The Pacific Ring of Fire

Hi everyone! Sadly I have not the time or the energy to do a proper blog update: report cards are due in 4 days and I have the flu!!? Lovely.

I just wanted to send out a quick update to let y'all know I am safe and fine here in Indonesia. This wonderful country of Indonesia has made world news yet again with another natural disaster. I suppose the news of another earthquake or volcanic eruption shouldn't come as a great surprise, as we are right in the middle of what geologists called "the Pacific Ring of Fire".



The 6.3 earthquake which occured early Sunday morning had it's epicentre close to the cultural city of Yogyakarta (not to be confused with Jakarta) is about 8 hours east of me in Central Java. It is a beautiful area filled with significant 9th century Buddhist and Hindu monements, which have apparently been damaged by the quake. The quake was more than likely related to the recent rumblings of one of Asia's most active volcanoes: Gunung Merapi's. Villagers have been evacuated in the past few weeks as Merapi has been blowing ash and spewing lava.

Gunung Merapi can be seen from a top Borobudur blowing some steam, July 2005

There are some teachers and support staff at my school who have lost their family home or loved ones, which makes the tragedy seem a little closer to home. Please pray for the relief efforts as they get under way. Many of the local churches had medical teams mobilized within hours, so hopefully they will be able to prevent more of the injured from dying.