四川震区兄姐爱心计划
Big Brothers and Sisters' Loving Project
-for Orphans in Sichuan Earthquake
目前已有清华大学，上海交通大学参与此爱心计划。
Report from the Frontier
- by Professor Huang and his son, August 06 2008
Go PengZhou, Go Du JiangYan, Go WenChuan!
I attached a few photos for the information, which reflected
some real situations more than two months after the big earthquake. After
seeing some of the tragedic spots and buildings being swept like a flat ground,
I can still feel the great power of the earthquake and a kind of cold wind
blowing on my face and body … Our driver, a local Pengzhou people, fell into
silence when back to our hotel after showing us to those buildings and spots,
in contrast to the situation where he gave us a vivid description on the
earthquake scenario when he drove us to the spots …. The air in the car on the
way back to hotel seemed to be frozen, none of us wanted to initiate a
conversation … we just share this silence, in order to show our sincere
thinking on those victims and their survived family members who have endured
unspoken pains and miserable experience since May 20th tragedy, as
well as show our respects to those lost souls on this great land, our
motherland …
There is no Internet connection in our hotel, so I have to
find an Internet bar to write this email and send the photos. (I’ll email you
more photos after I have a better Internet connection and speed can be better
in the near future).
The people here are so brave, and those orphans and
victimized families’ children are like our own children or brothers/sisters,
who are intelligent and lovely – they would have an enjoyable lives and parents
to love them if May 20th earthquake wouldn’t happen here. --- I
talked with more than 10 students in a local school, heavily hit by earthquake
– their classrooms were destroyed or largely damaged by the earthquake, so now
they had their classes in a temporary classrooms – many of them have wonderful
life dreams for their future: they want to become a teacher who can help more
kids to come true their dreams in the future, become a lawyer because she saw
many ordinary people being bullied by injustices in society who need the help
and support from legal system, become a diplomate to let more foreigners
understand our Chinese culture better, etc …. These lovely and intelligent kids
really need help and support --- with a bit help and guidance from one who is a
successful overseas Chinese student in a US university, they may become more
confident about their lives and studies, and they may be able to come true
their dreams that now they can only expect, but thinking that it would be too
far to come true … Certainly, those overseas Chinese students in US univ. are
their role models and their “heroes” in hearts – they need you and your help,
OU students from China! You can make their lives different if you could give a
hand of yours!
8/6/08:
Blog, Written By Daniel Huang (travelling in the
earthquake areas of Sichuan Province with Wayne W. Huang)
Our train arrived at Chengdu,
capital of the Sichuan province, early in the morning. We quickly met up with
our contact then made the one hour drive to Peng Zhou where our hotel was.
After checking in and dropping off our luggage, we were back on the road, this
time to the nearby areas that were devastated by the earthquake.
The drive itself was not extremely
memorable. We took a different route than was originally planned because a
heavy shower the day before had triggered dangerous mudslides which now blocked
off the other road. We drove past shops and homes that were hit by the
earthquake but by this time, they were well on the way of being rebuilt. Piles
of wreckage were common on the roadside. We also drove by living quarters that
the government had hastily established in the wake of this disaster. These were
the most basic of establishments, and were currently housing thousands of
otherwise homeless people and families.
I was exposed to my first real
glimpse of the earthquake’s destructive consequences when our car arrived at
Xiao Yudong Bridge. A small monument of the numbers 5.12 stood at the mouth of
the bridge, marking the date on which the disaster had occurred. A little
further, I could see the full extent of the earthquake’s damage. It had cracked
open a large rift that ran straight down the middle of the road. One side of
the road tilted up and the other caved in, creating a fairly deep crevice that
stretched on. At another spot, a slab of concrete had been split from the rest
of the road and fallen down the side of the bridge. The railing was twisted and
deformed. A little farther, I came across the main attraction. A 30 foot crater
was all that remained from a once structured and apparently sound bridge. The
earthquake took its toll on this area the most. It broke the bridge into 2
parts, separate from each other at this point. Later, I would learn that when
Chinese refuge troops came to give aid to this area, their vehicles had to stop
at this point and they had no other choice than to travel the rest of the
distance (up to 100km) on foot. Slabs of concrete weighting tons lay in pieces
in the crater, broken like fragile twigs. Rubble and debris were strewn all
around, piling up on the sides. This was my first experience with nature’s
brutal prowess.
Later, at the school, I had the
opportunity to speak to one of the teachers. He was a nice man and it had been
long enough since the earthquake that he felt comfortable sharing his opinions.
As we toured the buildings, he explained how the school had finished its
construction only 3 years ago and was almost brand new. As we walked and
talked, he pointed at broken windows for me to look through, revealing once
organized classrooms that were now disheveled with shattered glass and torn
books. “What a shame,” he repeated quietly to himself. Later, as we sat in his
office, he brought a photo album with pictures taken in the days immediately
following the earthquake. I realized that the school’s condition now, 2 ½
months after the incident was a gentle reminder of what the school’s real
damage was. Entire walls of its dorms and classrooms had fallen down, tiles and
other rubble littered the courtyard. The man told me of a boy who was hit on
the head with a piece of falling debris and was now recovering from fairly
serious head trauma. Another teacher, one of his colleagues, had the bones in
his arm completely shattered when they were hit by falling tiles from the roof.
At the end of the photo album were pictures of the school when it just opened,
a mere 3 years ago. A large crowd of people had gathered on the pristine school
grounds, happily contemplating the opportunities the school would be able to provide.
“It’s terrible, truly terrible,” the teacher let out, as thoughts of the
tragedy once again swirled in his mind.
http://zonaeuropa.com/20080513_1.htm
8/7/2008
Written By Wayne W. Huang
There are frequently small earthquakes after the May 20th
big one, as experts expected. There have been more than 1,000 small earthquakes
since May 20th 2008. Experts say that there will be at least one big
earthquake (around 7 points in scale) that should occur before this earthquake
can be totally said to be over, according to previous experience (like our big
TangShan earthquake in 1970s), which normally happens within 3-6 months after
the big one. So people here still wait for that day to come, expecting it to
come earlier than later.
Just when we were on the train to Chengdu on Aug. 6 2008,
one earthquake greater than 6 points happened in QingShan area, killing one
people and wounded numerous people. So we were told by our host in Chengdu to
be very alert and careful when going to the earthquake areas like PengZhou,
DuJiangYan, WenChuan. – Those earthquakes around 5 points often caused roads to
be blocked, and we could be tramped there for days before moving to a more
safely area. A worse situation would be that because of small earthquakes
happening without warnings, our car could be sometimes buried by mountain mud
sliding (Shan2-Tu3-Hua2-Po1), or hit by it, etc. …
The first night sleeping at a local hotel in Pengzhou was a
bit unease, being alert as reminded by local host at Chengdu made us not being
able to fall into sleep easily, or could not sleep for a long time … It was a
rare opportunity to experience a life uncertainty, and we suddenly realize that
human life is really very easily lost, and many times, we cannot really control
our own lives (only God can), and we really need to value one peaceful day in
our lives in US or in China!
The long long night passed at last (It seemed much longer
than any night I have ever experienced in my whole life so far) … Thanks to
God, we are still safe without noticeable small earthquake last night.
Local people at Pengzhou are brave and positive … started to
begin their ordinary lives as much as possible already, even though local
economy, one which is tourism, have been largely hit by this May 20th
earthquake, still many tourists are too scare to come to visit Sichuan now. ---
But from the positive spirit and courage of brave local people as well as Sichuan
people, we are very sure that local people will fully recover from this tragedy
soon.
August 08, 2008
Today is the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games, a very special day for both the world’s peace-loving people and Chinese people around the world.
Daniel and I spent this special day in a special way as well.
With the help and arrangement of Mr. Zhang Qing, a volunteer at Chengdu who kindly helped make our trips to the earthquake areas more effective, Daniel and I decided to visit a dwelling place of some orphans at Chengdu.
Found a bookstore and also a Wen2-Ju4 store to buy English dictionary books, English-learning machines (Fu4-Du2-Ji1) & related tapes, color pencils, file folders, etc. for those orphans at Chengdu SOS village, spending about 3 hours in shopping; spending 40 minutes to find a taxi to go to the SOS village (because of rush hours at Chengdu, plus the Olympic game’s opening ceremony);
Daniel and I met and talked with 7 orphans after 40 minutes taxi driving: giving gifts, explaining our program, taking photos, etc. (knowing each other more, which was an enjoyable experience). – see a few photos taken and attached in this email.
At about 9pm, one earthquake of scale 4.3 points happened nearby, and Chengdu clearly felt the earthquake. – after seeing the earthquake areas with our own eyes, having the same painful feeling of those victims, and witnessing the strong will, braveness and encouragement of Sichuan people who are strong and want to re-build their lost families and home-towns soon, our own fear of the earthquake seems to become a much smaller thing in our minds each day when we have been standing on this tragedy land that sill has frequent small-scale earthquake each day … it appears to us that the BIG people of Sichuan (especially those Big people of brave earthquake survivors) make us feel more fearless after seeing their smiling faces and encouragement when facing small earthquakes that happen frequently… life, to everyone, is the most valuable thing and is priceless …
The day when we travelled to Sichuan (on Aug. 5 2008), two earthquakes of scales 5.3 and 6.1 points happened in Qing Chuan area, still around the big May 20th earthquake area…
It’s clear that earthquake is part of people’s life here nowadays. They had no more fear, but calm and braveness – they want to re-buid up homes and more importantly, their hopes and dreams for their kids, which have been largely destroyed and/or damaged by this big earthquake – they fear no more earthquake!
To me, this experience made me really understand more about the truthful meaning of life, about the truthful value of life, and about the difference between a Big life and SMALL life!
This is probably the most valuable thing I could have received in my whole life, even running the risk of valuable lives of my own son and myself … it’s worthwhile for one’s life, right?
Daniel Huang and Wayne W. Huang
Sichuan, China, Aug. 8 2008
Deng Shui Yong, Male, 6 years old, the only luck survivor from the May 20th 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in his lovely family, losing his parents in the earthquake. Thin and short (being thin may be also due to lack of food during the earthquake).
He is active, open, easy to talk and get along, full of energy, learn fast (he only speaks Sichuan dialect now, but learned very fast to speak a few Mandarin after teaching him to speak), eager to make friends with peers and even adults. His only dream now is to have an electric train (he never rides a real train, dreaming to have such an experience one day).
Seeing his smiling face makes me feel happy and also a heavy burden. Such a lovely kid needs more love and caring so that he can grow up happily as he is at this moment and he can certainly become a very useful citizen in the future, living by his own hands and contributing more to human society …
Ya2 Xiu1 Luo2 Rong3, a Tibetan kid at 7 years, orphan, being normally called Luo Rong by his peers. Luo Rong is also active, speaks fast and quick, likes sports (soccer), speaks Sichuan dialect (not Mandarin yet).
He has some Han Chinese friends when playing soccer, and he enjoys his current life so far.
Ya2 Xiu1 Luo2 Rong3, a Tibetan kid at 7 years, orphan, talked and played with Daniel Huang in the afternoon of Aug. 8 2008, the day of the 29th Olympic Game’s opening ceremony.