Before I post all the muddy details of the latest fieldtrip, I’m going to complain, unfairly, about some things people have been asking us about the earthquake. I wrote a nasty thing about it before and decided not to post it, but in the meantime I’ve just had too many silly emails and facebook messages, and so have other people. I know it’s unfair to be angry with people who have no clue as to what’s going on here, and a year ago I didn’t know a thing about earthquakes myself, but I just want to clear some issues out of the way. Although, everyone who reads this blog has been very nice, smart and considerate and you don’t need this lecture on how to behave towards shaken and rattled earthquake-residents.
A message I (and others) got very often since September is “I know you’re not in Christchurch itself, but maybe you felt the earthquake too?”. I know, it is hard to understand the force of nature, especially when you’re not here. I also understand that because we don’t live in Christchurch city centre and our suburb has a different name, people assume we don’t really know what’s going on in the city itself. However. The earthquake was felt in Nelson, which is 300 kilometers away from here and people over there thought “hopefully it’s not Chch, or it will be bad”. So yeah, although I was somewhere 20 km away from the epicenter at work, I sure as hell felt the earthquake. And although our suburb is not called Christchurch, we do live in the city and those people trapped in the rubble were really only a 10 minute bike ride away. In fact I just learned that one man died some 400 meters from here from falling rubble. I must admit, that also put it in perspective even more for me you know, someone died where I could have been.
Ian got an email asking “how are things with the earthquake? How’s life otherwise?” Well, at the moment, there is hardly an “otherwise”, EVERYTHING is linked to the earthquakes. There are still people missing. The city centre is still closed off. Some people still don’t have power. We still have to boil the water. Most things such as libraries are still closed. The news is still completely earthquake dominated. Now with the added horror from Japan. We feel sheer terror when looking at those images from over there.
Someone I have sporadic email contact with wrote me a birthday message “I hope the earthquake didn’t trouble you”. Indeed, compared to others we didn’t have much trouble. But as I said, you can’t just go on with life pretending nothing happened. It is earthquake all around. There is aftershocks that continue to shake me awake and now also cause me nightmares (I’m in a building that starts shaking and concrete is falling down. I just left Thomas a minute ago to get my violin (I know, weird dream! When was the last time I touched my violin …). Now, where is he?! He was just there were that huge piece of concrete is crashing down…). Everything in the whole of New Zealand is earthquake affected. On the Westcoast the supermarkets apologized for not being well stocked because of the quake. There are fundraising concerts and cricket matches in Australia.
I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. We’ve been really lucky and we try to go on with life as usual. But there is just the constant underlying fear and uncertainty of how things will continue. This affects all of us in New Zealand and it will keep affecting us for a long long time. Plus, I’ve become much more frightful. Even in earthquake free zones I am startled by sudden noises and I am sure trams going by in Amsterdam for instance will give me the creeps. Please be gentle … Please don’t ask me again if I noticed the earthquake at all.
A message I (and others) got very often since September is “I know you’re not in Christchurch itself, but maybe you felt the earthquake too?”. I know, it is hard to understand the force of nature, especially when you’re not here. I also understand that because we don’t live in Christchurch city centre and our suburb has a different name, people assume we don’t really know what’s going on in the city itself. However. The earthquake was felt in Nelson, which is 300 kilometers away from here and people over there thought “hopefully it’s not Chch, or it will be bad”. So yeah, although I was somewhere 20 km away from the epicenter at work, I sure as hell felt the earthquake. And although our suburb is not called Christchurch, we do live in the city and those people trapped in the rubble were really only a 10 minute bike ride away. In fact I just learned that one man died some 400 meters from here from falling rubble. I must admit, that also put it in perspective even more for me you know, someone died where I could have been.
Ian got an email asking “how are things with the earthquake? How’s life otherwise?” Well, at the moment, there is hardly an “otherwise”, EVERYTHING is linked to the earthquakes. There are still people missing. The city centre is still closed off. Some people still don’t have power. We still have to boil the water. Most things such as libraries are still closed. The news is still completely earthquake dominated. Now with the added horror from Japan. We feel sheer terror when looking at those images from over there.
Someone I have sporadic email contact with wrote me a birthday message “I hope the earthquake didn’t trouble you”. Indeed, compared to others we didn’t have much trouble. But as I said, you can’t just go on with life pretending nothing happened. It is earthquake all around. There is aftershocks that continue to shake me awake and now also cause me nightmares (I’m in a building that starts shaking and concrete is falling down. I just left Thomas a minute ago to get my violin (I know, weird dream! When was the last time I touched my violin …). Now, where is he?! He was just there were that huge piece of concrete is crashing down…). Everything in the whole of New Zealand is earthquake affected. On the Westcoast the supermarkets apologized for not being well stocked because of the quake. There are fundraising concerts and cricket matches in Australia.
I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. We’ve been really lucky and we try to go on with life as usual. But there is just the constant underlying fear and uncertainty of how things will continue. This affects all of us in New Zealand and it will keep affecting us for a long long time. Plus, I’ve become much more frightful. Even in earthquake free zones I am startled by sudden noises and I am sure trams going by in Amsterdam for instance will give me the creeps. Please be gentle … Please don’t ask me again if I noticed the earthquake at all.
