In Case of Emergency

Every Roshan employee is required to go through a security briefing when they first arrive in Kabul. I meet one of three security advisors, Amanda Flynn, at lunch on my second day. She is a tall, very pretty brunette with a long face and Irish accent. She smiles, leans across the table and introduces herself as, "Mandy." Someone with the name "Mandy" doesn't strike me as someone who runs shit, but based on everything I've heard, that's exactly what she does.

Shortly after lunch, I get a text from Mandy saying that the security briefing isn't urgent since we are on lock down all weekend. Joel and I, not thinking too much of it, are not phased by this. There isn't much trouble we can get into on the compound.

Later on that evening I notice a sign on the back of my room door:

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS

NATURAL DISASTERS
(EARTHQUAKE)
EXIT BUILDING TO COURTYARD
IMPLEMENT CALL TREE PROCEDURE
AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS

This is the extent of my current security briefing. And I assure you, I followed none of it when I woke up to an earthquake at midnight last night.

I was dreaming that I was on the phone with Mrs. Ginach in her NYC apartment, asking to speak to Danielle. In my dream, Joel was beside me, intentionally shaking the bed, asking, "Why is the bed moving? Why is the bed moving?" Over and over. (Joel has a tendency to partake in actions such as these. Striking weird poses and then asking me, "Is this weird?" is a weekly occurrence.) So it took me a moment after he shook me awake and asked, "Karima, why is the bed moving?" to realize it was an earthquake. 

I am a girl who likes to follow instructions, so I did run downstairs to pop my head into the hallway. But when others had decided that it was over and there was no need to proceed to the courtyard, I got back into bed. I lay there for awhile thinking about how uneventful, but at the same time totally surreal the quake was. I lived on the edge of the Juan de Fuca and North American tectonic plates for 15 years and had earthquake drills twice a year in school. We were taught how to duck and cover the back of our heads with our hands, get under a desk or look for a door frame that would block falling debris. All those years of practice and I never even felt a small tremor.

This morning, we received this email from Amanda Flynn:

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the Hindu Kush last night at 11.51pm local time. The epicenter of the quake, which struck at a depth of 200 km, was 7.5 km South – South East of Faizabad and 265 km North East of Kabul. There are no reports of casualties or damage as of yet.

So far, no real harm done. It seems someone just wanted to shake things up before the elections today.