Yesterday we had our 8th official meetup and it was one of the most dramatic meetups so far.
The meetup started with 
Hive account@chrisrice arriving first with his family. His wife 
Hive account@emafe ordered some pizza while Chris sat down waiting for the others to join.
It wasn't before long until 
Hive account@nathansenn showed up next, and he sat down to talk about his blockchain job, how he's done well for himself and his family as a blockchain developer, and how he managed to get great deals from China on jeans and is now selling them to stores in Davao City.
While they were talking, Chaim showed up with his wife, Love and it was actually their first time meeting Hive account@chrisrice and their first time in Davao City as they actually live in Manila, and are just now visiting Davao to see what it's like.
After a bit of discussion and introductions, Hive account@chrisrice learned that Chaim "helps people who are sick heal faster" through a few holistic techniques that Chris was interested in learning about... then 
Hive account@jemmanuel, 
Hive account@jancharest and Lawrence showed up.
Hive account@riyuwe also showed up so it was a decent sized crowd, and it was actually big enough for more than one discussion to be held.
At the far end of the table, Chaim was discussing some of what he does, Hive account@emafe was having some chit-chat with Hive account@riyuwe + Love, and Chris was settling in to talk to 
Hive account@jemmaneul, 
Hive account@jancharlest and Lawrence.
Hive account@jemmanuel and Hive account@jancharlest were the first Steemians that Chris ever met but it was online at first. Hive account@jancharlest had already attended two meetups before this one but today was Hive account@jemmaneul's first #steem meetup with Hive account@chrisrice. They talked about how Jan and Jaka (Hive account@jemmanuel) had made some decent calls about where the price of HIVE would move in their group chat and Chris was happy to say that he was either going down with the ship on HIVE, or making a decent return in the upcoming altcoin rally.
In other investments that Hive account@chrisrice doesn't understand, he gets spooked when the price crashes, but HIVE is something he understands, and he isn't worried about the price fluctuations, even if the price of HIVE drops further. In addition to that, he truly enjoys what he does on the Hive blockchain and in the group meetups so he isn't entirely concerned with whether or not the investment will pay off, even though he fully suspects that it will.
The group was having fun, they took some pictures and Chris was ready to get some more discussions going between different sides of the tables when all of a sudden a magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit the Philippines and it almost felt, at least to Chris, like the center of the earthquake was under the S&R restaurant they were eating at (it wasn't).
At first the shopping mall started shaking, Hive account@emafe immediately jumped up and said "My son" and ran to the other side of the shopping mall where Hive account@chrisrice and Hive account@emafe's son was playing (at an indoor playground with members of their household who were supervising him).
Hive account@chrisrice didn't think it was that big of a deal. It was a pretty good sized earthquake but he felt earthquakes before and all of them passed without anything going wrong. But the earthquake kept going longer than normal, even after Hive account@emafe had already left. People in S&R started panicking too, and almost everyone in the group went underneath the tables except for Hive account@nathansenn and Chris.
Hive account@nathansenn doesn't really get shaken and Chris didn't think that there was much danger. Chris went ahead and walked out of S&R to meetup with Hive account@emafe and his son. He saw Hive account@emafe holding 
Hive account@zaclucas, and also saw 
Hive account@samyut and Mimi behind her. Emafe was shaken but okay. They did some walking back and Chris was actually filming some of it, and talking about how a lot of people seemed shooken up.
The group sat down again and started talking once more.. there was another aftershock earthquake but they kept talking. Then Hive account@riyuwe in a panic strucken voice showed a video of a Gaisano mall that collapsed in Digos and said she just got off the phone and it had flooded where they lived. She said there were rumors that there was a tidal wave and that people were being evacuated. This sounded worse than the average earthquake so the group proceeded to exit the building and head home.
It's a long story and the videos will be published on Hive account@emafe's vlog this weekend, but basically the group meetup was going super well, everyone was talking and enjoying until the southern part of the Philippines was struck by a significant earthquake. They shook it off at first until panic started striking the city, apparently from people who lived near the shorelines of the city. The people near the shorelines said that the water had receeded as if it was a tidal wave and there were really people being evacuated from their homes.
People were pulling out their emergency lights, bringing food with them, heading to higher ground and there were even people bringing their farm animals like pigs with them in their cars to drive up the main mountain in Davao City in order to avoid a supposed tidal wave.. but it never happened. The earthquake actually happened on land so there was no threat of a tsunami.
The entire city, or at least a good amount of the city, fed by #fakenews on social media panicked for a day, and it all started during the 8th #HivePhilippines meetup but everyone is okay 😊
If anyone lives in Davao City, Philippines, consider reaching out to Chris Rice.
Originally posted on HIVE Philippines. Hive blog powered by ENGRAVE.