Today Greg and I got the opportunity to travel to the north of Chengdu to the rural outlying areas of Sichuan Province ravaged by the recent earthquake. It was a remarkable and sobering experience that I know we will never forget. About 90,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Tens of thousands more lost their homes and are still living in makeshift shelters or temporary housing provided by the government. We visited the village of Bai Hua where 700 people were killed including 7 children at the local school that we are helping to rebuild through an OHF sponsored fundraising intiative. The village of Bai Hua was actually fortunate to lose only seven children as many other village schools lost staggering numbers of young people (the earthquake hit in the middle of the school day). As the photographs below indicate, the village school at Bai Hua took a direct hit but managed to stand; I thank God for that one gift amidst the tragedy. Observing the badly damaged building Greg remarked that is was like the "building gave up its life to save those inside it"-yes it did, thank God. The force of this earthquake was astounding, causing whole sides of surrounding mountains to collapse into the valleys below, sometimes crashing down on homes. I have never seen anything like this is my life. It was incredibly humbling. I thought a lot about my young daughter Miranda as I looked at the crushed remains of the school wash room where the children died. How do you process something like this? One very bright ray of hope was that we actually happened to visit on the day when they were celebrating breaking ground for the new school that is going to be built. It was a really serendipitous confluence of events and a great way to wind up a challenging visit like this one. I'm really glad that we're making an investment in the recovery of this village and the people who live there. They are amazingly strong and resilent people who have really inspired me to keep going in this work...it is not always easy.
Children lined up to celebrate ground-breaking ceremony for new school
This is me examining a large crack in the wall of a classroom...unbelievable....
Astounding....whole sides of mountains collapsed..this is one of the smaller ones...
A local plant that was completely flattened by the earthquake.......
The school building that truly did give its life to save the occupants.....
Major cracks in the first story of the building...but it held.....
The remains of the school washroom where 7 children died
A local villager who gave Greg the "thumbs up"....a great moment of human connection
1 comment:
This is truly sobering, but reaffirms the importance of our work there. Thanks so much for giving of yourself to make this happen. Love you.
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