Today's plan was well-thought out and the timings down to the minute. Then everything changed. We had coordinated a set shipping point with the Beijing Red Cross which was also to be a rendezvous point with all of our suppliers. With so much to do today it would be physically impossible to meet everyone, pay for and collect goods, and ship.
So we had arranged for friends to pick thing up, for suppliers to meet us..everything that as right as rain, cool as cucumbers, dandy as pie...then the Red Cross told us that we need to ship from another spot. So we had to get to work again to make it happen.
And we did. Starting right after the crazy morning rush, we went directlly to the flagship Hello Kitty shop - I'm kidding. We first coordinated a dispatch system where everyone would call into one mobile with where they are and when they're arriving, with the idea that we would stagger the people coming to see us. And it actually worked. We spent several hours at the new shipping site, acting like a two-person FedEx (this shipment comes in and this one goes out).
By mid-afternoon, we had taken in and shipped out a massive amount of stuff (with a quick break for an amazing bowl of steaming hot animal innards, pic below), including enough tenting materials to shelter, I would say, 8,000 people. That, to me, is simply and profoundly amazing. Just that one fact, to me, would have made it worth swimming to Beijing :) Yesterday on TV, I saw crews in Wenchuan province opening huge bags of tenting materials, which could have very well been ours and it made me feel amazing - so proud of what everyone who has donated has done for the people affected by the Tragedy.
By the end of the afternoon, we had shipped an entire truckload of tenting materials, 1,000 shirts and more. And right now, as I finish this note, everything is on the way to Sichuan.
As we were dropping off the last of the load (we were parked in a very tight alley) I saw door that was slightly opened and inside, an Army guard, asleep. The picture I took and am posting is a lousy one, but I wanted it up because, as he was lying there, I was wondering what he was dreaming about. He was clearly taking his turn napping while doing shifts guarding all of the donations. Was he maybe from Sichuan? Had he, as had several people I had met over these days, lost people or property in the Tragedy? To me, this picture, of a hard-working guard probably passed out from exhaustion was just very visceral.
ANS
