Review: Volcano
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 12, 2013
This is an interesting first person account of living on the side of an active volcano during a major eruption in 2010.One always reads about the fact that historically, humans do not hesitate to make their homes in these dangerous environments. Volcanic soil is very fertile and there are always people who have no better alternative for making a living. But the author is an American who makes her living via the internet and can live anywhere in the world. She chose to live where she does because her location on the side of a volcano in Java is very beautiful.It is amazing how comparatively blasé the author and her partner were about their own danger. The volcano actually erupted twice, on October 26 and November 5-6. During those two weeks the volcano continuously "roared", but the authors did not evacuate until they were ordered to during the second eruption. And then Kate took nothing with her except her employees, her dogs and her handbag, because she assumed they would be back home the next day.This book is a very interesting look at how people react and adapt during an ongoing disaster - how they help each other and defy danger. Most of the people who died during this eruption did so because they ignored warnings and orders from the authorities to leave their homes and save their lives.It's not surprising that the people of Java went right back to rebuild and continue to live in this beautiful but dangerous place. People always do. What I found interesting was the fact that these farmers, whose farms had been buried in lava, ash and sand, adapted by becoming SAND MINERS. It turns out the sand that Mt. Merapi spewed out in huge quantities is excellent building material!Kate Benzin is a transplanted American. I don't know what nationality the co-author and photographer, Rudy Tanjung is. But I found it very interesting that he wrote about the volcano in a very anthropomorphic way, as if the mountain was a woman.