My colleague Gong Sheng and I went on a fact-finding trip to Sichuan to see how people were coping and how reconstruction was changing people’s lives. First we went to the church in Mianzhu. Later, we spend three days in Woyun village, where Amity has an office, to talk to villagers, schoolchildren and government officials.
Trip to Woyun April 2009 with Gong Sheng
In May 2008, thousands of lives and homes were destroyed. How was the Mianzhu church doing a year later?
The service in the new temporary building had just finished when we arrived at the Mianzhu church the first day.
Worshipers had received a donation from Singapore: shampoo and other body lotions
The old church (in the background) is still standing ...
... but only used as a storage room because it is too dangerous to hold services here.
In the new temporary service center of the church (the white buildings in the back) ...
... Sunday School was held by these two church volunteers.
They use a picture book to teach children Bible stories: here the Good Shepherd in action.
The old site of the church from 1923 cannot be used any more to build a new church.
But plans are underway to build one elsewhere. The property has been purchased. Now, funding for the building is needed.
Cleaning up, collecting old bricks and rebuilding was going on all around in Mianzhu.
The countryside on the fault-line close to Han Wang near Mianzhu looks peaceful and beautiful ...
... but many houses were abandoned ...
... only the bees had stayed.
The neighbor, Mrs Wang, was still there. She lived all by herself ...
... in this temporary home ...
... with two pigs, hungry for food and curious of the smell of strangers coming ...
... and two puppies. Her husband had gone to help there daughter in another village to rebuild their home.
Mrs Wang has no running water and no electricity ...
... but she keeps a battery light on all night because she is afraid of the ghosts: there is a mass grave uphill.
It is the deceased in this  mass grave, inhabitants of Han Wang, that Mrs Wang is afraid of.
People come up here to remember the dead and burn incense ...
... for several thousand people who died down there in May 2008.
Construction workers were still busy with finishing the memorial for the 2009 earthquake anniversary.
We went down to Han Wang where one part of town had not been cleaned up yet.
Nobody was here besides us.
Except for a memorial site a the kindergarten ...
... this part of town was still completely untouched ...
... eerie ...
... and spine-chilling as night fell.
Only the water tower had miraculously survived.
It was a relief to be going to Woyun village the next day where reconstruction was underway.
To reach the village, which is 3 km away from the county seat Guang Ji ...
... we chose the most convenient and close-to-the-people of public transport.
Piles of bricks were everywhere.
Brick factories that had been closed before the earthquake were reopened to meet soaring demand in the area.
Construction teams were busy putting up the walls according to earthquake proof standards.
Villagers get funds for their new homes only if they prove that they have respected standards.
The structural work is checked three times. After each check, villagers get a part of the whole amount of money.
Ms Guo belongs to the Amity reconstruction committee which is in charge of checking the new houses.
She said she had learned a lot about earthquake-proof construction from Amity. She had lost her Mom during the quake.
A few of the new homes were already finished.
The proud owner kept talking to Gong Sheng how happy he was ...
... that he could move out of his shelter.
People told us that they were very happy about Amity’s grain storage devices. No mice, no mold ...
The children showed us their pink jackets Amity donated after the disaster.
At the unpretentious Amity office in Woyun (the shack in the back) ...
... which, nevertheless, had an impressive sign attached ...
... Shu Junsong was dealing with tons of paper work ...
... and giving advice to villagers.
The children in the neighborhood of the office hang around quite often ...
... playing with staff on lonely evenings.
In Woyun, there is no place to have lunch. Taking a motorbike ...
... or walking for half an hour is the only option for Amity staff.
But if you keep walking long enough, you get the most colorful of Sichuan food!
We talked to many villagers. Here we speak  with the village doctor Zhou Yugui.
He sells Chinese medicine, which villagers can afford, to make a living. The government will rebuild his clinic.
Wang Shengrong is seventy two years old. His son came back from working in the big cities 4 months ago ...
... and now works in reconstructing Woyun village. Ms Wang is content with the current situation.
Han Hongshan, a farmers, has almost finished his new home. His son works as a driver to pay for the new house.  
We actually wondered how people paid for having their old house demolished and pay for the new one.
In spring, farmers grow canola (rapeseed) on their small patches of land.
Canola was about to be harvested when we came, but people don’t sell it. It’s for their own daily use.
Garlic is the only vegetable farmers can grow and sell in the area. Profits are very low, however.
Families in Woyun can only make money and pay back their debts in three years when they find payed jobs.
Since the financial crisis doesn’t allow people to go to Shenzhen or Beijing, they need to find jobs at home.
Fortunately, lots of workers are needed to rebuild the homes in the area.
At least half of the constructions workers we saw were women.
 
For all the hard work they did, they were in quite a good mood. This woman came from Chengdu to rebuild homes in Woyun.
We wondered what kind of job they will do after reconstruction is finished.  Most of them have huge debts.
We also revisited Mr Liu we had interviewed in summer 2008.
He was about to finish his new house and is very happy about it ...
... but he says, the most important contribution from Amity was that they brought the community closer together.
During the “cultural events”, which Amity organized,  people got more confidence and learned to work together. he said.
An insecurity remains: like many villagers he keeps this paper on the door to fend of evil spirits entering his home.
So far, only the good spirits came to Mr Liu’s new house.
Finally, Gong Sheng and I visited the local middle school where Amity had donated equipment.
We came during lunch break ...
... when children were busy cleaning their bowls ...
... playing ...
...
...and watching us while Gong Sheng was ...
... playing away at this amazing instrument: a reed organ, also called a “psalm pump”, seldom seen in China.
We interviewed 14 year-old Luo Li how her life had changed after the earthquake.
She said that she and her parents have a new perspective on life today.
This is what we also felt during our trip, talking to villagers. They are content and look hopeful to the future.