Madam Ambassador, distinguished guests.

After two days of planning, the B-FAST mission to SICHUAN province started on Wednesday 21th of May when a TNT freight flight brought a total of 930 tents and their contents to Chengdu.

A first team of B-FAST specialists left on a commercial flight and reached the area of operations on Thursday 22th of May.

Representatives of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department, the local authorities and organizations immediately took charge of the team and arranged all the practicalities such as f.e. transport, food & drinks and fuel for our generators.

The destination of the B-FAST tent camp was Shi Gu Town situated in Si Fang City.

Shi Gu town is located at approximately 30 km from the epicenter of the earthquake on May 12th and the township had suffered extensive damage. Houses, temples, shops, the hospital,? and other infrastructure had collapsed or were very badly damaged. Scores of people were wounded or killed.

But ? life continues. Our translators explained to us that even «after a violent hurricane, the sun reappears». Everybody, from the youngest to the eldest, helps, works, cleans? it is as if an entire nation rises and takes care of the aftermath of this disaster. Every day dozens of volunteers arrive at the camp: teachers who take care of the necessary translations, children who help us put up tents, local inhabitants who give us a hand, soldiers who after a long day of search and rescue work in the stricken towns work on the campsite until late at night.

The tents in the camp appear at an incredible rate and after a few days the first inhabitants moved into their tents. The children marked all the tents with messages such as "B-FAST thanks", "B-FAST ? China forever friends","Belgium Thank You"."Thank you, Belgian uncles". The B-FAST team numbered the tents without using the number 4. This was highly appreciated by the local population.

On the 29th of May, a second team, an additional 550 tents and their contents, a field hospital consisting of 18 multipurpose tents were flown to Chengdu.

The family tents were transferred to the local authorities to be distributed in the townships and the hospital was set up next to the camp. Local medical staff was familiarized with the contents of the hospital and after completion the facility was transferred.

A few memories and images will stay in my mind forever:

- the hard work, the availability and the kindness of the local authorities

- the courage, the tenacity, the cooperation, the friendliness and the hospitability of the Chinese people that made us feel like home

- the Belgian, the B-FAST and the Chinese flag flying next to one another

When I left, one of the school girls, about 16 years old, said: "Uncle Peter, you better come back to Shi Gu in the future, otherwise I'll come to Belgium and be very angry with you". Needless to say that my heart melted.

No doubt, all the Belgian uncles will miss their Chinese friends.

Madam Ambassador, it was an honor to be of service to your country.

Thank you for your attention.

P. Van den Broeck

Team Leader B-FAST Operation Earthquake China