Sunday, January 17, 2010

"There's a lot of uncertainty that's not clear in my mind."

The San Antonio Taxi Driver

We're not sure how we made it safely from the airport to the hotel due to the fact he maintained eye contact with Anne in the rearview mirror for the entire drive. Although I pretended to not pay attention I learned a lot from him.

He was raised in El Salvador. He's pretty disturbed by the situation in Haiti right now. Apparently, in 1958 there was an earthquake at 3 a.m. More than 55,000 people were killed. He was buried under his mattress for hours. The dirt opened and swallowed people up.

During our short drive the man got so involved with his story. He is worrying so much for the people in Haiti but I think more than that, he seems to be dealing with a lot of his own experience in El Salvador.

Really, I can't find anything to back up the story he told me but it still reminded me to be thankful for things like building codes that make our communities more stable and all of the local organizations that help prepare individuals and families for disasters or even teach us how to do simple things like avoiding germs and being safe. It would be silly for me to hear these stories and do nothing to prepare myself. What it comes down to is "there's a lot of uncertainty that's not clear in my mind."

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