A Meaningful Trip to Sichuan

Much to my surprise I found myself on my way to Sichuan on May 6th, 2009. Just a week earlier H said she was traveling on a meaningful trip to visit the earthquake affected zone on the first anniversary of the massive disaster that took place on May 12th 2008. Standing on the elevated walkway in Central, Hong Kong, I told her that I wanted to go too. So here I am on the Star Ferry on my way to Macau. The beginning of a very precious journey.

Here is our international “Brightening Sichuan” delegation, comprising friends from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, America, England and India. We have grown together and come closer over this trip, transcending our identities of culture, language, gender and age to become a community of people who tried to explore ways to express our compassion and concern towards the children of Sichuan. This is how we look at the start of our trip on May 6th 2009

I have visited many communities that have faced great suffering through poverty, violence and hunger. But a natural disaster like an Earthquake is not an everyday phenomenon. It changes lives of communities in one great stroke to an inconceivable horror. Many of the streets in the communities we drove through still bore a deserted look. A few buildings like the one below continue to stand testimony near ground zero. Yet, one year later we also observed many new constructions sites everywhere. Large housing blocks in the midst of development dominated the horizon.

Our visits took us to 4 local schools and one local community that had experienced the earthquake directly. Given that the schools that had been destroyed had either been rebuilt or relocated to temporary shelters and the children had completed one year at school, we were advised to stay in the present and keep our interactions focused to having fun while connecting with the children.

Many delightful moments of joyful interaction were facilitated by simple activities like magic, music, video film, games, and singing. Despite not knowing the local language as in my situation, it is possible to connect deeply through a universal language of smiles, laughter, shaking hands, and hugs. When spoken from the heart at the appropriate moment we understand each other deeply. The children were my teachers.

But it was at the Psychology of the Heart Garden that I saw how hard the children had worked to over come the trauma that they had experienced. The tools once again were so simple….sand, drawing, playing with toys….in the presence of nurturing adults, who had  given the commitment of their time and love, to support the children, as volunteers over a period of 3 years. It was this quiet, accepting nonlinguistic space that was the medicine to transform the disquietened heart.

When I closed my eyes to listen to the sounds of the school, I realized that this one in Beichuan was different. The humming happy sounds of a joyful busy day of a school community is taken for granted till you can no longer hear it.

This is what the children said in the foreword to the book I bought at the Beichuan Middle School

“WE USED TO HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SCHOOL THERE USED TO BE HAPPY SONGS AND LAUGHTER WE ALSO LEFT OUR FOOTPRINTS OF OUR GROWING WE ALSO HAD OUR TEACHERS CAREFUL TEACHING WE ALSO HAD OUR FELLOWS BUT ALL THIS FROZE ON 12/5/2008 THE BEAUTIFUL SCHOOL LOVELY FELLOWS WHERE DID YOUR GO? WE MISS YOU WE WILL KEEP YOUR MEMORY ALIVE AND WE WILL LIVE BRAVELY FOREVER.

So for a little while, the music, the magic and the games with a group of caring friends brought back the beautiful sounds of joy that prevail in any school anywhere in the world.

Receiving graciously is as important as giving and we have much to thank our hosts and organizers for making this trip a memorable one. They took every effort to provide us with comfortable and convenient arrangements for stay, transport, visits as well as for the delicious and sumptuous banquets that make up an essential part of the local hospitality.

I am reminded of Whitney Houston’s song "The Greatest Love of All"   https://youtu.be/IYzlVDlE72w and hope that we will always find ways to keep reaching out one way or another to children in suffering as seems fitting to the moment through: People-to-people contacts like this trip. Supporting projects for music and the arts to encourage creativity and healing Providing musical instruments and arts equipment to schools and community projects to create the spaces for children to discover and enjoy this form of expression. ………and in this way continue to make a small contribution to creating that sustainable psychological garden of the heart that children can find rest and joy!