Our supply truck arrived mid-morning today with fresh food and
medicines. The tents were soon set up, the generators were humming,
and water was being filtered and treated for drinking. Medical
personnel continued to see patients throughout the day despite a short
storm of hail, snow, and rain. Beyond the routine trips, one medical
transport driver reported being able to take two little girls to the
airport for evacuation to the city where their parents are
hospitalized.
Some doctors from team 2 needed to depart for Xining this morning to
catch return flights home. They traveled over icy roads through
driving snow for much of the 500 mile journey, but arrived safely in
Xining before 9 PM local time. Additional medical personnel are now in
Xining and are expected to travel to Yushu over the next few days.
This will not be on the site... our local partners told us that there were 70 international organizations waiting in Xining trying to get into the quake site but not allowed. Big names. Some called to ask how we were working there, but we were busy trying to get things done. It's interesting that some people are raising huge amounts of money for earthquake relief and they're nowhere near the place and have no permission to move.... oh well. We're going to continue the way we started- working in partnership with communities at the pace that they want to move, working on the things they think are important, and doing everything above board in full cooperation with the local government. Other big names can come and go and sweep up lots of money with them, but we're still going to be going at the pace of the community that we love and be with them for the long haul- and the money that's needed will come when it's ready.
Good night guys.
