第六天－绵阳市
(加拿大中国地震灾区采访队记者Christina Stevens6月18日报道) 死城，是我们今天要去的地方。这称号是当地人改的，在上月大地震中，北川是死亡人数最多的地方，至今仍然有五至七千人下落未明，相信都埋在大量的山泥底下。在往北川途中，我们经过绵阳市，并经过一个大球场，那里曾经一度收容了六万名北川居民。目前球场里仍然有二千人，当中有很多是长者及小童。他们在宽阔行人道上架起的帐篷栖宿，被褥都是五颜六色，旁边放了他们仅有的随身物品。在这球场里面，我们遇上了14岁的Yi Su，他的眼神很严肃，看来十分疲倦，样子被实际年龄要大。他的经历，绝对不应是一个小童体验的。
地震时Su正在上课，老师赶快带他们跑出外。他透过翻译说：”我们一走出外，回头望时见到整座学校塌下来，引发大量尘土飞扬，当时我们都很害怕。”他立即想起父母，于是急忙跑回一公里外的家。”我见到爸爸及婆婆，还有其他亲友，但妈妈不见了，后来他们说妈妈已经走了。”他的妈妈被活埋瓦砾下。Su说他很怀念妈妈，常常听到她的声音，叮嘱他努力读书。所以在这个帐篷学校里，Su很努力读书，将悲伤埋在书本中，暂时脱离现实，将焦点放于未来。
他的课室是一列蓝色帐篷的其中一个，这数以千计排满在街上的帐篷，都是由外国捐赠的。加拿大红十字会捐赠的帐篷仍然在付运途中。从安省调派来四川统筹援助工作的张云红，虽然离家很远，但她更渴望的留下继续帮忙，而且仍然有大量救援工作等着做。张云红说：”经过这么特大的地震后，灾民需要大量的援助，过去数天我们经过的村镇县市，见到当地极需要食水，临时居所，卫生及食品以外的物资。”说到这里，我为加拿大人感到骄傲，加拿大红十字会是继美国之后第二大捐赠者，这些捐赠对于救灾工作的帮助，显而易见。
加拿大捐赠了2500个帐篷，让Su与他的父亲及其他失去一切的灾民，有临时栖身之所。在Su的帐篷课室里，受灾程度亦很严重，17名学生有人三人失去至亲。因为仍然有塌方及疾病的危险，他们仍然未能返回家园，所以是一个真正的死城。不过幸存者有一股不容忽视的力量，便是他们拒绝低头的决心。正如Su所说：”我很挂念妈妈，但我的爸爸和婆婆还在，我们可以一家人继续开心活下去。”我与他告别，希望他的希望能成真。
第六天——绵阳
(加拿大中国地震灾区采访队记者Christina Stevens6月18日报道) (注：Christina文中的Bechuan应为Beichuan，北川)
DAY 6 Mian Yang City
The Dead City. That is what locals call where we are headed today. Bechuan, where there was the single largest loss of life in last month’s earthquake, and an estimated five to seven thousand people are still unaccounted for, presumed buried under massive land slides. On the way we go through Mian Yang city, past the stadium that at one point held about sixty thousand residents from Bechuan. About two thousand people are still here, including many elderly and children. They take shelter under a wide outdoor walkway, sleeping on a colourful array of quilts and blankets, startling few possessions tucked alongside. It is at this stadium where we find 14 year old Yi Su. His eyes are serious and he seems weary and old for his age. His story is one a child should never have to tell.
Su was at school when the quake hit, and their teacher rushed them outside. “Once we were out, we looked back and our school building collapsed and we were so scared and it was so dusty,” he recounts through an interpreter. He was immediately worried about his parents and ran the one kilometre home, “and then I met my father and grandma and other relatives and asked about my mom and they said my mom was gone.” His mother had been buried. Su says he misses her terribly, and can still hear her voice, telling him to study hard; so here at a tent school, that’s exactly what he does. Burying his grief in his books, a temporary reprieve from reality, a future to focus on.
His classroom is a non descript blue tent, in a row with dozens of others. Like many of the thousands of tents lining the roads in this area, it was donated by a foreign aid group. Tents purchased by the Canadian red cross are still being trucked to the area. The woman in charge the Sichuan relief project for the Red Cross, is far from her Ontario home, but there is no place Yunhong Xhang would rather be than helping, and work here is far from over. “The need is still massive after an earthquake of such scope, in the village and the prefecture we have visited the past few days we did see the need for water for temporary shelter for hygiene and for non food items,” says Xhang. At this point I realise Canadians have a lot to be proud of, having raised the second most money of any country (after the U.S.) for the Red Cross effort, it is easy to see the donations are making a tangible difference.
The 2500 ents Canadian donations are providing will give shelter to people like Su and his father. People who have lost everything. In Su’s tent classroom, yet another number gives pause. Out of his 17 classmates, three have lost immediate family members. For now, they can’t even go to their home town, its off limits due to the risk of more landslides and disease: it truly is the Dead City. But among the living, there is a strength that is undeniable, a determination not to be beaten, as Su says “I miss my mother so much, but I have my grandma and my father and we will live together as a family, and create happiness.” I leave him then, hoping against hope, that will come true.
14 year old Yi Su, from Bechuan
near Bechuan
Chinese Red Cross volunteer unloads tent shipment at Chengdu Airport.
