This morning Kampala experienced an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter Scale. Now this is not a major earthquake and many people barely registered it. I didn't even realise what had happened until I got to school and read the Intranet message. Then everything began to make sense.
Around 6.30 this morning, I was just reading the news online and had my elbows resting on my legs when they began to shake uncontrollably. Even when I checked that my feet were flat on the floor, they still didn't stop. I was convinced that I was having a funny sort of muscle spasm after not stretching properly after all the triathlon practise yesterday and cursed myself for not taking better care.
Meanwhile I heard rattling coming from the kitchen. In Kampala, this usually means one thing. A giant rat has gotten into the house and is currently running riot amongst my pots and pans. I gave the kitchen a wide berth and wondered whether I should poison it, set a trap or get the exterminators in! In the event, there was no need for either.
Later on I started thinking a little more about the earthquake in Japan. The tremor we experienced probably lasted a minute at most. I googled how long the massive 8.9 earthquake in Japan lasted for. The answer was a mere five minutes. The time it takes to boil the kettle. The earth having a hiccup. That's all it takes to destroy thousands of lives. Whole cities, homes and peoples' lives devastated in a moment. On Friday I watched the tsunami take out everything in its path in a matter of minutes. And now the explosions in the nuclear power plant and the untold economic repercussions. Who knows how long and how much money it will take to recover from this?
My thoughts are with those in Japan right now ...
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