I am trying to listen to my massive backlog of NPR World Story of the Day podcasts. Today, I listened to the story from January 24 about Romel Joseph, a Juilliard-trained violinist from Haiti. He founded a music school there that (accidentally) burned down years ago. He rebuilt it and has been working there as a teacher ever since. Ten years to the day from the fire, the earthquake struck Haiti. The school was reduced to rubble around him. He was trapped inside for 18 hours, playing concertos note-by-note in his head to pass the time calmly. His pregnant wife was on the first floor, and she did not survive. When NPR summed up these tragedies and asked if he would return to Haiti, there was no hesitation in his voice when he vowed to return and rebuild the school. He said,
"Tests are designed to see how powerful your will is. So, if you are a person who has weak will, then you will fail your test and then that's that. But, I need more than an earthquake to make me stop my work in Haiti."
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