Home Leave

Jon M. Skovlin

Today I leave Oregon for New Zealand, the next leg in our adventure.  Scott has been there for over a week.  This home leave was an incredible time; completely surreal.  Days before leaving Santiago, we learned that my dad was not doing well and was ready to transition from this earth.  The family had time to come together and be with him when he died on February 14th.  He had suffered from emphysema for 10+ years and his last weeks were very uncomfortable so his passing was peaceful.  We are all so lucky to have spent so much time together and are comforted to know that dad is continuing his incredible journey throughout the entire universe, breathing easy.  With his amazing life as inspiration, we continue our journey savoring every day in this wonderful world that is our home...for now.

Lessons Learned from Chile

An apartment building in Conception

On February 27th, 2010, Chile suffered an 8.8 magnitude subduction zone earthquake.  It's epicenter was offshore about 200 miles south of Santiago.  Here in Chile it is called Terremoto de Maule. Depending on where you were, the earth shook violently for 3-5 minutes!  It caused a large tsunami that inundated some coastal towns and left others untouched. Chile has large earthquakes all the time; the worlds biggest earthquake was in 1960 in Chile, it was a 9.5 magnitude.  Thus, Chile is fully aware of the dangers and as prepared as you can get.  The potential in Oregon is for a 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami is expected. The last earthquake Oregon experienced was 300 years ago and the only record is from a tsunami in Japan that could be traced back to an earthquake in Oregon.  Having not experienced an earthquake in modern times and only recently understanding the potential, we are not prepared. Except for recently built infrastructure, our buildings, bridges, shipping ports, airports, energy network and water systems are not up so earthquake standards.

A bridge collapse that isolated a village

Scott spent most of his time talking to ministers from various infrastructure systems and learned so much about the interdependence of these systems and will be developing a report about his findings.  As for me, I talked to several people and listened to Scott after his visits. My thoughts are not necessarily technical, but more general and personal.

First, no matter how prepared you are, you will never be prepared enough.  This is NOT an excuse to skip preparing for an earthquake, but more to say that you can never be prepared enough.  The earthquake itself is traumatizing and causes a lot of stress.  I imagine post traumatic stress syndrome is rampant after an earthquake.  Often the men were away or called away to help.  Families needed each other; sisters moved in together, kids moved in with their parents, whatever it took to not be alone.  Some people who lived in Santiago left for the countryside, others who lived on the margins of Santiago temporarily moved into the center of the city where systems were restored more rapidly.  Communities along the coast were completely cut off and without outside help for a month.  People were dependent on local cooperation to survive, they helped each other and sometimes traded what they had whether that was generator power, water or food.  The best therapy for the stress was reaching out and helping others.

Tsunami inundation was devastating

Bar none, the biggest problem was the lack of electricity.  No electricity means no communications, no cell phones, no water, no fuel, no security, no ATMs, no money and no open stores.  Near the epicenter, security was a huge deal with looting completely paralyzing the town of Concepcion.  It took the government a week to mobilize troops in the hardest hit Concepcion.  The lingering stress in the city is very evident.  Small stores had to close because of the lack of electricity and security.  Large stores like the Walmart supported Lider had generators and could stay in business.  This shifted people's buying habits from mom & pop stores to large retail outlets.  When security and power came back, habits had been changed forever and many small businesses went under.

The next most severe consequence was the loss of roads to collapsed bridges and landslides.  Secondary, small roads became critical. One things that really helped Chile in this respect was that utilities and the government streamlined the contracting process so that repairs could be done quickly.  Typical procurement processes might take six to eight months, but the streamlined processes allowed utilities to contract in a matter of weeks.

Today in Chile, the earthquake is history and one is hard-pressed to see remaining damage. We revisited the locations where the above pictures were taken and struggled to see remnants of the earthquake. This is tribute to this wonderful country and the resilience of its people.  I hope that Oregon will pay attention, that people will prepare for an unknown and seemingly unreal disaster and that when it happens that they reach out to each other and pull together.

Now we are off to the States for 10 days and then on to New Zealand to learn from their experience!

The Chilean Farm

Grandpa raises cows & wheat crops

Our friend Rodrigo, who Scott met during his 2010 earthquake reconnaissance, took us to his family farm this weekend.   A few years ago Rodrigo mentioned his family farm and that he thought we would like his parents; lots in common.  We eagerly agreed that we would love to visit and plans were made. (Double click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

Every farm needs a family bunkhouse!

Just like any big city getting out of Santiago on a Friday night was a challenge.  The farm was about a 6-hour drive south and we didn't arrive until close to midnight.  Of course for Chileans this is relatively early and everyone was around to receive us and chat a bit.  We all stayed in the bunkhouse at his grandparents place; it was built so that family members could come and relax for extended stays.  A fantastic idea that we will adopt in Lower Lincoln.

Rodrigo (left), Scott & Carlos at the new house.

There are really two farms, the one owned by Rodrigo's grandparents, Harold and Lilian, and the one owned by his parents, Carlos and Lilian. Carlos and Lilian were just starting to build their house so we stayed on the grandparents farm where they grew blueberries, apples, beef cows and traditional crops.  It is a BIG operation. Carlos and Lilian just recently retired and moved from Santiago to the farm.  Lilian is growing peonies at the moment.  In time they will have several other operations.

Lilian and Meleah discuss expansion plans

Lilian grows peonies for export, is in her fourth year of production and is expanding her infrastructure. The peonies had been cut and the plants were going dormant when we were there. She showed us pictures of the whole growing, harvesting and shipping process; its pretty impressive. Of course the possibilities are dancing around in my head of possible operations at Lower Lincoln where much of the infrastructure is already in place (I know, Don, you've been telling me this already!)

The family chapel in the forest.

Carlos is still getting his bearings and is thoroughly enjoying the more relaxed lifestyle on the farm.  He keeps in touch with the outside world, but you get the feeling he does not miss Santiago where he spent much of his career.  My favorite place was his meditation area (family chapel). The farm was definitely a working farm, but the value of family and being together was clearly evident.  It was so relaxing and drew you in so that it was difficult to leave, just like Lower Lincoln.  There was no moon during our visit and one night the power went out.  We took the opportunity to look at the stars.  Oh my goodness, the sky was so black and the stars so bright.  Like our visit, so much was foriegn about the sky and yet it was the same.  The foreign southern cross constellation and same milky way.  The same things with different names like Orien's Belt that they call the Three Marias.

Lunch on the farm was fabulous.

On Saturday, we toured the farm and then were treated to an amazing BBQ.  Four types of meat cooked expertly by an attentive Carlos with bowl after bowl of yummy salad dishes that Lilian and Lilian made.  Grandpa Harold  made sure we all had snacks and pisco sours as the meat cooked on the BBQ pit.  Rodrigo's brother and girlfriend were also there for summer vacation so there were nine of us all together.

Rodrigo demonstrates the picking strategy

Scott's favorite was the blueberries.  Grandma Lilian had no less than 30 acres of blueberries!  There were lots of varieties that ripened at different stages so where they had already been picked we were free to graze.  Many of the blueberries that we get in the states during winter are from Chile so now we assured that they are high quality!  Likewise our blueberries supply the Chileans during our summer.

The biggest cabbage ever!  To extend the season some veggies were grown in hoop houses.

The climate is similar to Oregon and so are the crops.

Here we are just before we left.  From left to right is Carlos, Juan Pablo, Grandma Lilian, Grandpa Harold, Rodrigo, Meleah, Scott and Lilian.  Lucia took the picture.