china-szechuan earthquake 2008

who would have thought that something this terrible will happen.. i mean, china had her fair share of misfortune since the start of the year, with sandstorms to cold drifts to riots in tibets, to unsuccessful pre-olympics activities.. and right after myanmar got hit by a cyclone, szechuan got hit by an earthquake and i was totally clueless of it, till i got home late on monday evening..

at that instant, i was just lost for words.. i mean, it was a place, which i have visited twice in a period of 6 months and now, the whole place is in ruins.. it's just pretty shocking and unbelievable.. i was just lost for words..


this is perhaps the one and only shot i've got of wenchuan county during my trip in november, whereby everything was still in place.. with its buildings and even a well and safe dam.. but now some of the buildings are gone and there are hayline cracks in the dam wall..

i finally understood what sean meant, when he said that it wrenched your heart to see the buildings, that you were once familiar with, go down in ruins.. and to see the lives of the ppl living in the affected areas seriously changed..

even as the rescuers race against time to search for survivors and occassionally, with stories of hope and love surfacing up in the news, the question that remains after everything is.. what's next? what about those left behind?

it really wrenches me to see the photos on the newspapers and on online news pages.. but somehow i don't exactly feel the same way towards myanmar, though it needs equal, if not more help and attention.. maybe it's because i've never been to myanmar?? maybe it's because i do not know anyone there?? maybe it's just not a place where my heart is directed to??

with each natural disaster striking many countries, the number of closet dreams i have grow as well.. but like pearlyn said, i will most probably give all those ard me a heart attack, if i do truly embark on anyone of them.. but if i really do embark on one, there will be so much planning required and so much to prepare for..

the only thing that we can do now, is to pray for both nations.. there are so much uncertainty and so much pain, that perhaps, time can't even heal any of it.. but we can only pray that the Lord works in this time and He is the only one that can give hope and peace to all affected.. perhaps it's easy for me to say this now, coz it's not affecting me directly.. but when all else fails, God is still the one constant and He is the only one that can save..