Earthquake

As most of you know, we were not in the country at the time of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan, China. Thank you for all of the concerned emails we recieved from our friends. Although some people in tall buildings here in Shanghai felt a slight tremor, the epicenter was quite far from Shanghai. As of today, the death count is up around 80,000 people with millions (yes, about 5 million) people homeless. That is like the equivalent of the entire population of Minnesota being left homeless. The government response here has been tremendous and in a country where donating to charity is a new concept, the entire population has responded by giving what they can. (By the way, Sev's company is matching all employee donations plus some). If anyone out there would like to donate, the best way is to give to the international Red Cross at http://www.ifrc.org/
As of today (June 2nd) the Red Cross is still asking for donations to help the people of Sichuan and you can read about the 3 year recovery plan on their website. Anyway, I know gas prices suck and food prices are going up and all that junk but even $10 goes a long way here in China!