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The following message from ‘Michael’ member of Shoryukai, speaks for itself.
By now all of you have probably heard of the damaging earthquakes that struck the island of Lombok in Indonesia.
I would like to tell our personal story about this horrible event.
We, husband and wife (Michael and Tari) were living happily in Lombok for 3 years. We lived in a beautiful village called Kerandangan. All sorts of people liveD harmoniously together in this village. Hindu’s, Muslims, and a few Westerners from all over the world. It’s located in a valley surrounded by mountains and a national park about 800 meters from the beach.
All this peace was disturbed on August 5. 19.46 local time by a 7.0 earthquake. It was a beautiful night like always with plenty of stars and the sounds of nature. Tari was inside the bedroom and I was in the living room in front of the tv while the house suddenly started shaking. Smaller earthquakes happen all the time and usually we just wait or step outside because they never last long or do damage. This time though it felt different and much louder, the whole house moved. I immediately jumped of the couch and shouted RUN RUN RUN, TO THE LAND!!! (There is an open piece of land in the back of our house). We ran for our lives with our dog who luckily came running after us. Tiles came down, ceilings came down, walls cracked and split open, glass shattered, furniture fell down, electricity went off and it went black, the ground seemed to move up, down, left and right and dust from the destruction was everywhere. People in the street were screaming and crying.
If we started running 3 seconds later it would have all come down on our heads and we might not be here anymore.
After the shaking finally stopped (I estimate it took about 1 minute, but it felt much longer), we searched for a bag through the rubble, bring some important documents and stuff, put the dog on the leash and we ran for the mountains. There was a tsunami warning so we tried to go as high as possible. We went to friends (an older couple) who luckily were OK as well and have their house a little higher up in the valley. From there we had access to the mountains and with the four of us we tried to get as high as possible and wait there. We waited for about 3 hours and luckily there was no tsunami. We went down the mountain a bit and stayed outside for the rest of the night. There were lots of intense aftershocks that kept us awake the whole night.
Next morning it started to get light around 6 and we walked down the mountain back to the street to our house. On the way back to our house the destruction became evident. All the houses and shops of the local people were flattened. There was nothing still standing. Seeing this made goosebumps all over our body and tears came running down. Lots of people were standing outside on the street looking at what once was their home. People were caring and helping each other. After about 700 meters we reached our house. Our home was destroyed but some parts were still accessible. In the days after we tried to pack most of our important belongings and arrange transport to Bali. We slept outside in front of our house for 3 more nights, we were always alert and barely slept because of the many aftershocks and risk of looting. Finally we found a truck driver that could bring us and some of our belongings to Bali on the ferry.
On August 9, 21.00 at night we arrived in Bali where we had found a house that we now rent. After these 4 days of misery we are now safe, have clean water and food so we can’t complain anymore. Although we have damage emotionally and financially, we will be able to restart our lives again. But we can’t stop thinking about our village in Lombok. All the people there are sleeping on the ground outside their flattened homes and shops. They have no income, no place to live, little access to clean water and food. There is a constant threat of more earthquakes and lootings. We lived under this intense stress for 4 days but these people are going to be homeless for ‘god knows how long’ living under these dire circumstances.
We are determined to go back to our village and help the people there as soon as possible, but we need your financial support. There are already 8 families from who we know are in need of immediate help, their homes and livelihoods are destroyed and we want to rebuild their lives and give them a fresh start. We can’t do this alone without your financial support. The more money we receive the more we can rebuild. We are not like the red cross or some big aid organization. We know the village, we know the people and can give help straight to where it needs to go. Not a single dime will go lost on unimportant stuff.
Please donate a generous amount so we can go back there and rebuild the homes and livelihood of these people as soon as next week. Those people will be eternally grateful for your donation.
DONATION CAN BE DONE IN TWO WAYS:
FOR DONATIONS IN EURO:
IBAN: NL06RABO0122918347
BIC: RABONL2U
NAME: MICHAEL OOMEN
NOTE: DONATION LOMBOK
FOR DONATIONS IN BITCOIN (BTC):
3Q6RNjoYUP9nMeS8HMvJYAy9eYsAb5PQnv