Many of you have called and written, expressing concern for my husband Michael and me in our final day in China on Monday, when the earthquake struck. Luckily, we had already left Chengdu and were in Beijing at the airport when the tremors struck - in Beijing they were so slight that we did not notice them, and in fact, we did not hear about the earthquake until we landed 14 hours later in Chicago and discovered a cell phone full of anxious messages from friends and family. Our first concern was for our friends in Chengdu, and we were tremendously relieved to learn that no one was injured in the earthquake, although there has been structural damage to the school buildings.

Since our arrival home at midnight on Monday night, we have been in the process of digesting both our experiences in China and now the earthquake and the devastation it is causing.

VIsiting China to teach in the kindergarten training was an incredible and wonderful experience for us, raising profound questions about how Waldorf education takes root in diverse cultures around the world and also about the role of visitors and advisors from abroad.

We were deeply, deeply impressed by the spirit of the Chengdu Waldorf School - the incredible spirit of brotherhood/sisterhood among the teachers and families and children there, and the intrepid efforts to incarnate a Waldorf school physically, soulwise and spiritually in a country that is re-inventing itself in an amazingly intense way. 

We taught courses for eight days to nearly 100 kindergarten teachers from all over China - mostly from Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Guanzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Xi'an - and then took five days of holiday in southern Yangshuo in the karst mountains before flying to Beijing to meet with kindergarten teachers and parents in Waldorf school initiative groups, as well as several bio-dynamic farms north of Beijing near the Great Wall. 

Waldorf education is nearly exploding in China in the past year or two, and there are many challenges to its healthy growth, mostly having to do with the intense desire of families to have something immediately for their children, without having fully grasped what Waldorf education and its image of the human being are about. And yet there is also a deep desire to experience and work with the spiritual  foundations at the basis of Waldorf education. 

Now, post-earthquake, we are deeply concerned with the situation in Szechuan Province. A week ago we had visited the city of Dujiangyan, 60 km west of  Chengdu, en route to hiking among the Taoist temples at Qincheng Mountain. Dujiangyan was one of two epicenters of the earthquake, and we are struggling to bring together two sets of images - one the lovely, pleasant green city at the edge of the mountains close to the Tibet border, away from the pollution of Chengdu, that we experienced that day, and the other the site of collapsed hospitals, factories and a Middle School where many children perished - children who, with the One Child Policy, were their parents' beloved only child and who now are gone. We can hardly bear to think of the grieving taking place now, and the chaos of homelessness and lack of food and water that will soon ensue.

Of course, most of all, we are carrying in our hearts the situation of our friends and colleagues and the families at the Waldorf School. From what we have heard from Li Zhang there, no one was hurt. However, the buildings where the school is housed (now condemned, at least for the moment)  were already structurally weak - a former tea house/summer retreat "resort" that was quite dilapidated when the school moved in. We were deeply touched by how the grounds and buildings have been lovingly ensouled - a small bamboo "forest" garden planted where rubble had been, a pond created over an old debris-filled wetland, and home-made lazured walls painted with love and care, filling the old concrete building with life and color. The Waldorf School is a lovely bustling community, filled with activity, where teachers and parents and children all carry one another and the school's mission as they try to transform the physical environment and to incarnate Waldorf education under less than easy circumstances. 

Today, the teachers, parents and children are literally living at the school, under tent canopies set up for Michael's sculpture course last week, where he taught nearly 100 students outdoors. How lucky that these shelters were there for everyone to escape to when the buildings were all condemned and the rains began to pour down! The government has closed down the schools, and there is a question whether the Chengdu Waldorf School will need to completely rebuild, or even to relocate, in the future. But those questions are for the future; in the present, the concerns are about shelter, and today we heard that the water supply is now contaminated and there is a question about the availability of drinking water. 

We carry in our hearts the question of how we can offer support in this catastrophic situation. Soul-spiritually, we can carry our Chinese friends and colleagues in our hearts, in our thoughts and in our prayers. It may also be that we can find ways to offer financial support as well. The phoenix bird, Fenghuang, is ubiquitous in China, a picture of high power, virtue and grace sent from heaven. We hope that like the phoenix, the life of Waldorf education will arise and fly forth out of the current devastation into the future, in part through support and care sent by others from distant lands who nonetheless feel very close to the Chinese people and to what they are trying to bring to birth. 

with love and concern, 

Susan Howard

P.S> My apologies if you receive more than one copy of this message - I am sending it to several group lists as well as to our individual friends and colleagues.