Monday Afternoon

For a while, there was only sideways streaking white outside the windows and the muffled sound of traffic coming from KunLun Fast Road. But now it's 5 o'clock and the snow is letting up enough to see the faint outlines of pagodas and power lines on South Mountain, just above the flat rooftop horizon of neighboring apartment buildings. Baby has woken from her afternoon nap and is playing in one of the cupboards and soon we'll be needing to get dinner on, but for now we're content listening to Alison Krauss and letting the world beyond the radiators reappear on its own terms. 


It's been a long time since April. After the earthquake there were no more days, no more weeks, just endless work that dissolved gradually from earthquake relief into project catch-up. Sometime in July we found out that our landlord's home had been destroyed in the earthquake, so we had to move to a new apartment, and thus now have this view of south mountain - obscured only by snow and not by mega-construction projects.


There's not a lot to tell about the intervening months. Life happens and doesn't stop happening until it really stops, and at that point we won't be around blogging about it anymore. There were trips to the field, driving through rubble, seeing neighborhoods replaced by barren earth with little teepees of salvaged timbers here and there. There were bear fences to put up, community meetings to organize, frustrations to hear with sympathy, aspirations to hear with validation. There were moments of triumph setting camera traps high above the world on rocky crags 16,000 feet closer to heaven than to the sea. There were moments of despair wondering how anyone could go on trying to meet so many needs. There was lots of life crammed into a tiny amount of time.


In September we took a break to visit friends in Korea. In October we returned to fall weather and the familiar sounds and smells of China. Rehab work has been approved to begin in Yushu. Eco-tourism meetings and workshops are scheduled for early November. A doctor training is also to be completed before year's end. Life keeps on going.