May 12, 2014

Earthquakes and more....

The week started out great.  We spent Monday working on details for the arrival of our new missionaries (they arrived today).  Then Tuesday, we explored a new part of the city--Estrella--which is actually several "pueblos" which kind of grew together.  The result is that the streets are narrow and twisty, and it is difficult to get from one place to another.  We visited two apartments, one was gorgeous, one not so gorgeous--but both had been cleaned and were presentable.  We got a ride from a taxista in our ward who knew the way, but he had to leave us at the first apartment.  The missionaries then helped us get to the second apartment (you have to know where you are going and how to get there before you step into a taxi--this city is just WAY too big for any taxista to know the way.  The taxista that returned us home was interesting, filling us in on the Passion Play at Estrella--which is the 4th largest (according to the taxista) in the world.  Estrella is a hill, and every year there is a Passion Play about Christ's crucifixion in excruciating detail.  It is broadcast on ALL the Mexican television stations, with a blow-by-blow narration.  Kind of like the Macy's Day Parade, but with a totally different subject.  There are approximately 2 million people who throng Estrella on Good Friday.  The Elders have orders to stay in their apartments all day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Not safe!  Wednesday was more work in the office, as was Thursday.  However, on Thursday, we had another earthquake.  This time we were in the office and evacuated with everyone else.  We stood in the streets for about 15 minutes, while the APs, the DLs and the President starting calling to be sure the missionaries were OK.  It wasn't too bad where we were, but elsewhere in the city electricity was down, cars were "wobbling" on the road, and people were evacuating like crazy.  It measured over 6 on the Richter scale, but was about 150 miles away.  We had some interviews in Culhuacan that night, and they felt the quake much more than we did.  On Friday, we had our "planning" meeting, in which we met with the President and figured out how to handle all the timing and details of the arrivals and cambios that were coming.  Saturday was supposed to be a quiet day.  We were woken up by Tom's phone at around 8 am, it was a message from the Hermanas in Taxquena wishing me a Happy Mothers Day--which is celebrated on Saturday in Mexico (a surprise to us).  When I got on the computer, I found an e-mail from Caryn asking how we had weathered the Earthquake.  Earthquake?  What Earthquake?  Seems there was one at 2 am, and it was a strong one.  We slept through it!  We did our chores and headed out--looking for an alarm we could use to wake us up the next time.  People basically looked at us like were crazy.  Apparently earthquake warning devices are not sold in Mexico.  We are going to have to order one from Amazon and have it delivered.  We ended up in the office working on the new transfer board (changing the mission organization)--when around 12:30, another quake struck!  It was over really quickly, so we didn't evacuate, but 2 in 1 day was enough for us!
What a week!  Two mother's days, three earthquakes, and a lot of work.  Glad we have a new one to work on!