The Day the Earth Moved

Hello from Tianshui, Gansu.

Michelle and I have been evacuated from Chengxian to Tianshui until the aftershocks subside a little more. We've been hanging out here, waiting to go back to our site while Peace Corps and the provincial leaders come to an agreement on our living arrangements. We are in a holding pattern.

So the earthquake hit northern Sichuan. We live in Gansu, the province to the north of Sichuan, very close to the border.

One of the things Peace Corps values most is cross cultural education. So when volunteers go abroad, one of the best ways to facilitate that is to encourage people to come and visit the host country to see a new way of life. A bunch of my friends decided to take the opportunity to visit China and our little town. We had spent the previous days hiking to temples and seeing the countryside. I had some students come over and teach them how to cook some Chinese dishes and we even went to a hospital to see (and participate) in an acupuncture session with a doctor.

They were slated to go home the next day and I wanted them to see the crown jewel of Chengxian: Jifeng mountain. Jifeng is an enormous mountain right out of a Harry Potter moview and on top are several very old temples. I think it may be one of China's best kept secrets, but I am a bit biased.

We had just arrived at the top and were winding our way up a steep, narrow path to the temple on the peak when we heard a loud roaring noise and the whole mountain began to sway and shake violently beneath us. We looked up above us at the temples on top of a retaining wall. The temples looked like they were being grabbed by an invisible hand and twisted, throwing clay roof tiles and debris everywhere. The old women at the temple began to scream and run. A few sat down at an altar closed their eyes and began chanting loudly.

We started to run, trying to get away from the falling debris, but there wasn't really anywhere to go, because the path wound around the base of the wall/temple structure. Finally we stopped in the gap between two of the buildings and poised ourselves to jump out of the way should one of the buildings give.

After what seemed like an eternity, most of the shaking subsided and we scrambled down the peak to a safer part of the mountain. Because of our extremely high vantage point, we could see all of the mountains and valleys below. Landslides were everywhere, with huge plumes of dust rising out of the valleys. After the quake we went up to the temple to inspect the damage. Many people were collected there burning incense and offerings, praying and doing what anyone would do in that situation: trying to make sense of what just happened. Just as we approached the temple, the glass surrounding the shrine inside the temple crashed to the ground, shattering in a million pieces. We took this as a sign to head back home.

I was worried about Michelle (who wasn't with me), my students, and colleagues at the school. We began the hike back down the mountain. Mobile phone service was out and I couldn't contact anyone.

After a few hours, we arrived back at the school to find the entire student body collected on the soccer field, Michelle among them. She informed us that the leaders (wisely) evacuated the school to a safer location and called the students working in the field at their student teaching posts back to make sure they were okay. Michelle told me that our new apartment building didn't stand up well to the quake and had basically broken in half on the second floor. We went in the building quickly to gather our things and noted severe cracks and the two inch clevage on the second floor with some concern.

We grabbed as many blankets as we could, our sleeping bags and some toiletries and scampered out. We knew that many of our students were without blankets and adequate clothing to keep warm over the night and that we'd be sleeping outside. We used our sleeping bags and gave our blankets to the dazed groups of students huddled on the field. We then got together and my buddies went across the street and bought a bunch of candles and we distributed them among the students to boost their spirits and keep them a little warmer. My buddies dubbed themselves the "candle fairies" and enjoyed interacting with the kids. The students were very concerned about us after coming in so late from the mountain despite Michelle's assurances we were okay. It is nice to know that the relationships we have built here are almost like a second family. While inside we grabbed my frisbees and before night fell we tried to boost morale by tossing the discs around a bit. Frisbees are a novelty here and tossing one to casual observers is one of my favorite pasttimes as it usually involves a lot of screaming and flailing.

The school leader, Mr. Si, organized the school very well and made sure that all students were fed. He also set up a bathroom area and separate quarters for boy and girl students. They wheeled out the ping pong tables and managed to get the lights at the basketball hoops working so that there was some entertainment. For a while, there was almost a happy air around campus with students chatting and wandering around together. Late that night we went to bed during what turned out to be a cold night that dropped down to the mid 40's. We were repeatedly woken by aftershocks and screams from students all night. The earth was still pretty angry I guess.

I'll finish the rest of this tomorrow as my time in the internet bar is drawing to a close...

Bye!