If you've read 'Water From My Heart,' you know of my story and my adopted family in Nicaragua, of mi Hermano, William 'Moises,' and that Nicaragua and her precious and magnificent people are tender to my heart. Last night's 6.1 earthquake shot directly through William's home and his community (that rich black earth he's sitting on in the pic below).
When I spoke with him this morning, he said the violent shaking and loud noise woke him, so he led Cecilia and his granddaughter outside where the earth "rolled like waves, and picked me up and dropped me." (News reports actually place the epicenter a few miles away.) They, like everyone else, slept a few hours in the streets while the aftershocks rippled toward the coast. As a precaution, hospitals evacuated all patients and the Pan American Highway was filled with the sound and flash of racing ambulances. William spent some of today riding to and from surrounding communities checking on churches and family and friends. Early reports suggest people were bounced around, walls were cracked, and a nearby church toppled but listening to William talk, I wondered if maybe the worst damage was the unearthing of memories buried long ago in the mud of Hurricane Mitch. (We'll know more in the days ahead.)
The picture above was taken yesterday while William was working in the sugar cane fields with his family. I told him it's good to see him sweating, he needs the exercise. ;-) He is quite possibly one of the, if not the, hardest workers I've ever met with a heart and smile unlike any other. There are many great men on earth, and this picture captures one of them.