Till the World Ends....

The world didn't end on May 21st as was predicted by Doomsday prophet Harold Camping and his followers, but this morning it certainly shook.

I was sitting in my living room early this morning in Kigali, when I heard a rumbling sound and then felt the earth shaking under me. After the tremor stopped, I walked over to my window and looked out to see if anything had toppled over or if anyone was earth. There was no visible damage or destruction from the window and everything was normal in my apt. In fact things were so normal that for a couple of minutes I wondered if I had imagined the whole thing. It wasn't until I got to work that Eric, one of the drivers, called out to me "Did you feel the earthquake this morning?" I told him that I had, and even though I was a little freaked out by what happened, I was thankful that no one was hurt.

I have never even thought about the possibility of an earthquake in Rwanda but after the events that unfolded in Haiti and Japan, I don't want to take anything for granted. It turns out that an earthquake struck Rwanda in February 2008 and killed 34 people and injuring more than 200 people. The 6.0 magnitude earthquake occurred along the Great Lakes Region/Great Rift Valley (reports differ) that includes Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This time around, Rwanda was spared from massive destruction. May 23th moves forward and there is work to be done, but I will always remember this day as the day "the earth moved under my feet...and the sky DIDN't come tumbling down." Its another day to live my life to the fullest and do all the things I'm meant to do until I die, or until the world ends, whichever comes first!