Epilogue

Photo: Norman Ng for Mercy Corps

I have been back in the United States since Saturday afternoon. As usual, these first few days have been experienced — and felt — through the blurriness of a fifteen-hour time difference between Oregon and China. Jet lag renders everything into vagaries.

I've traveled to China three times in just a little over a year's time, and each time it feels stranger to leave. It's like I'm forgetting to bring something back home with me — and then, on second thought, realizing that it's something I couldn't possibly carry home. When the plane lurches skyward, I am excited to return home to my family yet feel some sense of incompleteness in exiting China.

This return seems particularly so. Over the course of my week in Sichuan Province, I met and spoke with dozens of people affected by May's earthquake — but there wasn't a single person that expressed anger or frustration at the hand they'd been dealt. Instead, there was an undeniable sense of purpose, of recovery through community and of gratitude for the help they'd received. Where I had expected tears, there were smiles. So, for me, there was the odd sensation of heartbreak tempered by encouragement.

It's an exciting time to be in China, to be sure. On my way to the Beijing airport on Saturday morning, my taxi passed by the main Olympic venues. There's enormous pride and palpable excitement.

Transformation is happening throughout the country, but I think that the real change is hundreds of miles away from Beijing's stunning Olympic sites — in earthquake-stricken Sichuan Province. It's in Sichuan where displaced Chinese families are determined to drive their own rebuilding and recovery. It's in Sichuan where donations and volunteers from other Chinese provinces are telling those families that they're not alone. It's in Sichuan where local organizations are helming the relief efforts, ushering in a new era of civic action and social support.

Even with the inevitable obstacles and missteps, this change is amazing to witness — and difficult to leave. I'd already fallen in love with China's people and spirit on previous visits, and last week only deepened that for me.

After I'd flown to Beijing from Sichuan's capital, Chengdu, on Friday, I found out that — just minutes after our plane took off — another aftershock had hit the region. I immediately started pulling up stories to see what I could learn: what areas were most affected and how many were hurt. It's never easy to hear about a disaster and consider the consequences, but it's especially hard just hours after meeting survivors who have already lost so much.

My heart is here in Oregon. But, at this moment, my thoughts are far away in China.

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