 Jinde/XindeNews 13th June: Our mission was to transport 100 tons of rice and 10 tons of vegetable oil to 9 remote and poverty-stricken mountainous areas in one of major disaster-struck area in Anxian. Before this operation, Jinde Chengdu Office has arranged delivery of 20 tongs of rice and 307 drums of edible oil to Jingan of Anxian District on 8th June. This batch of food supply will be sufficient for 10,000 people for 10 days. However the workload was much heavier than the previous one. The Jinde Chengdu Office has made detailed planning for the deployment of limited human resources.
1. Mobilization of workers
It appears that our volunteers have greater chances to meet hardship and trials in all our undertakings. We have been notified by the Rice Processing Factory in advance that on account of extraordinary demand of supplies, even the employed workers could not cope with the workload, some were taken ill by heat-stroke. As there are nine trucks of rice and oil to be fully loaded, the management of the Factory requested us to provide helpers so as not to delay our relief operation.
When this message was known, some of volunteers gathered to offer their services in manual labor. In a short time, 20 volunteers made themselves available for the job. Fr. Luo Naqing from the Jinde Chengdu Office, Fr. Li Zhi-gang of Chengdu Diocese, together with reporter, and two sisters from Wanzhou Diocese also took part in this impressive squad of manual laborers. Special mention has to be made about Fr Liu Xian Jun, parish priest of Gui Yang who came from Gui Yang to Chengdue on 12th June, joined the team on the next day of his arrival.
2. Lifting ¨C Removing- Holding Cargo - Any Means Goes
A distance of some 10-20 meters from the storage area of the Processing Plant to the loading bay where trucks were parked, it would not be a simple exercise to move several tens bags of rice per worker, and stacking them neatly to avoid falling down during transit. For these temporary and untrained recruited workers, this strenuous job requiring strong physique otherwise it would be quite a tribulation. The zeal and effort of these volunteers surely would gain our admiration. Three young ladies, Ms. Li Jingling, Ms.Boa Lei are university students and Ms. Liu Xuemei, a post- graduate, being slight in build, started by lifting up the rice bag. When tired, they held the bags at their bosom, and when unable to carry the weight, two joined together to lift up the bag. The two sisters from Wanzhou Diocese and several female university students, carried a 50-kilo bag, dangled on a half-ft wide gang-plank would be a scary sight Volunteers from Chengdu were Xu Rong Qiang, Ceng Shi, Guo Ming-hong, Zuo Ke Lei, Luo Da Gui, Liu Wen Gang, Lu Wei, Gong Liang, Xiao Liang, and Master Tan, a teacher, all worked tirelessly in soaking condition. Fr. Li Zhi-gang from Chengdu Diocese though not skillful in removing rice bag, proved himself to be a master in transferring oil from bulk to drums. Fr. Luo Naqing from the Jinde Chengdu Office was a senior person and co-workers had the worry that he might harm himself and insisted that he should not share the burden, but he insisted to carry on. Fr. Liu Xian Jun, from Beitong, Gui Yang was an exceptional worker when he carried a heavy load on his back on a half-foot gang-plank in a poise par excellent than all the volunteers and his output was double of others.
3. Instant Cup Noodles for lunch
Strenuous manual labor workers would require a substantial meal to replenish their strength. However, for the workers, a small instant cup noodle would be the only means for the mid-day meal. There was no amenity for workers in the Processing Plant and the only source of hot water would not be sufficient for all the workers at the same time. So the saying goes: ¡°Ladies First¡±. A break for all the workers whilst they enjoyed the cup of instant noodle. Ceng Shi said in his life of over twenty odd years, he never endured such hardship since birth and by taking part in the Rescue/Relief Operation, it has made up what he has missed. Someone asked Ms Liu Xuemei if it was tiring in loading rice. She replied it would be strange if one would say otherwise. Such are the good volunteers and we all appreciate their contribution. Whilst others engaged in chattering, Fr. Luo Na Qing heard nothing about it. He dozed off sweetly in his siesta.
4. Splitting into nine teams in food supply delivery
At 2:00 p.m. the fleet of vehicles proceeded to Anxian. Upon arrival, we reported food supply delivery to Anxian Relief HQ and after completion of handing over procedure, we took a group photograph. After that we split into nine teams heading to Sang Zao, Huang Tu, Ta Shui, Heqing, Xiaohe, Xiao Ba, Chaping, Gao Chuan, Ying Xin, Yonghe within Anxian district, for distribution under supervision of local representatives. Fr. Li Zhi Gang of Chengdu Diocese went with his supply to Yonghe, Fr. Liu Xian Jun from Beitong, Gui Yang went to Heqing. They would return to Chengdu on 13th June afternoon the earliest or possibly on 14th or 15th.
Staff of Jinde Chengdu Office stayed a while at the Huang Tu County Materiel Collection Center and had the opportunity to meet Mr. Yi Jiwei, leader of the County who made a solemn promise that he would do his best to make the food supply to the needy and would not let down the good wishes of the donors who care so such for the victims. Thereafter, we visited a Resettlement Site in Huang Tu as a fact-finding survey. On our return trip to Chengdu, we obtained some feed-back information from the residents of Xiu Shui County in respect of the utilization of the tents from Jinde/Caritas. At 9:30 p.m. we detoured to visit Fr. Li Jinxuan in Mianzhu. By the time we came back to Chengdu, it was already 4 a.m. the next day.
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