Shake Rattle and Roll

Greetings all of you blog readers out there where ever you are! As some of you may be aware, Chile experienced an 7.1 magnitude earthquake over the weekend in the city of Talca. We were unaffected by it here in Puerto Montt because we are roughly 500 miles south of them. It was supposedly felt 200 miles to the north of Talca in the capital city of Santiago.

According to the news and various internet articles the quake caused minimal damage and thankfully there were only 14 reported injuries and no deaths. Chile has a long history of earthquakes and most cities here have a pretty strict building code because of this.

I found this quote from a scientist guy to be interesting.

“The earthquake occurred on the subduction zone that was partially ruptured by the 2010 earthquake; it can therefore be considered another aftershock of the 2010 earthquake,” explained Dr. Tao Lai, principal engineer at AIR Worldwide. “It is located in the epicentral area of the 1928 M7.5 earthquake.”

This 7.1 quake that happened on Sunday was actually an aftershock from the large 8.8 quake that happened back in 2010. The one that caused some major death and destruction, shifted the earths axis and shortened our day by a few microseconds. It blows my mind. We are so thankful for the limited damage and no loss of life.

We have experienced some shake ups of our own as we settle into the roles we will be playing for the next year. The language shift has left me with the inability to toss out witty banter on the sly...but I'm working on it. Kim has faired better and is running laps around me on the Spanish language track. (I think she had a bit more preseason training than I.) Our work roles have taken new courses too. Kim is experiencing teaching again, which is not just a career change, but a culture shock, and basically a total overhaul of the modus operandi to boot. She is doing amazing despite it all. The school she works at is great! ( http://www.colsanjavier.cl/ )

I have been jolted as well. I have managed to keep relatively busy with projects on the retreat property as well as chopping firewood and getting our apartment winterized... but there is just something unsettling about going from my routine 50 hour work week, to an unscheduled hodge podge of odd and end jobs, while not being able to communicate like I once did. Overall it has been good. I am sure there will be many more challenges ahead of us as well as rewards.

This has been a great experience for both of us! We do miss our families and friends, and some of the comforts of home, but we are being challenged here, to become new creations. To explore an altered way of doing things. To see our lives from a different angle.

We have been blessed. We are being blessed! We hope to pass the blessings along. Thank you all, for remembering us with your thoughts and prayers.