Freiburg Chronicle: Love and To be Loved

In recent days, "earthquake" becomes our common concern and is also a hot topic of our Lubian group. We are extremely sad, because a lot of our fellow Chinese in Sichuan are suffering, dying and crying. We are somewhat gratified, when we know that our government, symbolized by "Opa Wen", spares no effort to rescue the victims and swears to care about the children who have lost their parents in the disaster.

My wife MM is very concerned about the tragedy in Sichuan. Bestowed with a kind heart, she cannot stand knowing that many people have died and are dying in the debris. What's more, she has the personal experience of passing by and eating in the very towns, which are devastated by the earthquake, on her way to go sightseeing in Jiuzhai.

In her blog, she describes her journey to these lovely places in Sichuan. She recalls that the tour guide, Xiao Wang, was a nice young man who came from Dujiangyan, but grew up in Maoxian. She frantically searches for his telephone number, but she fails to find any clue. I am deeply moved by these stories. She has a picture, in which she's sitting on the back of a white animal. The background of the picture is amazingly beautiful. I can't imagine that this kind of earthly paradise has vanished in a split second and is now a sheer hell!

When I inadvertently told her that I had a college classmate living in Guangyuan which was also affected by the earthquake, she urged me to make an immediate call to him. I searched out the guy's mobile phone number and sent out a short message: "Lao Zhu, how are you and your relatives going in the catastrophe?" I had not expected an immediate feedback from him, since we haven't been in touch for two years and I'm not sure if he still uses the same phone number. To my relief, he replied in a short time: "We're all fine. Thanks!"

Soon afterwards, I went to eat lunch in the cafeteria of the institute. A German colleague said that he had heard a lot about the earthquake in China and asked caringly if any of my family members or relatives were affected by it. I told him that my home province and Beijing where I used to work had been spared. At this moment, I realized how important it was to be cared about by the people you know or even those you don't know.

Thank goodness, we're still alive!