I visited a number of improvised schools with Sichuan Quake Relief. Though not all school buildings collapsed completely, I have yet to see a school building in the quake zone still in use; they have all been deemed unsafe. In places like Dujiangyang, the government established schools in the first prefab houses they finished and [...]

Upon nearing Mianzhu, brightly colored painting begin to appear on the white walls. My translator tells me this is Mianzhu’s specialty, “Almost everyone in the area can draw,” she says, “people from around Sichuan hire them to paint murals on walls.”

A painted wall in Mianzhu, damaged in the earthquake
As in other places in the [...]

Two temples, only 15min drive on a dirt road between them.
We had driven through Mianzhu, a small city near Chengdu into the village Zundao. We were carrying three truckloads of relief supplies; rice, oil, potatoes, watermelon, soap, tooth brush and toothpaste, cold medicines, mosquito repellent, green pepper and beans, combs, cards, lighters….

Ji Xiangzhu temple
We [...]

On June 29, I went with volunteers from Sichuan Quake Relief in a caravan of three trucks and a minivan up to the area around Mianzhu city. The trucks were loaded down with rice, potatoes, vegetables, oil, fruit and 500 ‘med-kits.’ The news reports 10,000 people died in Mianzhu, but the city itself looks relatively [...]