This has been a bad week for one approaching his 50th Birthday. As an adolescent I endured the pain of looking younger than my age, but on this side of the age divide, the experience has been much more pleasant. A two year programme of regular exercise, never a part of my life to date has helped, but in the main the appearance of youth is genetic and not the consequence of this salve or that balm. This week, the genetic coding began to break down and one was faced with the unwelcome shape of things to come.

It began, rather innocently enough, with a haircut. In the middle of Chengdu, I found a barber shop which looked clean even, even if the owner’s own hair style was a little dramatic. I asked for no more than my usual “not too long” haircut. Apart from one moment of dread when he seemed to shaping my reluctant mop in imitation of his own Mohican, I was happy with the results. In the latter stages of this transformation, a pile of my shorn locks formed on the towel in front of me. Being very short-sighted, I could not be sure, but there seemed to be rather too much silver among the expected brown. Confirmation came when my barber asked, altogether too nonchalantly for my liking, “did I want to have my hair dyed?” Preferring denial to painful clarity, I decided I must have misunderstood his heavy Sichuan accent and waving off the unwelcome invitation. I paid his fee and rushed back to the comfort of the office.

Alas, no comfort was to be had. Mr. Han, our zealous reporter put paid to that. He is ordinarily a charming fellow and very professional. Without my knowing, however, he chose to include me in a feature on rice distribution. Flattering perhaps, but when I saw that I was being described as being “not a young man anymore” I began to fear for the worst. The image of a stubborn old codger insisting on carrying rice bags too heavy for him, and then falling asleep in the corner, wasn’t quite the “spin” I wanted to offer the world. In a country with few priests over 40, I am used to being the relatively elderly lemon, but the description was too absolute for my liking. If you want to read the toned down version of the original piece, you can find it here. Mr. Han is definitely off my Christmas card list.

I emerged from these experiences somewhat chastened. The incidents bothered me, but, more than that, it bothers me that they bother me. I affect a lack of vanity, and actually believed that I could check that one off my personal list of deadly sins. It is more than a little disconcerting to realise that I am like the rest of men (and women) in this as in most other matters. I never cease to be amazed just how Christ is using my experience of China to present me with myself as really am, and not as I would like to be. Self knowledge is a wonderful thing and I sometimes pray the prayer “from hidden faults acquit me”. I had in mind, though, a gentle acquittal whispered during meditation but this week, I got to see myself all too clearly in a mirror held by a Mohican coiffed barber and an over-enthusiastic reporter. Somebody up there has a sense of humor, but excuse me if my laughter is a little forced this time. Pass the Grecian Formula 2000!

Mr. Wang was looking intently the screensaver, which I thought a little odd. It was an image of “Beautiful Beichuan” viewed from the surrounding hills. Perhaps a little super saturated to heighten the impact of what was clearly a tourist promotional image, but as Mr Wang was on the Beichuan Mayor’s staff, the choice of image was understandable. What made the scene more poignant is that the Beichuan mayor’s “office” is a tent in Anxian, a totally different county, and the city of Beichuan no longer exists. Mr. Wang showed us pictures of the city as it is now, and skewed buildings and reconfigured hills tell the earthquake story all too graphically. Mr. Wang and the rest of the staff seemed to be going about their work rather mechanically with no particular haste, but then it was Sunday afternoon. They had time and seemed willing for us to view the images from their files. Image after gruesome image rolled across the screen. When we finished watching the slide “show”, Mr. Wang showed us a seven minute presentation of the disaster’s impact on the city. The story line was simple and brought together a propaganda video of happy villagers dancing in a tourist paradise with footage of the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. If that were not enough, the presentation concluded with a contrast between the easy laughter of a schools sports day at the local high school on the 11th, with scenes of overwhelming grief of the same school only one day later. I found it hard to watch but felt I owed to our hosts not to turn away from the affecting images.

In time, my colleagues moved on to business and the minutiae of relief work, all attended to, to this observer’s impression, with frankness and efficiency. I tuned in and out of the conversation as the general direction was obvious, and my role in proceedings marginal. Continue Reading »

Tags: Beijing Diaries, bricks, natural disasters, relief aid, Sichuan, Wenchuan Earthquake

The Bricks Great Wall Appeal team went to Changchun last Sunday to meet up with Dr. Zang to purchase the ultrasound scanner for his AIDS clinic. If you would remember, Dr. Zang heads the Zhen Guan Ai AIDS clinic in a rural town not far from Jilin City. He and his clinic is working with 300 farmers infected with HIV/AIDS through blood sales and we set up an appeal for their clinic 6 months ago for an ultrasound scanner that would help him and his clinic provide better diagnosis for his patients who are all people living with HIV/AIDS (PLA’s). Bricks, through the generosity of our donors, was able to provide the good doctor and his clinic with a brand new portable ultrasound scanner. An ultrasound scanner ensures that PLA’s receive the swift diagnosis which this technology makes possible, portability means that the Zhen Guan Ai clinic will be able to use the scanner without requiring patients to make the sometimes long journey to his clinic.

Dr. Zang, together with two of his superiors, was very happy to see us. We went to the Changchun Office of Mindray, to purchase the DP3300 ultrasound scanner. Mindray is a Shenzhen company well known for manufacturing quality health care devices. Dr. Zang and his superiors thank all the people who have donated for Brick 3. They have assured us that the scanner would be used wisely and solely for Zhen Guan Ai AIDS clinic and have invited us to visit the clinic in September to see it being used first hand. Some good news, finally.

On that note, Zhen Guan Ai has told Bricks that they have not found any new cases of HIV/AIDS in the area that they administer this year. Dr. Zang’s director as well as Dr. Zang mentioned to us that their efforts not only in the treatment but also on informing the patients about the disease has slowly been paying off. Bricks, in behalf of Dr. Zang and Zhen Guan Ai thanks all the people who have donated for this project. We hope to do further projects with them, but interestingly, the experience is already opening them up to develop their own fundraising plan, which is exactly what Bricks hopes to achieve.

Tags: AIDS, bricks, Jilin

Last Saturday involved an unusual flurry of social activity linked to the GAA All China Games (Irish Rules Football, to those who don’t know these things). It was enjoyable to be in the company of so many people from home, even though watching paint drying is, for this observer at least, more enjoyable than being a spectator at any team sport. I became ever more irritated with myself for my willingness to, ever so nonchalantly, drop my imminent departure for Chengdu into various conversations during the course of the evening. Without ever being so crass as to actually say so directly, my throw away reference to the disaster zone’s capital allowed an image of self-effacing, heroic action among the rubble to hover over the discussion of my day job, when in fact the reality is to date, far more prosaic. I was annoyed with my willingness to drop the “C” word into conversation, but enjoyed the admiration it evoked rather too much to actually stop.

Chengdu, in fact, is proving to be something different from my carefully constructed image of acts of mercy among the rubble. The city is without obvious signs of the disaster on its doorstep. No toppled buildings, no displaced people and, were one to judge only from the appearance of the people, one would imagine that the capital of Sichuan was nothing more than another city enjoying the opulent fruits of 30 years of “reform and opening up”. Continue Reading »

Tags: Beijing Diaries, bricks, natural disasters, Sichuan, Wenchuan Earthquake

Dear Friends,

Today we are closing the Brick 7 Wenchuan Earthquake Appeal and will no longer be taking general donations for this terrible disaster. The emergency phase has been completed and now begins the long and difficult task of reconstruction. There will inevitably be projects related to this phase in the future, but they will be considered as distinct “Bricks” Already one is in the planning stage “Brick 8” and we imagine there will be more in the months ahead.

Thank you for your generosity and we will be giving a full report on how the funds were assigned later in the year. In the meantime to follow how Jinde Charities is responding to the Disaster, please see http://www.chinacatholic.org/english/more.asp?ttt=6 for details.

 As of today, 10th June, the donations stand as €71,313.31 of which €61,795.85, have already been transferred to Jinde Charities. There are some sums still to arrive in our accounts, and once they have done so the remainder will be transferred also. Thank you for your generosity to this appeal, and please remember the ongoing plight of the people of Sichuan in your prayers.

Tags: bricks, Jinde Charities, natural disasters, Sichuan, Wenchuan Earthquake

It sounds rather pious perhaps, but saying the Rosary does help. Right now life seems rather fraught, even in the remote fastness of head office, when most of the “action” is taking place in the earthquake recovery zone. Responding to a disaster on this scale is a real challenge for our fledging NGO. On the surface, the prayerful routines with which a group of priests begin the day go on as usual, but, in me at least, it has been overtaken by a kind of claustrophobia that makes sitting before the Body of Christ somewhat difficult. Instead I start my day with a walk in the seminary grounds, the wooden beads of my rosary playing though my fingers. This seems to set me up better for the day at a time when I find it ever harder to keep focused. Continue Reading »

Tags: Beijing Diaries, bricks, natural disasters, prayer, Sichuan, Wenchuan Earthquake