![\"sichuan](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/sichuan-survivors.jpg?resize=300%2C205\" "\\"sichuan")
<\/a>As a coworker and I headed across the parking lot I heard my name. The Vice Principal was waving me over. I cringed. Beyond him, from the waiting area on the first floor of the administration building, I could hear teenage laughter. Give me a room, nay, a warehouse full of Grade 1 students and I\u2019m a happy man. Teenagers? Ai ya, as we say in China.<\/p>\nThe group, I learned, were visiting Grade 7, 8, and 9 students. They were visiting from Sichuan, from May\u2019s earthquake ground zero.<\/p>\n
They mobbed us when we arrived at their party: Twenty Sichuanese middle schoolers, twenty students from my own school, principals, various leaders, and the round little women that are present, cooking, at school events around the world. The TV cameras and newspaper photographers shot images. The students laughed and brought us food from the small buffet table set up in the corner. Durian, apples, zongzi were passed to my full hands with promises of deliciousness. A laughing young woman fed me dumplings from chopsticks, telling me to open wide.<\/p>\n
They were typical teenagers, asking questions, telling jokes, laughing and smiling. Earthquake survivors? Maybe there school wasn\u2019t affected. They were too happy.<\/p>\n
My Vice Principal translated their Principal\u2019s words. The main teaching building at their school was leveled in the quake. More than 240 people were trapped in the rubble for nine hours before being rescued. I didn\u2019t ask how many were dead.<\/p>\n
They were laughing and happy, because they were alive. And for little while, an evening party, a day at the beach, a trip to an amusement park, they could be teenagers and forget what they had experienced. I laughed with them while wanting to cry.<\/p>\n
My thoughts of drinks, showers and air conditioning suddenly became unimportant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was walking home after work. It was hot, my shirt stuck to my skin. I wanted a drink, a shower, and air conditioning, not particularly in that order. We had been practicing for Parents\u2019 Day for more than a month. The next day was \u201cgo time.\u201d Everyone, me more than most, was tired and… <\/p>\n
Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,5,12],"tags":[108,115,609,718,780,810],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-life","category-reflections","tag-dead","tag-earthquake","tag-newspaper","tag-photograph","tag-school","tag-sichuan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina Earthquake Survivors | 2008 China Earthquake<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A meeting between a Canadian teacher in China and some middle school 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![\"sichuan](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stevepeer.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/sichuan-survivors.jpg\" "\\"sichuan")
<\/a>As a coworker and I headed across the parking lot I heard my name. The Vice Principal was waving me over. I cringed. Beyond him, from the waiting area on the first floor of the administration building, I could hear teenage laughter. Give me a room, nay, a warehouse full of Grade 1 students and I\u2019m a happy man. Teenagers? Ai ya, as we say in China.<\/p>\n