Fundraising for Haiti

It's official! Two fundraising events have resulted from my preliminary idea of raising money for Haiti earthquake relief efforts. The manager of one reggae band I hit up turned the original low key event into a 5 band music fundraiser at a huge venue where they are expecting upwards for 300 people! Not bad right. Turning it into something bigger than I ever though is awesome but at the same time, didn't allow me much of my own freedom to do what I had primarily envisioned. As a result, I created a smaller event scheduled on February 6th, at a local bar. Complete with a night of 4+ well known Dj's and all door proceeds going to Partner's in Health, it should be a great albeit smaller event. The most important thing that is coming out of both of the events is the money that will be donated to the Haitian Relief effort. Thanks to everyone that has been helping me and supporting me! It should be a a great 2 nights :)

Táng, Tàng, Tăng, Tāng

Max started Mandarin shortly after he arrived. The one thing he often questioned was how such brilliant people could have come up with such a complicated language system. Now I know what he means. Mandarin has four different tones and depending on the tone, one word can have up to four different meanings. For example "Tang" depending on the tone ("Táng Tàng Tăng Tāng") can mean "soup," "sugar," "to lie down," or"boiling hot." To top it all off, the language forces your mouth to say sounds you never thought existed. One has to go through a whole book of "initial" and "final" sounds before one even begins to delve into vocabulary 101. The one thing I have going for me is I work with an assistant Chinese teacher and am consequently used to hearing at least some of the sounds on a daily basis. I haven't even tried to learn Chinese characters and although I am sure at some point I will, I am settling for pinyin, the Romanization of Mandarin (using our ABC's).
I like my teacher. She is around my age and engaged to a westerner, (surprise, surprise)... Our first class we got totally off topic and started talking about food for about a half hour (another surprise, surprise)... Hence I walked away with some interesting facts.

1) In a country of 1.3 billion, 0.9 billion are farmers. (They farm smaller plots of land because the majority of farmers are without machines. Consequently they can't dominate as much land as those with machines). This is why food is soooo cheap.

2)No legs (fish) are the healthiest, two legs (chicken) are the second healthiest, and four legs (cow, sheep etc.) are the least healthy. The Government recommends eating as many "no legs" as possible.

3)They don't use ovens so... 2 legged, 4 legged, and no legged friends are either boiled, steamed, or stir-fried.

4) They almost always use rice wine, scallions, and ginger for cooking our 2 legged, 4 legged, or 0 legged friends,

5)Almost everything is cooked with bones. They believe bones hold the most nutrition.

...more Mandarin and cultural tidbits to come!

You know it's a nice day in Shanghai when...

You know it's a nice day in Shanghai when
you pass by the local Michelin tire store
and notice the employees climbing up and
down a ladder, hanging fish, chicken, and
meat carcasses to dry in a tree. Although this
photograph was taken in Hangzhou, you get
the picture. Just add to the picture a busy street
corner with a constant flow of cars and pedestrians,
and a tree with various animals hanging to dry
in the sun.

Fundraising for Haitian Earthquake Victims

I am sure you have all heard by now of the horrific earthquake that occured in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. Not only was it the worst earthquake they have had for 200 years, but they have no infrastructure to recover from the massive destruction. After hearing this news far far far away in China, I immediately set out to think what I could do to aid in the recovery process. I do not have the money to fly over there, nor do I have any medical training. My day was consumed yesterday by a constant flow of thoughts running through my head of ways I could help. I settled upon the idea of having a fundraiser at a local venue and have a certain percentage of the night's profit donated to Doctor's Without Borders or Partners in Health. I have never held a fundraiser before. Organizing one in a city where I have only lived for a few months and where English is not the mother tongue, a difficult task is certainly in front of me. However I am ready to dip my toes into something I have never done before, as well as collect as much money as possible to donate to the Haitian Earthquake victims. Any advice or suggestions on fundraising from start to finish is more than welcome. I also urge you to do something of the sort wherever you are, or donate to an organization, like the ones I have listed below. I have included the websites below for you to find out more information.
Doctors Without Borders: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
Partners in Health: http://www.pih.org/home.html