Hongyan is a county close to the city of  Pengzhou, which suffered heavily during and after the earthquake. We wanted to visit in order to assess the situation at one of the tent camps put up at the site of a former elementary school, which collapsed during the earthquake (below left). Amity staffers Huang Qingrui, Gong Sheng and Li Yang interviewed Bian Huaming (left, man in red T-shirt), a district government official responsible for organizing camp life and distributing relief goods among the 227 people (28 families) who still lived at the tent camp at the end of July.  When we arrived several people were busy with paper work at the distribution point. It was a make-shift office in a classroom in one the school buildings which had not collapsed. Several big sacks of dry foodstuff (possibly flour or rice) were piled up at the rear end of the room.

Zhou Bing (above) is 33 years old and has a four-year-old son. When the earthquake happened, his son was in kindergarten. He ran quickly out of the building and was not hurt like three of the other children. But he still suffers from bad memories. For half a month, says Zhou Bing, his son was sad and did not sleep well. He did not want to go to kindergarten, but things have changed in the meantime. The son is back at kindergarten. Some psychological counseling was provided for the victims in the tent camp. University students came to the camp and distributed leaflets. “It told you how to get courage again,” says Zhou Bing. He was working in the fields when the earthquake struck. Nobody in his family was injured. Now he lives in their self-made tent ( below) together with the people of

his old neighborhood. The atmosphere is good even though the tent is still crowded, says Zhou Bing: “Because we are old neighbors, we know how to solve problems.”

Zhou Bing often feels bored, especially on rainy days. At times, he works at a local mine as a security guard but there are not many opportunities to find work in the area. Unemployment had been a problem even before the earthquake. The work situation of people with little education was quite bad. His wife has found work as a waitress but because of that, she cannot live at home. Zhou Bing just hopes that his son will get a decent education to have a better future than him. He also hopes that he can stay in the area when he gets a new solid home and moves out of the tent camp.

Guo Fengzhang sleeps well

A strong faith in Buddhism has helped Guo Fengzhang (right) to keep her peace of mind. Ms. Guo is 66 and has actually slept almost all through the earthquake. That day, she was working in the fields but she did not feel well and therefore went home to rest for a while on her bed. She woke when the walls around her were shaking. She made it out of the house in time. Her house was built only six years ago but several walls collapsed, which means that the remains of her home will have to be completely demolished.

To me this sounded terrible, but Ms. Guo gave me the impression that she had made her peace with what happened to her. Before the earthquake, her family had not been well-off anyway. Her son (below right) and daughter were not able to send money back home when they were earning money as migrant workers.

People in the tent camp had lost their homes and were now waiting for the government to provide them with prefabricated homes. But for the time being, they had to live in tents (sometimes forty people at a time in one tent). There were a few army tents inside the camp but most of the tents seemed to be made by the residents themselves from the ubiquitous three-colored tarpaulin. It was boiling hot inside the tents so people preferred to cook and eat outside. Each resident received 10 yuan per day and a ration of rice but no vegetables. People had to buy their own vegetables.  

The sun was shining the day of our visit but the thick layers of tarpaulin pointed to the fact that rain must be heavy at times. Bricks were laid (above) to keep the paths between the tents walkable despite the rain, which is typical for Sichuan at this time of the year.  There was no electricity in some areas of the camp so people were worried about not being able to watch the Olympic Games.

Now, she is quite content with the situation. In fact, she believes that life is even better in some ways. “Now, the government gives us rice to eat and some other things.” It is not easy to believe her because the small tent still accommodates 15 people, including her elder daughter, her son-in-law and grandson. Not long ago, there were 22 people. But Ms. Guo just hopes to get a new home - it doesn’t have to be big. It should not rain through - that’s enough.

Fortunately the earthquake has not affected her crops. Ms. Guo still rises at six every morning to work on her small patch of land. The experience of the earthquake has apparently not affected her very much. She has no problems sleeping. She prays to Buddha and is therefore not afraid. She just hopes that her 15-year-old grandson Tang Zhihao (above, next to her) can go to university some time in the future. Right now, he is very busy preparing for an important exam in August. This exam will be crucial to his school career. Consequently, he was not able to attend one of the summer camps offered to children from the disaster area.

Mr. Bian said that more than 600 people still received government support at the end of July. 94 people of all the 227 camp residents were about to be relocated to a nearby area, where prefabricated homes were being built for them. The remaining camp residents were expected to stay at their tents. Mr. Bian’s own home collapsed during the quake but nobody of his family was hurt. In this part of town, nobody died.