Today, Alison and I got up at 6:00 am. We got ready and waited for Alister to see his gift. He was up and about, but didn't notice the table, because he was trying to see if the water was on. We had trickling water, but that was it. No hot water though. We stayed in our room for quite some time until we heard, "Oh! What's this?" Then after a couple minutes, we heard Alister chuckling as he read the list. Then he came and gave us a hug. So Happy Father's Day from New Zealand.
We headed over to the high school where Civil Defense was and started working. The first thing that happened was a guy asked me if I had a knife. He proceeded to say, "I'm not going to stab anyone or anything." Prior to that, I wouldn't have thought much of the statement, but when he tagged that statement on afterwards, I became nervous. There were other people there who questioned him and actually lent him a knife to make some sort of funnel. He returned it, but it was strange.
There were people who were from the news station who were taping us (Alison and I tried our best to avoid the camera). Alister got an interview last night that was broad casted on the radio. About 10:00 rolled around and we headed into town to check on a building. Most of the city was sectioned off, and we were not allowed anywhere near the building in a car or even by walking. So we drove off. We saw the damages along the way. It is quite incredible. Water pipes have burst and have flooded areas. We could see water all around trees trunks.
We went home for a bit, but had to return to the centre at 3:00 for the tea shift. Before returning, I was able to skype Kevin, Michelle, Karsie, and Mom. I told them everything that has been happening thus far. I hadn't felt a whole lot of aftershocks in the afternoon, but while I was talking to them, there was an aftershock. After I was done, there were two more pretty big aftershocks.
When we came back to help Civil Defense, Domino's pizza, Subway, and other places just came in and brought food. Actually MANY people have just come in to give food away. The sad thing is, we have way more food than people. We don't have refrigeration, so a lot of the food has to be thrown out.
We met a couple with two kids who had lost their home. They didn't want to take anything at all, but relented eventually. They felt so bad and didn't want to accept help. They were actually trapped in their house. The earthquake did damage to the doors where they wouldn't open, and the automatic garage door openers wouldn't work. So they had to literately break the doors down to escape from their house. I found out that a couple of people from our Church lost their homes and several people have massive damage.
Earlier today, I emailed my boss to ask about work. I was told that the preschool had no damage and they would be opening tomorrow. Then someone told me that all schools in Christchurch were closed until Wednesday. I texted both of my bosses and found out that I was accidentally forgotten to be sent the general message from my boss telling us there was no work until Wednesday, but there would be a meeting Tuesday afternoon to reevaluate.
We left and went to Anne's sister's house. Anne's brother and sister-in-law were coming over for the night. So we spent some time with them, but we were quite exhausted. It has been a long couple of days. We have not had much sleep.
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