earthquake

as many of you have now heard, there was an earthquake in china today. it moved some buildings in shanghai, but things here are relatively normal.

those of you that worry for us should know that today, again, we were well taken care of.

i left the office this afternoon to go to nike for a meeting. it was my first trip to nike alone, so i asked juju and leonie (who i call the mother hen) if they could write the directions for me in mandarin to give to the taxi driver. they were not satisfied until they had written the directions, called a cab, walked me to the cab, and explained to the driver where, exactly, he should take me.

i had a long lunch meeting with one of my clients on the first floor of a building across from nike. because we were on the first floor, we were oblivious to any swaying or shaking that was happening. when we went back to the building, there were many people outside. we assumed they were on their way to a business outing.

we said our goodbyes, and she rushed off to another meeting. i went looking for a cab. a couple of minutes later, she came running back saying there was an earthquake and we should stick together. she didn't have a phone. i did, but i didn't have any local numbers programmed in. we tried to email nike colleagues to no avail. outside the building, things were getting more and more chaotic.

finally, our nike friends came out, and said that leonie had everyone on high alert looking for me. she had called to make sure i was ok. apparently, the sway in our offices was much more prevalent.

i made my way to a restaurant where my co-workers were waiting. they said they were so worried about me, and needed to see me in front of them. :) they then spent the next 1/2 hour programming all of their numbers into my phone.

despite not ever being in any real danger. it meant a lot to me to know that i had so many looking out for me. i felt really protected, and again, so grateful to have these friends.

feeling the effects of the quake in our city brings the tragedy much closer. reading in grandma dale's book about time spent in chongqing, connects us to the people there. it seems good that we see and know the hardship of others in our world. so often it seems distant; it hardly seems real. and yet, perspective brings with it a burden so heavy to bear. we ache as we think of the lives lost. the beautiful faces of china.