We had sandwiches for lunch. They weren’t selling baozi today. I finished my lesson plan before I had to go back to school at 2 p.m. Class was on the fifth floor of the main building, and the elevator was working so I didn’t have to climb up. But about twenty-eight minutes after class began there was a very strong earthquake, 7.6 they said later. The building was really swaying and the fluorescent lights were swinging from the ceiling almost violently. I began to pray and tried to get the students to be calm and stay in their seats but they were scared to death, and they ran out and down the stairs as if their lives depended on it. Three or four girls helped shove my stuff in my bag and grabbed it and then they just pushed me out of the room to the stairs and then held onto me all the way downstairs and outside the building. It was over by the time we got down the stairs. Mr. Wang, Mr. Yang, and Mr. Chen were outside trying to use their mobile phones, but they weren’t working. I tried to call Tim but mine wasn’t working either (they were out for more than an hour). Mr. Wang said all the books had fallen out of his bookshelves. Mr. Yang said there wouldn’t be any more classes today, as there was no way we’d be able to get those students back in a classroom! So I asked Mr. Wang what now? He said they were waiting to hear from the leaders. Finally, about 3:20 p.m. I said I was going home! We finally were able to reach Tim. He hadn’t even felt it! Lu Yong Li was walking me out to the gate and when we were almost there Tim was coming in. We came on home.
The latest report said it was 7.9 on the Richter scale. There have been 8,700 deaths reported, with 900 students in a high school buried. It was felt in Beijing, Shanghai, and all the way to Viet Nam. The epicenter was about sixty miles northwest of Chengdu.
As it turned out, none of our students were from the area near the epicenter, but some of them did tell us that their families had told them that some of their homes were damaged, but not severely.
On Tuesday of that week, at 3:45 p.m. I went to the teacher’s class. Mr. Wang said we were changing the topic from work to earthquakes. And the class ended at 4:50 p.m. because they were going to have a “Donation Ceremony” to collect money for earthquake victims. I queried the class about emergency plans that are in place in case of disaster in LZ. They said, “Oh, the Central Government takes care of everything!” They said that Premier Wen Jiabao was the first on the scene of the earthquake epicenter, of course it took him four and a half hours to get there and railroads were destroyed, roads were destroyed, and the army was supposed to be in charge of rescue. How long did it take them to get there? I don’t know, they didn’t know. So I asked if the community here in Xigu District has a good first-aid training program and how many of them have had first-aid training.They said no program at all and none of them has had any training. They all agreed they would like to see a program of this type in the community. I asked how could they make it happen. Nobody had any ideas. So I suggested that they start a training program on this campus. Since they have their own clinic on campus staffed with doctors and nurses, it shouldn’t be too much trouble to have the doctors spend an hour or two each week and have first aide training for the teachers and students. I also suggested that after the teachers and students have had training that they could then begin classes and training for the surrounding neighborhoods. Mr. Chen agreed that it was a good idea and they’ll talk to President Zhang about it.
