tErReMoTeAdA

i have lived through more in three months in Chile than perhaps my 11 years away. following mummy's death, a week precisely, that infamous 8.8 earthquake which we happened to live through on an eleventh floor. the 27th. of february 2010 3:30 a.m i thought it was the end of the world. for three straight minutes chile's earth shook. i rolled up into the fetal position on the living room floor and said my goodbyes as i heard my brother wailing close by. lamps, pictures, books, glasses falling all around us with shattering consequences.and then the total silence and darkness. no electricity or phone, not even cells, for almost five days. days of adapting to the horror and fear as news reached us via this netbook about the devastation in the rest of the country. living by candlelight, my brother and father spent evenings inventing conversations and holding on. slowly we became resourceful and we bonded with neighbors. as most supermarkets were closed, we lived on sandwiches until we were able to plug our refrigerator into an extension chord going down the building's staircase to the generator below. days of anguish followed in expectation of hearing news of friends and relatives as aftershock after aftershock paralyzed our senses. then a second big one, 7.2. , and then a six hour total blackout in the entire country. apocalypse now. eery, humbling and, once again, life changing.

i know for fact that i have a big, unerrasable scar on my heart for the month of february,2010