We were awaken by the sounds of our parrots falling down on the ground and a feeling of being swayed in our movement-proof hardwood bed. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long for me to realize what was happening. The fact that the bed, which no one can move because of how hard it is, is swaying gave it away. I think my brain pieced it together: bed swaying and parrots falling to the ground, it can only mean one thing and that there’s an earthquake.

Half-naked and all (yeah I sleep in the nude) I stood right on the doorstep while praying out loud. I really get so nervous whenever there’s an earthquake. And at that time, the earthquake lasted to what felt like eternity for me. The longer the ground shook, the more hopeless I felt. And it was creepy  because I heard this screeching noise coming from the ground. The sound is comparable to a noise an old piece of tricycle makes when the brake gets too rusty. I had a foreboding feeling that the sound was an indication that the house will collapse.

Luckily, and thank heavens, everything here is still intact and I’m still seated in my swivel chair making this blog entry for all of you to read. There were a lot of aftershocks that followed though and I really can’t tell if it’s officially over. I did tweet to my friend Zarina Rose Mclang that I thought it was over. But there was another aftershock that followed an hour after I made that tweet. I guess one can never tell.

I feel sorry for the Boholanos and Cebuanos. I have seen photos of the aftermath. It’s tragic and devastating. It’s just a little weird coz I just made a blog post about my relatives in Bohol a couple of days ago. After that blog post, I deleted all contact details of them that are in my phonebook. We don’t really keep in touch anymore so I didn’t see the point of keeping them. So you can only imagine how upset I was today when I can’t send a text or give them a call to ask how they are doing because I don’t have any contact details of them anymore!