This day 2 years ago was the scariest day of my life. On January 12, 2010 around 5 pm, Haiti was shaken with a devastating 7.0 earthquake. This is my story.
I was in my room on my computer, lying on my stomach on my bed, talking to someone on msn. All of a sudden I hear a noise that sounds kind of a dump truck coming up the hill, but it just kept getting louder and louder. Then the room starts to sway, the calender on my wall started swinging. I thought that maybe someone was picking up the house with dump trucks or something and moving it. I got up and ran out of my room, in the hallway the concrete walls were moving all over the place, I remember seeing the painting on the wall fall down. I ran outside and down the steps so fast that my mom thought i was on the porch when it started. Running down steps that are moving like in a fun house is not easy, or fun. By the time I got out of the yard and past the gate, it had stopped.
Then the first aftershock came, it wasn't as bad as the earthquake, but still pretty darn scary. I remember seeing the big metal gate shaking, like it was a piece of paper blowing in the wind. I looked out at Port-au-Prince and all I could see was a huge dust cloud over the whole city. I looked around to the smaller areas and saw more dust clouds everywhere. Our house was still standing though. My parents then both had to go down to the hospital, so I was put in charge of our dog, and semi in charge of my siblings. We moved over to a big empty field-ish area, and thats where we ate dinner, with the mission team of 53 people that were there as well.
I had to go back into my house to get my computer so I could email people back in Canada telling them that me and my family were all okay. Someone from the team came with me because we didn't know if the house was okay. I went into my house and everything was on the floor. My room had shifted a foot, my sisters dressers were pushed over on the ground, everything in the bathrooms and kitchen was on the floor. I quickly grabbed my computer and got out of there. I started by emailing my close friends and family telling them pretty much "we are all fine, my Mom and Dad have gone to help in the clinic.", then i went on my parents email and replied to every single email that came in "This is Teagan, Dr. Cheryl and Mr. Laurens' daughter, we are all fine, my parents are helping in the clinic." During that whole time there were aftershocks going on, and I remember looking at the light pole to see if it was moving just to make sure that I was not imagining it. That night we slept in tents because no one wanted to go inside, and we weren't sure if the buildings were safe.
So began the days of waking up to aftershocks at 6 am, or having one in the middle of doing math homework; sleeping with my bedroom door, and the front door open; dreaming that the ground was shaking when it really wasn't; hearing helicopters and planes flying over every 5 minutes; seeing the devastation all around me; seeing the church grow insanely; seeing people cling to God because He was all they had left. Please pray for everyone who went through things 20 times as worse as I did, please pray for those who lost family members and friends, please pray for those people who still dream about the ground underneath their feet moving. Please remember January 12, 2010.
The earth may fall apart.
The mountains may fall into the middle of the sea.
But we will not be afraid.
The waters of the sea may roar and foam.
The mountains may shake when the waters rise.
But we will not be afraid.
-Psalm 46:2-3
