Today is the one year anniversary of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, China. Re-living those events is difficult. I can’t imagine the trauma for those who lost everything. I think this anniversary should be treated with a great deal of sensitivity and concern, not callous attempts to politicize a disaster which has left still open wounds. I send my condolences to the families who lost loved ones, especially those that lost children, and children who lost parents, and hope that they can once again look towards the future.

Here I write what I saw as a Canadian living in China during and after the earthquake. I focus on the Chinese people’s response to the quake, and that of other friendly countries and citizens. The response in my view was a victory for human dignity and the importance of human life over all else.

- Enver Villamizar

May 12, 2008 is a day I will never forget. It was the day of the 8.0 earthquake which struck Sichuan Province in the Peoples’ Republic of China. The earthquake set into motion events which led to the deaths of close to 70,000 people, and the maiming and permanent injury of many others.

On May 12 the news of the quake slowly streamed in: magnitude, cities hit, and the like, with no real sense of the gravity of the situation, just numbers, stats etc.

My first real sense that something serious had happened came the next day, May 13, 2008. A donation station had been set-up by students to collect money for earthquake relief. It was staffed by two young men and one young women who stood as honour guards over the boxes overseeing people putting money in. Students lined up like a swarm to place their RMB in the box.

That night and those that followed all television stations: news, sports, entertainment etc., all reported on the latest developments and the attempts to save peoples lives who were buried under rubble, or stranded in cities seemingly lost as roads were destroyed and normal transportation not possible. News also showed fundraising and events being organized across the country to contribute to the relief effort. For us, non-Chinese speakers, it was difficult. All we could understand were the pictures and the raw emotions.

It was not uncommon to sit for an hour in front of the television and hold back tears. Tears of sadness, but also of support for the rescue workers and officials in the trenches giving everything in their existence to save a life. So many tears and the overwhelming sensation of emotion when you are witnessing acts of total selflessness and witnessing total loss as parents realize their child is gone, beneath a school of rubble. Gone, along with all the others in the school. The earthquake did not discriminate. Farmers children, teachers children, workers children, government officials children.

We heard stories of teachers who used their bodies to shield their students, who died in the process. We saw pictures. Never was it so clear that caring for the younger generation can take ones life in an instant; a true teacher would not even think, would just do. The schools of rubble became mass graves in an instant. It is no wonder that there is sensitivity about memorializing them today. It re-opens horrible wounds.

We learned of medical aid from across China, from Russia, from Cuba, from India, and elsewhere. Doctors, psychologists, field hospitals and the like. We watched as tents were shipped along with other relief supplies by trains, plains and automobiles to Sichuan. We watched as ordinary citizens got in cars and drove to Sichuan to help in whatever way they could.

In classes I taught in Guangxi University you could see the concern of the students for their fellow students in Sichuan. You saw their tears and their desire to do something to help. Every single one. No one was aloof. The entire country, all 1.3 billion it seemed, were focused on the relief effort, and on the peoples well-being. This was not left to chance. The government and media did everything possible to focus the countries attention on what was happening.

A national day of mourning was called to give everyone a chance to pay respects collectively. The Olympic torch relay taking place at the same time was postponed so that the country could pay its respects. On our campus, thousands of students spontaneously converged on the school athletic track with candles. They sang patriotic songs, shouted their feelings and cheered on the relief effort.

It was as if saving lives was everyone’s duty and nothing, nothing should stand in the way. This was the feeling we had watching and becoming part of a nation in mourning and in battle. The quake was an event outside of human control, but the response was not. It was human concern and humanity which was the response. You did not feel helpless. You felt as if your duty was to show support, to join the fight to save lives whatever way you could. This was what I remember most about the events immediately after the quake.

Along with some of the students in my classes, I began discussing how we might contribute. Some wanted to go and join in the relief work in whatever way they could. Others just wanted to learn what was possible. How could we help? Could we even help?

Over many chats we decided that, as we were students and teachers of English, we could make a contribution. We could propose that we go to Sichuan and put ourselves at the disposal of the relief effort, possibly as teachers.

After finishing our teaching, and the students studying, we travelled to Chengdu the capital of Sichuan province. There we coordinated with a group called Bo Ai Sky to travel to a town in the north of Sichuan called Mianzhu and join their volunteer teaching corps.

While waiting to get our ride into Mianzhu we met Mr. Li. Mr. Li was a legitimate Kung Fu master, a Chinese doctor, and a relief worker. He was one of the first to go into the worst hit areas. He spent all his savings which were to go towards his further schooling in Acupuncture to buy medicines and materials so he could treat people in the quake hit areas. This was his contribution.

He told us stories of courage of survivors saving their own lives and being saved by others. He told us of in the field treatments and decisions which had to be made to treat soldiers first so that they could save lives, and how this played out in reality. He told us of soldiers who jumped out of planes by the hundreds into completely unknown areas only to be killed by aftershocks. He told us of Chinese Premier Wen Jiao Bao speaking to the soldiers imbuing them with their duty: “The people have raised you and provided for you, now it is your time to help the people. Many of you may not return, but this is your duty to the people,” we were told he said.

Driving into Mianzhu was the instant I remember realizing that television underplays and overplays reality. In Mianzhu you saw life, you saw people living almost as if normal, but, in a state of survival. People living in tent cities, together, preparing for whatever is to come next. No sense of massive despair, or depression, but a sense of being in a holding pattern. The main streets were lined with tents to the left and right. It was the heat of July, so many were taking shade and passing the time. Above all, they seemed okay.

We took a taxi to our “No Name School” and met our group. A lively bunch of young and old volunteers from Guangzhou province. We learned that the title “No Name School” was deliberate in order to ensure that a tent school would not become a permanent fixture. Permanent rebuilding had to happen. We lived for the next close to 2 weeks with volunteers from various organizations and regions. We were sent out to different schools to provide English lessons.

We met young Sichuanese who were passing the summer in tents knowing that university would soon begin. We met young Sichuanese who were integrated into the rebuilding effort. Frank, as he was called, first asked us if we were missionaries. He was a volunteer who joined the effort after his families store and home was destroyed. He helped dig through the rubble immediately following the quake and now was a news radio announcer for his camp. After he learned we were not missionaries he said he was eager to talk with us about the relief efforts and his desire to improve his English.

Walking through the tent cities I saw the new temporary houses being cleaned, ready for people to move in for the winter. These have now become outdated as new cities are being completed in safer areas. We arrived during phase two of the re-building. Phase one was putting people up in tents, phase two was putting them in pre-fabricated homes, phase three, taking place now, is re-building whole cities in safer areas. I often wondered how things were progressing in New Orleans and what the hurricane survivors there might think if they were in Sichuan.

Living and working with the volunteers and the survivors showed me that the Chinese people are a resilient caring people who want to participate in their countries affairs. Young Chinese were greatly affected by the quake, and their collective response affirmed their humanitarian spirit. They are proud of their country and want to be part of its development. They face great pressures not to participate in nation building from consumer culture and from being told they need to simply get ahead in life. But, they are fighting to overcome this. The quake relief effort was their standing up.

After the time in Mianzhu, it was hard to leave. The time there re-affirmed that neither money, nor hype, nor spin can overcome disasters. It is the human factor linked to social consciousness which puts people in a position to overcome.

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