Earthquakes

For the past 3 days tremors have shaken Guatemala City. My imagination would like to pretend these are Giants shaking and grooving, or that Chicken Little is running about exclaiming, “the sky is falling!” But it’s really the earth moving.

On Friday, I sat in my flimsy chrome chair at the kitchen table resolutely punching numbers into my Tikal database. My chair started shaking. I thought it must just be because the chair is weak or maybe I felt dizzy. Then I noticed that a low rumbling sound, almost imperceptible, seemed to be groaning from the earth itself. The table started shaking. I looked up alarmed and saw my entire apartment begin to twist, warp, and move to the earth’s grumble. The structure shook unnaturally, shaking on the world’s plastic surface as earth buckled and stretched below. It felt as if a malignant being were trying to escape from the center of the earth through Guatemala’s sewers.

My eyes went wide in shock and fear. I’d never been in a big earthquake before, and this was big. This was moving my whole house in a circular skewering movement. What was I supposed to do? Frantically I stood and shaky-kneed moved over to pick up my passport, debit cards, water, and camera from a nearby chair and shoved them in a bag. Now what? Was I supposed to run outside to escape a collapsing building or hide in a doorway, closet or bathroom like in a tornado?

Within 10 seconds the quake stopped, leaving the world as stagnant, yet unsettled, as before it started. The world seemed inert again, but also suddenly alive and full of the human tension that permeates Guatemala City. I was reminded of Global Environmental Change and Lee’s talk about plate tectonics and how corn and the Himalayas are related. “C4 plants! Carbon dioxide! I want to go home! There are no earthquakes where I live!” The four thoughts rushed simultaneously in my head even as I realized that Yellowstone experiences several quakes a day, we just don’t feel them. Teeth gritted determinately, I reminded myself of my vow to return home by the end of February. “I’m not letting an earthquake prevent me from going home!” I stated determinately and daringly to Guatemala’s active crust.

The rest of the day, while I tried to ignore the thought that “the earth is still very much alive,” as Pibs says, I couldn’t help being hypersensitive to subtle movements. My shaky table continued to shake as I typed on my computer’s keyboard. Was that the start of another quake? I occasionally lifted my hands from it to see if the world was moving. The forceful 80 mph wind outside howled and shook the house. I turned off the music to listen.

I fell asleep that evening to restless dreams where The New Pornographers’ “Myriad Harbor” echoed in my ears. A shriek coming from the beds moving and the same low rumble from the earth-monster partially woke me at 4:00 am. I forced my heavy eyelids open, trying to decide if that was really another quake or if my active imagination was on overdrive. The world stopped moving and almost instantly I drifted back to sleep.

The following morning Bridgette, who was over 70 miles away from me called to say she had felt the night quake too. Fear slunk coldly into me as I thought of how strong a quake had to be for both her house and my house to move to the same tremor. The day past quietly and the earth seemed to have scratched the itch that pestered it into shaking. My nerves calmed a little, wondering how many more “study abroad moments” I really wanted to experience in Guatemala.

Today I went and talked to Rosemarie and Roberto about proper earthquake protection. Rosemarie’s eyes went wide as she said, “Yes! It was a very big quake! They are normally very small quakes but this was big.” Roberto interjected, “Yes in the papers it said it was a 5 something.” Roberto informed me that upon a tremor I should lie down next to the bed and throw a blanket over me. Going under the bed meant I could get squashed. I refrained from saying that I was sure lying next to the bed would do little to stop the ceiling from killing me either.

I had just returned to my work when I felt it again. The earth shuddered and twisted. The earth-monster was trying to reappear. Again, my eyes popped open with fear as my breath came low and shallow. The world shook and I thought, “I just want to go home, please.” Maybe the earth heard me as the world righted itself seconds later. Maybe I’m just hopeful that it listened. Mostly, I want to leave before the sky crashes into the earth’s hungry mouth.