taletell signs

Life has the look of being back to normal here in Lima but as I talk with many people, I am finding that we are all still dealing with the stress of life. Even though we all know that the majority of the energy was released back on Wednesday, the rather frequent and powerful aftershocks still remind us of the two minutes we endured just a few days ago. I will admit, the frequency and magnitude of the aftershocks does worry me slightly, more than 4 days after and we are still having quakes in the 5.0 - 5.8 range. I expected there to be more of a drop-off than this with the aftershocks and I'm sure that the surges of tectonic plates that we are feeling right now are the main reason for the tension that hangs in the air.

As I noted, Lima has the look of being back to normal but every conversation you have is laced with an air of uncertainty and doubt as people still wonder about their safety. A friend of mine from FDR showed the pictures of her apartment (major cracks running through the interior walls) and her hands began to shake as she relived the terror of the moments she felt. It didn't help that about 5 minutes after showing those pictures, we had another aftershock (5.8) shake us again. Her signs are more visible than the rest of us, but if we were poker players right now, our tells would be quite visible.

For me, my tell is the fact that I've been wearing a baseball cap for the last 48 hours and eating like there's no tomorrow. The mood I feel at the moment reminds me of how I felt after 9/11. While the scope of this situation isn't as intense as that day was, I still have that pit in my stomach. For me, I know my reaction to mild/moderate stress is eating food - for others, their reactions are a bit different.

My friends are bonding together as friends do but we are also coming together more in small groups rather than large gatherings. Conversations still focus on the fact that there are aftershocks and the fear that cracks in walls will lead to a structural failure when the next big aftershock hits. People talk about the rescue and repair efforts in Pisco and Ica yet you can hear in their voice that they wonder if soon others will be sent to Lima to rescue us. Stories of rioting and looting in Pisco and Ica worry many here as they know that if Lima does take a hit like those towns did, there would be the same problems on a massive scale. Lima is a city of 8 million and there aren't enough police/military in all of South America that would be able to maintain the peace if a more damaging quake strikes. And those are the stories I hear from cabbies...

I started to feel a little more normal today as I helped a friend put up some bookshelves. These didn't collapse in Wednesday's quake but were ones that were going up new. For me, it was a signal that my life was back to normal and I should start living that way. It was therapeutic to not think about what has been on my mind for the last 96 hours, a chance to put my energy and focus into something else (notice how both people and earthquakes can have energy and focus?). So as I go to sleep tonight, I head off to slumber with a more relaxed state of mind. While not free of the anxiety that goes along with being in a major seismological event just yet, I feel like I'm a whole lot closer to being back to normal - thanks in part to building some bookshelves.