Chengdu, Sunday, June 1st

The travel from Phoenix to Chhendgu was long and hard. Arrived okay but without some of our luggage. All of it finally arrived at 11:30 pm on Saturday night.

The City of Chengdu is very stable and lots of people and aid is pouring in for the earthquake folks.

I'm staying at the Xinglin Hotel which is next to the Chengdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. That's the Hospital when I'll be doing my internship.

There are 3 of us from the school (PIHMA - Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture) and they will present our Opening Ceremony on Monday morning.

Many students who were here interning have left and many who were planning to come decided not to. They are now calling us the "brave ones." Hmmm.... brave or crazy, not sure.

Anyway, we are exploring the city and taking in the sights until our orientation on Monday morning. We're seeing a lot of the refugees coming into Chengdu by the street side tents that are popping up everywhere.

Yesterday, a convoy of about 30 ambulances from Beijing pulled into our Hospital. Looks like they were dropping off some of the victims and picking up some supplies.

Many people on our flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu were emergency aid workers. There were a couple of Fire Rescue men from New Zealand (it was on their shirt) and a least 2 rock stars from Hong Kong because all of the young girls screamed at them when they got off the plane.

That's all for now. Use the "Comment" section to ask me questions.

Miss all of you.

Peace and Love,

Donna

Here in Chengdu

Sheila and I finally got on to our blog! Yeah!

We are safe and sound in Chengdu. Sheila is my classmate and fellow blogger. She's pointing out all of my photo ops and I'm too busy staring and she's actually "seeing" what I should be taking pictures of.

We haven't felt any aftershocks since we've been here. Things are quite stable and the city is bustling.

Sheila traveled to China in 1986 and thinks that it's so much nicer. Our other classmate got here earlier and thinks that Chengdu is very well off by the clothes, hair styles and body composition of the people. Some things that struck her that are different is that people have pets (we even passed a small pet food store) and people don't look as thin and appear more optimistic than they did back then.

So, we're doing well.

We will start off our internship at the Chengdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the morning with an Opening Ceremony. Many students have left and many haven't come. They call us the brave ones.

More later.....

Classmate already there - things are fine

Good morning!

I just received an e-mail from my classmate who went ahead of us and is already in Chengdu.

This is what he just sent:
If you get this on time, Chengdu is normal. The city is bustling and probably added a million or two in population since David (our instructor) was here. Found a tattoo shop, food is super here, weather is very nice (Bavarian like). Will try to meet up with Angel to coordinate things.
Repeat: Everything is normal, not the TV images that I see before getting here.

Looks good and I'm on my way!

My first phone call to China

Well - sad to say, another 2 members of our group bowed out today. They heard reports of a water shortage or a potential water shortage in Chengdu in the coming days.

My best buddy, Mary Lou told me to call China and speak with our contact Angel and ask her directly. So, I made my first phone call to China.

The phone call was great. I was able to use my new international feature on my cell phone and got right through to her office. The office workers scrambled a little when they heard me speaking English.

After a pause, Angel made it to the phone and reassured me that there is going to be enough food and water for us for the entire visit. She said that they are ready and eager for our visit. She also "welcomed" me to China.

I'm going and am looking forward to being able to help the Hospital, the children and the Country.

I probably won't be able to blog until Saturday or Sunday. My next blog will be from China.

Peace,

Donna

Follow the NPR Chengdu Diary

I've been following the NPR Chengdu Diary and the USGS Latest Earthquakes in the World - Past 7 days.

That's how I found out that there was a 6.0 "aftershock" this morning.

Our contact in Chengdu told us that the Chengdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has started taking in many of the orphans.

I just got back last Sunday (May 18th) from taking clothing and medical supplies to the war orphans in Croatia.

Looks like this will be quite a summer.

Here we are getting ready!

Chengdu - Summer 2008

Hello people!

I'll be traveling to Chengdu, Sichuan, China this summer. I leave Phoenix, Arizona for our sister city on May 28th.

Our group arrives on Friday, May 30th and we head to the Chengdu Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

We'll be interns there from June 2 - June 20th.

I'll be posting pictures, stories, everything here on this blog.