Michelle thought it was just Shane rolling around in bed at 5:30 am. Liberty was having a dream in which Shane and her brother Van had come into her room and were shaking her bed to play a trick on her. Shane thought a really big truck was rolling by outside the building. But as I, Shane, woke up more I realized that the bed was rocking. It was time to get up and starting walking to get the kids! It was an earthquake! We’ve had earthquakes before but this one was lasting longer than the others. As long as it took for me to wake up, stumble out of bed, make my shaking way to Van’s room and tell him to get up (he was the only one still sound asleep), then help him up, and then head back to the dining table to hide under it, and then call Michelle and Liberty to join us and wait for them to also come under the table… the earth was still shaking. We are on the 6th floor which certainly added to the rocking motion. While we hid under the table the shaking intensified. It was unbelievable. I actually started preparing mentally for a building collapse – what do I do next? How will I get the passports over on the other side of the apartment in my desk – I gotta get shoes close to us so we don’t cut our feet walking through glass and rubble – how bad is it going to be? Then the shaking subsided. We experienced a few more after-shocks. Then it was quiet. We could hear people who had run outside, but we hadn’t. I did not want to be in a concrete stairwell with the building collapsing around us, only to make it outside and be crushed by falling debris (the only place outside would have been between two tall buildings.)

We found out later that the epicentre of this earthquake was close a town north of us called Bortala. This made me pause. We had recently been through that town on our way back from another place further north. We did not get a pleasant reception in Bortala. Schemers and thieves tried to rip us off with exorbitant prices for transportation back to Ili. Our protests were met with mocking laughter from bystanders. It was overall such a negative atmosphere and disdainful treatment, unlike anywhere else in our experience that I almost spoke aloud – may God curse this town for its cruelty to travellers and visitors. But I thought it in my heart only. So to hear that just a few weeks later it suffers an earthquake gave me pause to wonder. What would have happened if I spoke it aloud? Would the people remember? Would it have done something in their hearts?