Living Near an Active Volcano

This last month has been stressful, to say the least. Ministry changes, illness and illness again, uncertainty about our next furlough, and personal challenges created a perfect storm of miserableness. I think, I hope, I may, see the sun peeking through the clouds tonight.

We figured out Kitty's uncharacteristic bad moods of late - 2 year molars, hives, and tummy problems. I don't know what caused the full body hives, since she hasn't had or been near any shellfish. Another allergy mystery to figure out. But she seemed happier today, especially once I stuck my finger in her mouth snd felt her swollen gums. Poor baby.

Raccoon is excited about his upcoming party. Tomorrow we will kill our turkey and two ducks in preparation for Friday's feast. We're doing a family-only party this year, since the turkey was originally meant for Christmas.

Why the premature turkey sacrifice? That question brings me to the title of this post. Our volcano neighbor has been quiet of late on the surface, but seismically active which means something is cooking. The daily government censored reports are vague, but they do list some of the scientific measurements.  Hello crash course in volcanology. VTs lessening, LPs increasing, but only slightly.

So life goes on, shopping and school and hints that a large eruption is more likely than not, brings us to last night. The King gets a late night message from a woman we've helped over the years. She says that her cousin works at the IG, our national monitoring station. Supposedly,  the experts want to raise the alert level to orange and that they expect a catastrophic eruption within the next two weeks, but the government won't change the alert because they want to avoid a panic. Then the same woman leaves us another mesaage today, distraught, that she met with her cousin today and we should evacuate to Quito if possible.

So now what? Anxiety churns my stomach even as I write this. We could go stay with my mother-in-law, us and our five dogs and a cat, for a few weeks. We are planning to go to the US for furlough in November anyway. Or do we stay home, stock up on more supplies and just avoid the most dangerous nearby town? Is this just another rumor? Can we trust the government?  Will even the experts know in time? Will the volcano behave as it's done in the past?

The problem with prophets is that only time proves them right or wrong. But we don't get to make this decision after we know, we have to choose now. Or nowish.

For tomorrow, we will stay home. Tuesday we may go to a farther away city than usual to do our errands.

What would I do if I knew for sure it was going to blow this week? Or next? I'm not sure. Lord, we need peace and a clear plan of action.

Mom, if you read this, don't stress. We're fine.

But tonight I took a slow walk around Lighthill (our land), savoring the beauty. Just in case the world has changed by morning.