Earthquake (Courtney)

As you all know, China was hit by a massive earthquake a week ago. The figure has been revised to 8.0 on the ricter scale, making it China's biggest earthquake in 30 years (and inducing waves of rumours as 8 is a lucky number, and it occured 88 days before the games begin). Aftershocks, some measuring 5 and above, are still being felt. Strangely we have been almost ignorant of this happening. When I'm at home, whenever I see a natural disastor on the news, I can't help but wonder what it must feel like being in a country when such a devasting event happens. I suppose because Australia is relatively stable in that regard, we really don't get a sense of how large these things are.

Well, even now living here, we still don't really have a sense of exactly what has happened or what is happening. And when I say that, I mean it from a people perspective, not from a news front. The media has been incredibly open about the devastation and death toll. I mean from the people we work with (well, supposedly work with) we haven't spoken with anyone about it. This feels strange, and reinforces how..isolated, I suppose you would say, we are at the school. We have none of that office comraderie of "water cooler" talk.

But that is besides the point. Today all of China began an offical three day mourning period. The torch relay has been dramatically scaled down, and a minute silence was observed at 2:28 this afternoon (the time at which the earthquake struck last Monday). You know that this huge tragedy has occurred, yet you feel somewhat detatched from it. Just like at home I read the news and feel horrible for these poor people, yet it doesn't really feel like it's in the same country we live in. Approximatley 15 million people have been affected by this, which is just unfathomable. It has also made me realise that I am becoming attached here, everytime I read a story about the schools that have been ruined and the deaths, all I can think about is that happening here with my students.

Today at the Junior Campus, our second class was rescheduled. We weren't initially told why, and this is what bugs me. The entire school was having an assembly to mark the minute's silence and to hand over donations. I had to ask what was going on, and no one made any attempt to include us. I realise there is a language barrier, but we are these people's collegues. We live in their country. A simple motion of a hand to say "join us" would have sufficed. We didn't know what to do, so we went and joined in. Then of course for the first few minutes we became the focal point. I felt like we were damned if we did and damned if we didn't. There was no way I was going to sit in the office whilst everyone was out paying their respects, not a chance, but then I felt foolish for standing with the other teachers. We were asked by students afterward if we understood what was being said. I suppose the concept that perhaps the sentiment was more important than the words was lost along the way.

Needless to say when the school photographer started hovering near us, I turned my back. It was the one time when I did not feel like being made a spectacle of, not with something this serious.

One thing is for sure, the people and govn have ralied to help the victims. It's actually inspiring reading the stories of those doing everything they can to help.