Run for your life!!!

1/2/2010 – Run for your life!!! just kidding…


Tonight we had some volcanic activity! I did not see it though :( Sr. Charlotte came inside to call me to come and see the lava spew, and I ran out in disbelief. But all that was there was the usual red glow, a bit bigger this time.

I guess Sr. Iwona had seen some lava spray up into the sky a few minutes ago. Apparently the Sisters in Kigali called us to see how we were doing and if we needed to flee. I don't know how the message got there so fast…I think the radio was broadcasting something. So I was a little scared and had lots of questions, but I was also just extremely excited to have almost witnessed such a phenomenon.

Sr. Gisele explained to me that the lava that spewed out had gone over onto the other side into the bush. Goma was fine, as the direction of the spew was not into the city but into the forest. She said that if it had sprayed in this direction we would have had to flee because everything would burn!

But if that were the case, there would be tons of rumbling and the earth would tremble. That wasn't happening, so we knew we were safe. They have an evacuation plan and know what to do. It seemed to me that this was a pretty minor "eruption," if it is even considered an eruption.

Since I didn't see it I don't know how much lava came out, but from the way we talked about it I got the idea that it wasn't much. We went inside and ate dinner, joking about it. They said we'd better eat well, because then we'll have more energy to run away if we need to! All in good fun.

Pretty amazing.