Inescapable

In the night of death, hope sees a star;
And listening love can hear the rustle of the wing.

It’s very sad disasters that had struck Asia last week specifically the cyclone in Myanmar and the big earthquake in Western China. Sometimes it’s unthinkable but some things just happened. As to why and how, nobody really knows.

It was my last week of vacation in the Philippines that I was stranded in the island because of the typhoon. It wasn’t that bad but the heavy rain kind of worried me. If it could have been in California, I would be more grateful for that. You know, I can just count with my fingers on how many times we had rain in CA. It was pretty strange to me. Then, we had the wild fire. It’s really confusing how natural things work.

I remembered when I worked in Taiwan I was very scared of earthquake. It was just a normal thing to them though. Imagine- we experience earthquake at least 3 times a month. After a few months of earthquakes; sometimes it has become predictable. I noticed when it’s very warm then suddenly it will rain- then there’s gonna be an earthquake after that or the other way around. The Taiwanese doesn’t seem to care so much since they’re used to it just like we are used to the typhoon.

One time, I was shopping all alone in the mall in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was Easter Sunday. I was inside the fitting room half naked in the ninth floor of the building trying to fit some clothes when all of a sudden there was a shaking. The ceilings were cracking and people were screaming. I hear a lot phones ringing and people were heading towards the escalators while I was stuck in the fitting room- didn’t know what to do. It was the worst earthquake I ever experienced then: magnitude 7. It lasted for a minute and when it stopped I hurriedly tried to reach for my shirt when there was an after shock that was worse and lasted for a couple of minutes. I really thought I was gonna die naked then. I even thought of my family in the Philippines as to how they’re going to trace my dead body? Some part of the ceiling had fallen down on me and all I thought was my identification card. Did I bring it with me? I just prayed for my salvation as I really thought that was my end. Finally, it stopped leaving the mall empty. When I got out of the fitting room, the sales lady was so shocked to see me. There were just a few employees left. Everybody had just gone out of the building.

How about you? What was your close call?