Today, Tangkuban Parahu volcano (in Bandung) erupted for the third time this week. And just 1.5 hours ago, earthquake in Jakarta.

I was still sitting on my chair at my work station, finishing my monthly report, when suddenly I felt the desk shaking side by side. The water inside my glass also shaking quite hard. My office mates and office boys shouted, “Gempa ini. Gempa!” (Earthquake. This is earthquake). Some are doing takbir and istighfar. I froze and tried to not panicking.

I updated a Facebook and whatsapp status, “Wow.. Gempa..” (Wow, earthquake) to let my distant friends and family know what was happening, just in case they couldn’t reach me afterwards. No, I don’t need any fame from any status I made. I learned from some past passing friends as we cherished their last thoughts they put on their social media. If that were my last hour of living, at least my friends and family know what happened to me. I know it sounds “lebay” (means overreacted), but that’s what I was thinking.

Anyways, the quake happened for a solid 2 minutes. Now that is very long! Normally, earthquake only happens for 20 to 40 seconds, but this was different. I told ya, solid 2 minutes, maybe more. Because I took a video of the swaying chandelier at the office (mid room and also the lobby). Its duration is 2 minutes and 1 second, and the quake already happened for at least 15 seconds. And while quaking, I keep pressing my hand against the wall. It’s still shaking, so it means the ground still shaking too.

After the quake stop and settled, I checked on my children via WhatsApp Group. My daughter is on community service in Bogor. All Indonesian college students are required by the university to do this before we graduate and earn our degree. She informed me she felt the quake quite hard. I replied, yea me too. Her brother, my son, however, didn’t even realize it was quaking. 😅

However, after checking on my children, I reached my family–dad, sisters, brother–and also relatives who live in another cities and island. My dad and sister lives in Bali island (about 900 km away from Jakarta), they felt no quake. My relatives in Bandung (West Java, about 200 km away from Jakarta) felt it. But not as hard as Jakarta, I assume.Still, it made people who were attending the public places (malls, cinemas, restaurants) panic.

This is the hardest quake in 2 years in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung, even Lampung. And guess what, the government issued early tsunami warning about this. Ouch!

The next thing I did was messaging Ace in Netherland. “Jakarta just quake for 2 minutes. Potentially tsunami.” and I also sent some screenshots of the government’s announcing the occurrence and early tsunami warning via their social media channels.I haven’t spoke with Ace for days now. It’s not normal for us, since we always talk. But I understand he needs his time alone, away from phone calls, I know.

Anyways, we both promise to keep informing each other the importants. If I didn’t inform him any of this news, that is an insult for our friendship. I understand that, he understood that.

And I also know he will freak out, even raged, if anything bad happens to me. 😅 As much as it’s fun to see him panicking, I don’t want him to fly from Netherland all the way to Indonesia (again) just because he fears something bad is (or will be) happening to me. 🤣 He may not say it loud and clear, but I know he loves me that much. As his true friend. #ouch #friendzonesucks 🤣🤣🤣

I will continue to write again about this later. Just please pray for us, may the tsunami not really happen to us. Thank you. Barakallah. And for all my brothers and sisters who live along the coastline of Banten and Lampung, area, fii amanillah.

May Allah protect us all. 🙏