By Leopoldo Montecinos

When on the night of February 26 my wife (who had just returned from the hospital after being released), my three little boys and I were saying good night, we never imagined we’d be so rudely awakened. Just a few hours later we had to get up. Quickly, struggling to keep our balance, we ran to our children’s room…

Thank God, they didn’t even wake up! Yes, it’s true…they didn’t wake up! Only the youngest, two-year-old Vicente, sat up at the end of the longest three minutes we’d ever lived through, tenderly said “Daddy…” and went back to sleep…

Despite the experience and the intensity of the earthquake, we never imagined the true magnitude of what had occurred – and what was about to happen…without water or electricity, an old battery-powered radio (the kind no one uses any more) was our companion for the rest of the night. All we could pick up was radio stations from Argentina, who were giving the first reports of what had happened in our country. Everything was confusion.

With no phone lines and no cell phones, we were cut off from communications. The batteries on the old radio began to run down…we didn’t get power again until Sunday night (and there are places that still don’t have lights or water.)

It’s only in the past couple of days that we’ve come to know the real magnitude of this earthquake and the tsunamis that followed it; it’s an enormous tragedy. Chile is prone to earthquakes, but we never get used to them and cease to be surprised. The aftershocks (last night we had a 6.1) keep reminding us, at every moment, of what happened.

Chile is trying to get back up like so many other times. Chile is seeking calm; Chile is hoping to once again say “Good night.”

Leopoldo Montecinos is the Communications Coordinator for Children International’s agency in Valparaíso, Chile. Watch the blog for firsthand accounts of what Leo has experienced as he and other staff members have visited families of sponsored children in the days following last Saturday’s tragic earthquake.