Both of my parents have called me this week to check in on my feelings about Monday’s earthquake outside of Chengdu. I have not been in Chengdu, China for three years.

Though we never properly lived in Chengdu, Peter and I twice spent some quality time in the city while staying with a good friend. On both occasions, we looked for work and apartments and for various reasons never ended up staying there. Although the friend we were staying with is no longer there, we know other people in Chengdu who have contacted us since to let us know that they are alright and that they are available to assist others who might need help on the ground.

Please feel free to circulate this information:

Dear Friends,

With the recent turmoil, we would like to provide an English-language contact point for anybody who might need assistance during this time.

If you have been displaced from your home and need a place to stay please contact us for housing arrangements.

If you are seeking updates from people in Chengdu whom you cannot get a hold of, please contact us via e-mail or on Twitter.

Online: www.chengdoo.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chengdoo
E-mail: chengdoo@gmail.com
SMS (please call only for urgent matters to leave phone lines clear): 13540708232 13018236092 13880271515

At this time we do not have the capacity to handle Chinese-language assistance and do not wish to interfere with those organizations who have already mobilized. Please refer to www.chengduredcross.org for local aid information in Chinese.

ALSO:

Many of us who have been mostly unaffected by recent events are looking for ways to help those who have been less fortunate.

China Crossroads http://www.china-crossroads.com/)
lists the bank information for China Red Cross for those of you looking to make cash donations. This is as easy as taking a pile of cash to the bank along with the account name and number and saying you want to deposit it into the account.

If you prefer, we have also set up an envelope at Cafe Paname (143 Kehua Beilu, Blue Carribbean Plaza, 2nd Fl. / 巴黎咖啡科华北路143号蓝色加勒比广场以内2楼) for cash donations which we will deposit to the Red Cross of Chengdu on Friday. We will take donations all week.

The people in the areas hardest hit are without shelter, and transport and resource-distribution is limited at the moment. For those who are homeless/foodless, we would like to encourage you to donate TENTS, BLANKETS, PORTABLE MATTRESSES, etc. as well as NON-PERISHABLE FOOD ITEMS, WATER, and ANTIBIOTICS, ANTI-FLU MEDICINE. Any of these items can be brought to Cafe Paname (address above) or the Bookworm (28 Renmin Nan Lu Sect. 4, behind the Sunjoy Inn/老书虫人民南路四段28号) at any time during this week.

For those looking for updated information in English on general earthquake news, we recommend www.shanghaiist.com and www.china-crossroads.com who are doing an amazing job keeping their sites up to date. NPR (www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu/ is also posting some information from Chengdu at this time.

For donations information please contact Jane at 13540708232 or Chloe at 13880271515.

We hope that everybody takes care, stays safe, and helps one another during this time of crisis.

When I used to call my folks from Chengdu, they would ask me how big the city was. When I told them it was a city of 11 million people they would say, “I can’t believe that – a city that big and we’ve never heard of it!” Yesterday morning I heard a conversation on Metro Morning that went exactly the same way between Andy Barrie and a Toronto man originally from Sichuan Province.

For those of you who are following Pete’s surreal rants, you should know that he is currently obsessed with Chinese building codes.