Chapter 22
On April 16th I was inside my house when I felt pieces of earth falling from the roof of my cave. I was frightened and thought all my efforts would be lost again. I ran outside the cave. Suddenly I noticed that the ground was shaking everywhere. It was an earthquake!
I was paralyzed with fear. I felt sea-sick as if I were on a ship. All of a sudden a large rock fell into the coastal waters with a terrible splash.
Although the earthquake was soon over, I was afraid to go inside the fortification. I was sitting on the ground in front of my house still very much upset and scared to enter. I did not even notice it was getting cloudy and the wind was getting stronger. A terrible storm was approaching.
There were enormous waves in the sea and on the ground trees were torn up by their roots. This lasted for three terrifying hours. Then a heavy downpour began.
I thought that the storm and the rain were the consequences of the earthquake, so I gathered courage and went back inside my fortification. This started me thinking about moving my tent to an open space where there was less risk of being buried alive during an earthquake. I was scared the cave might fall down the very next time the ground starts to shake again. I decided to make a hut on a plain. For protection, I would surround it by a wall.
I spent the end of April trying to prepare and sharpen the tools I would need for building the hut.