First truck arrived!

On Monday the 19th at approximately 20:30 hours, we received a phone call. A Chinese lorry had arrived to Becky's compound on the east side of town.  Qinghai-Tibet Rescue & Aid had already loaded it with all of the supplies they had purchased earlier that day.  The problem was that the truck was three times the size they had originally expected.  This was only about 19 hours after sending the original donation email to friends and partners through out the US and Europe.  By this time Maria and I had only raised about $1,000 but we went ahead and told Becky that we would try our best to fill the truck the following morning.

So with the money from several generous donations, Maria and I co-ordinated five different vehicles and shoppers (made up of expats and local volunteers) to scour the wholesale markets of supplies to send to the survivors of the Yushu quake.  The truck was already stocked with food (flour, dry noodles, rice, canned meat, crackers, and biscuits) and water, so we committed the rest of the space to other necessities. The night before our friend Dokboh sent word that blankets, warm clothes, tents, toilet paper and sanitary napkins were still high on the needed supplies list.  So thats what we acquired.

Navigating across rivers of surface run-off, I arrived early to the Hai Hu Lu (In-Land Sea Rd) Wholesale Market. The sellers, probably surprised by sudden the precipitation were sleepily opening for business, many were still pulling their wagons and driving their 3-wheel motor-bike carts (loaded to the brim with goods) through the slush puddles of potato dust, wheat chaff. and the earth that shakes off freshly harvested vegetables.  After meeting up with a translator Lisa Luo, Jesse (my local expat friend), and Dian giegie (a Chinese volunteer), we hustled to the back of the market where they sell clothes, shoes, and household items.

Those who survived the quake in Yushu, woke up to the sound of their houses falling apart. When they got out of bed, they had no time to grab even a coat or a hat, if they wanted to escape. We received word that the government had already sent blankets and coats, but many were without proper coats, hats, and gloves. And the temperatures were still below freezing on Monday (it actually snowed again this past Wednesday).

Dian giegie and Lisa immediately went in search of their friends who are clothing distributors. Within 20 minutes we had scoured the market for the best deal.  Many of the vendors and distributors had already packed away the warm clothes in anticipation of the spring, so it was good to have two local Chinese with us. It turned out the first vendor we went tried to sell us 200 hats which he had not yet ordered from the supplier in a city 3 hours away.  At this point Dian giegie unleashed her consumer protection weapons and in a very stern voice explained to the greedy vendor that we had no time for his business tactics.  At this time, we also discovered it was her husband who would be driving the supply truck and he wanted to leave at noon.  At this time it was already 10:00 AM and we had purchased nothing.  Jesse and I immediately realized we needed to ask for divine intervention.  Within the next 30 minutes we found another vendor and we walked away with 260 balaclavas, 180 (sturdy fleece gloves), and 12 packs of toilet paper (over 900 rolls), all for less than USD $340.00.

At this point I still needed to buy the long underwear and pants (the other teams were taking care of other purchases) on my shopping list.  I had called a friend Yang Da ge, moments earlier to see if he would lend me his pickup. It was about 11:00AM and I explained we needed to get all these things across town and still stop at the Commercial Sales market by the train station. He arrived moments later with his Mazda 6 and a pick up truck.  Yang sent the pick up truck to the drop off location, while myself and the two Chinese sped off at the hurling rate of 150 km/hour to the next market.  With Yang behind the wheel of his Mazda 6, taking side streets and driving against traffic on a one-way street for several blocks, we arrived to the other side of town in less than 10 minutes.  Within less than an hour we had purchased over 600 pairs of long underwear in an assortment of sizes.  We also purchased about 80 pairs of thick winter pants.  The remainder of the donations were spent on these clothes. 

Thanks to being on China time and not western time, the truck was still there when we arrived with the last of the items at 12:45 PM. 

We've received word that the truck loaded with these things, tents, blankets, food, coats, and water arrived not too long ago.  The journey, which usually takes less than 15-hours, is taking much longer. This is due to the mountainous route being backed up with survivors' families, volunteer vehicles and the occasional supply truck. Maria and I would like to send another truck on this coming Tuesday. 

Please help us reach this goal and keep an eye out for pictures, coming soon!

Donations can be received at her facebook account: www.facebook.com/mariadoulos or at my paypal account clarkiv(at)gmail.com 

To those who donate we can provide receipts and cost analysis break-down.

In His service,

Clark