Asian Studies Page

Letter to Random Thailand-habitant

Dear Ms. Coffee,
I guess you heard that Mount Merapi, the volcano right next to my village, is on the verge of erupting. The rumbling from the volcano gets rather distracting these days. To prevent from anything happening, our village is being evacuated. In fact, I'm packing my belongings as I write this letter. If the volcano does erupt suddenly, there will be a chance that hot ash up to 500 degrees celcius will come rushing towards our village, burying everyone and everything in its path. It's hard to move out of the village as I've spent so much effort for my house and I have many rich belongings that I will have to leave. Every night of delay means an increase in danger and people here are getting rather nervous. All of a sudden, a wave of panic strikes the village. It's good that we have been warned before by other experts.
People are attempting to divert the possible path the lava flow might take, however. Digging a path from the eruption site could possibly create a more controlled path for the lava. As for the flowing ash, we just have to hope that it doesn't come heading towards our village.
I can't really imagine what our village would be like after the eruption. It might be safely lying, untouched by volcanic ash, or perhaps slightly sprinkled by rocks spurted during the eruption, but otherwise, our village would be covered in ash and magma. Those unlucky enough to be too slow, would perish in the flow. That gives me a very good reason to leave as soon as possible.

Your friend,
Daniel L.

posted by Daniel @ 6:27 PM