The Day the Earth Shook and Split
The earth shook in sudden fury. Houses collapsed. The earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, claimed 6,234 lives. Life came to a standstill; the economy ruined. Yogyakarta needs help to rise again.
June 6, 2006
THE girl was 7-year-old Cesi Nurbandini. Her mother is a grass cutter, her father a construction-site laborer. They lived in Dawuran, a fertile village in Plered, Bantul, in the southern part of Yogyakarta. Despite the fathers meager income, the mother and child were happy. Cesi even owned a large stuffed panda doll.
Saturday morning, May 27, the little girl joined her mother to help sweep the yard. Her father was still asleep, tired from workin
...