A Bookkeepers Balkan Update: Explosions Echo

Boom Boom! My building trembled and windows rattled as I was relaxing with a cup of coffee and a book on Saturday. "Hmm..," I thought, "the garbage men are being pretty heavy-handed with the cans today..." Boom Boom! I sit up and think, "Earthquake?" Boom BooBoom KABOOMBoom! My building shutters again and the windows rattle their protest. I get up and head to the balcony, like many of my neighbors, to see if I can see what's going on... this was much more than an earthquake. Boom KABOOMBoom Boom!

I called a colleague who lives nearby and she said she'd heard them too... she was in the city center and said that the kid walking in front of her practically jumped out if his skin at the sound. When locals jump rather than just go on with business you know that something is out of the ordinary. Though my colleague and I were convinced that it was just some construction outside of town or something.

Later that day I go to a local internet cafe and learn of the amunition explosions in Albania... surely that is too far away for us to hear the explosions here in Skopje, over 100 miles away?! Friends in a town 1-1/2 hours away in Kosovo also heard the explosions though. The local news is reporting that that's what we heard... Really? They sounded only a few miles away... but if what we heard was from Albania it makes me realize just how big the explosions must have been and just how great the damage was. A quick visit to YouTube confirms just how large the devestation was and how big the blasts. It's those bigger, most devestating explosions that echoed all the way here.

People have lined up to give blood and various countries are sending aid as well, including here in Macedonia. Please do pray for the people there in Albania, for those who've tragically lost loved ones, who've had to be evacuated, who've lost homes and for the rescue and recovery efforts.