and now we can't.  I will just put out there that I am ok with leaving early.  The truth is that I really miss Alec and I am happy for any chance to see him sooner.  I have been a lot of places in my life so far and I have seen a lot of things thanks to the amazing family trips planned by my parents and my wonderful mission.  For that reason, I am ok with missing out on some things.  So don't feel bad for my sake.  On the other hand, please pray for the people here.  They are truly terrified.

On a different note, some of you may be saying - "She said that she had handed her money over to the cashier when the earthquake hit.  Did she get her money back?  Did she get her food?"  To all of you who are wondering, fear not!  I am too much of a tightwad to just walk away without getting my money's worth, even in the face of danger.  After everything had calmed down a bit, we went back to get our food.  The workers were still standing outside the store and seemed surprised that we had come back.  They were not aware when we first stepped into the store that they were dealing with Jalyn Parkinson - the girl who will overcome earthquakes or any other natural disaster to get her money back!  Haha

Well, I'll see you all in the states in a few days!

Also, Alyssa just read me this story, and I was quite entertained:
http://kutv.com/news/local/hawk-swoops-down-attacks-byu-students-from-elm-tree