March 26
Earthquakes! I can’t remember ever feeling any earthquakes in my 10 years in California, but here they having been averaging about one a month. Yesterday was the biggest yet, a series of five medium size tremors in the morning and a sixth in the afternoon. In the morning I was helping run P.E. classes with the younger kids when the field started shaking. It was interesting to actually hear them coming and be able to tell what direction they came from. I realized that we were in the safest place in the community, as nothing could fall on us and a landslide was unlikely. The soccer games stopped and everyone gathered together as four more tremors arrived. Some of the kids started crying and the school director explained to them that the quakes were caused by the “moon changing”. I tried to explain the tectonic plates theory, but no one really understood. School was dismissed early and everyone went home. I don’t think where I live is too dangerous in regard to earthquakes since the roof is tin and the walls are brick, which I think can withstand most earthquakes. The whole community is built on the side of a mountain, so a landslide may be possible. I wonder if there will be any bigger ones while I am here.
March 27 update: Channel four news came up here to interview people about the quakes, since the epicenter was here in the community. I showed my smiling gringo face and was interviewed, I think I managed to state that I felt them and that earthquakes can be dangers (thanks for that valuable information). I’m going to try to catch myself on the news tomorrow. TV interviews in Spanish are not easy.
Lately I have gotten back into coaching kids soccer after a few of the kids begged me to do it again. I had gotten mad at the last practice back in November since the kids were disrespecting me and being lazy about playing and generally being little punks. It is going better now since I made it clear that is they don’t respect me then we won’t practice. We have a girls team and two boys teams, 4-6 grade and 6-9th grade. They basically just scrimmage while I referee. Hopefully in a few weeks I can organize some away games against neighboring schools.