Pancake maker's generosity brings comfort to quake victims

Although he has only been in Chengdu, Sichuan province, for four months, Albiko Macletiai is a household name in Jinhua town, where he makes and sells crusty pancakes.

That is because the 42-year-old Uygur made 2,000 pancakes and sent them to an earthquake zone in Jiuzhaigou county, 285 km away from Chengdu.

Four months ago, Macletiai, his wife and nephew came to Chengdu from Khotan, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, to run a pancake shop.

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Jiuzhaigou at 9:19 pm on Aug 8, but Macletiai was so preoccupied with making pancakes that he did not look at his cellphone until midnight.

"When I looked at my cellphone, I saw a lot of news about the earthquake and I wondered what to do for people in the quake zone," he said.

He decided to send pancakes. "Pancakes can be kept for quite a long time and quake victims can eat them whenever they are hungry," he said.

From midnight to 7 am the next day, Macletiai, his wife and nephew made 1,000 pancakes. His friend, Jiang Dongyu, a native of Bazhong in Sichuan who runs a noodle restaurant next door, offered to go with Macletiai to the quake zone.

Macletiai and Jiang drove for 26 hours to Zhangzha town, the epicenter of the quake in Jiuzhaigou, where they delivered the pancakes to victims and volunteers.

Realizing more help was needed, Macletiai returned to Chengdu and made 1,000 more pancakes.

He Xiaohong, a villager in Zhangzha, was one of the first to receive pancakes from Macletiai. "They seemed to be the most delicious food to us at a time when we were short of daily necessities," she said.

Macletiai used almost all the raw materials in his small shop to make the 2,000 pancakes. But he said that it did not matter, as it was important to help those in need.

"I would have regretted it if we had not sent the pancakes," Macletiai said.