“What is going on?” I said to myself when my flight was delayed again. I’d landed alone in Hong Kong after a 15-hour trip from San Francisco and was waiting to board for mainland China. The woman next to me surprised me by answering, “there’s been a terrible earthquake; you need to call your mom and let her know you’re alive.” I think I thanked her and was off. On the way, I passed TVs that showed footage of the devastation happening where I was going, Sichuan province in Chi