TERREMOTO

Ok soo much to say about this...

There were 70 kids from all over the world in Rancagua, Chile. About an hour and a half south of Santiago. The earthquake hit at about 3:30 Saturday morning. I woke up because the whole cabin was shaking really hard back and forth, and the beds were creaking and i though the walls were going to cave in or the bunk bed on top of me was going to fall and kill me. Brutal i know, but its the truth. the shaking lasted for about 30 seconds and it kept getting worse and worse. after it stopped, some AFS volunteers came into the cabin and made sure that we were ok and told us that we had just gone through a really severe earthquake, which happened to be the worst earthquake Chile has seen in almost 100 years. How convienient that it happens the first night that im in Chile. So we slept outside for the rest of the night on the grass, with each othger and some blankets to keep us warm. We couldnt have the orientation that we were supposed to have the next day, which was the whole point of being there, because some structures that covered the main area had fallen down and it wasnt safe to walk under them. So we just hung out under the hot sun all day, and were able to go to the pool as well. it wasnt that bad though because we had each other and we got to know one another pretty well. i made a lot of friends that i wouldnt have made otherwise.

We were quickly running out of food, and we didnt have electricity or running water. sooo we left sunday morning by bus, which took us to santiago, to the national AFS office. all 70 of us crowded into the tiny office until some of us were taken to temporary host families in santiago, or in the other case, some were taken to their real host families if they lived nearby. i am living with a temporary host family because it was not safe to travel to parral, because many of the roads and bridges had been destroyed from the earthquake. i am with another girl from austria, named nina, in an apartment in a suburb of santiago, with a 22 year old girl named valentina, who is going to law school here, and her mother. We are having a great time! we shopped in santiago yesterday, and its great because everything is so cheap.

AFS called earlier today to update us on our families and it turns out the school im supposed to go to isnt working because of damage from the earthquake. my family and house are fine though, and the roads are even good enough now to get me there. so im just waiting for the school to be working so i can go to my family, which i guess could take up to a couple of weeks, but hopefully not. thanks for thinking of me and i love you all

chao

steph