China

For the past 13 years I have responded to issues, especially tragedies, involving children with significantly more anxiety and distress than I ever thought I would before Jackson was born.

The earthquake last month in China struck that same anxious chord for me (and many others--thanks to Jayne for pointing me to the Sugimoto's blog post). The Sugimotos, friends from church who are living temporarily in Switzerland, adopted two boys from China in the last few years. The second was from an orphanage that was damaged in the earthquake last month. You can see more about that here.

That got me to thinking about my small contact with China. Earlier this year, I had my 8th graders write letters to a class of 13-year-olds in Wenzhou, on the Pacific coast. Sandy and I (and my friend and colleague Patrick) met an American author--Peter Hessler--while we were there 4 years ago. He had taught English at a teacher's college in Fuling, Sichuan province. Most of his students are from the region most devastated by the quake, and many are now English teachers. He then wrote two excellent books about his time living in China.

Peter Hessler put me in touch with one of his former students--Willy, in Wenzhou. My class sent letters to his class, probably in about February. Having heard no response by May, I e-mailed to ask about the letters on what turned out to be the very day of the quake.

Below is his side of our e-mail conversation.

May 14, from Willy

I am sorry it takes long to write you. My hometown is also affected by the earthquake. And the situation there is bad. It took me 2 days to contact with my family and friends there. My family are fine there, but there are quite a lot of aftershocks which also have affected the regions, I still can not talk to several of my friends in Sichuan, but Fuling is not badly affected. I sent the letters (our letters--AM) to my friends in Chengdu in Sichuan. He received the letters a couple of weeks ago, his students are so interested in the program, but the earthquake occurred and his students are also badly affected. 20 students in his school were killed, and 3 were in his class. So this quake is a tragedy to all of the students there. I think it takes time to recover, what's more, the school is still closed, and when to begin class is unknown. I am really sorry for the delay. I hope all will be fine soon. I will keep you updated as soon as possible.



May 15, from Willy

I don't know why bad luck comes one after another. The death toll in the quake-hit region reached 20,000 and it is estimated that it will reach more than 50,000. I sent the letters to the teacher (I gather he got two--or more--of his former school colleagues involved--AM), her school was completely destroyed and 200 students died and there are still a lot missing. So I think it takes long time to recover. I called the teacher, also Pete's student 3 days ago, she was fine then, for the past few days, I have not kept in touch with her. I will try to contact her. These days transportation, mail service, phone communication are all in bad service.

June 9, from Willy
When I am thinking of the letter exchange project between us, I cannot help being upset. I am really sorry for what has happened. It is such great idea to do something for both our kids. I would like to say sorry to your kids who wrote their letters twice. They wrote beautifully and they are really nice and creative kids. Please do say hello and thanks to all your kids there. I was intending to build a bridge between you and the kids in the place where Peter Hessler taught for 2 years. No one could expect that such a big disaster could happen there where it is such a amazing place. The letters were given to one of Pete's former students in Sichuan. Unfortunately, the earthquake occurred there, which left millions of people homeless and children schoolless. Currently the schools there are closed , they are (not--AM) supposed to be reopen until Mid-august. Anyhow, I will keep our project in mind. It just take a little time. I was told the letters would be returned to me soon, so there is no problem for us to start the exchange again. Andrew, do please say sorry to all the kids who dedicate to the project.
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What is there I can say to this? A man whose country, family, friends and colleagues (and their charges) have been devastated beyond my imagining wants me to apologize to my students that he wasn't able to respond to our letters?

I did not. I want my students to do some perspective taking, but then, I can't really get a sense of perspective in this case, so...?