The thing about volunteering is that no one likes to be left behind. As said in an earlier message, we actually had to draw straws between vets Heather and Lara, nurses Hayley, Wendy and Annemarie and bear managers Nic, Kia and Donata - as everyone wanted to be part of helping in some way, any way, with the tragedy to have affected Sichuan.
A three-minute silence gripped a whole nation today at 2.28pm - a week to the minute after the earthquake struck. Here in China it is translated literally as "silence for the sorrow".
At 1am this morning (Monday) on site, we felt the aftershock that centred on the borders of Sichuan and Gansu provinces, and which measured 6.0, but again everyone - people and bears are ok.
Our bus seating 16 of our staff plus eight doctors organised by the Red Cross arrived into Anxian at about 8pm on Thursday night. We were situated in Xiaoba Town in Anxian County about 150 kms north of Chengdu.
Today (Thursday) we received approval from Red Cross China to go into one of the worst affected areas, so at 4.30pm (China time) we are heading to Anxian in northern Sichuan Province to help with the earthquake relief effort.
Yesterday (Wednesday), we were in Dujiangyiang, where many people have lost their lives and many of the buildings have been razed to the ground.
I’m just about to catch a flight from Hong Kong to Chengdu, but first I wanted to give you a quick update on the situation at the sanctuary and apologise for having to miss the first three events of my US Roadshow, which starts tomorrow.
It's 1pm China time and we've just heard from a friend in Chendgdu that local Chinese news reports say another another earthquake is expected this afternoon. No more details yet.
Thanks so much for all your messages of concern and support. The death toll is now over 10,000 and still climbing and the city is still in the grip of aftershocks.
The news is getting worse I'm afraid. At 9.30pm China time, the official death toll from the quake was up to 5,000 and we fear it will rise further throughout the night.
Jill founded Animals Asia in 1998, after an encounter with a caged bear on a farm in China changed her life forever. She now heads a team of over 300 enthusiastic staff and divides her time between our bear rescue centres in China and Vietnam and our Hong Kong head office. She travels extensively to participate in conferences and speak at fundraising events.
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