I met this morning with two Chinese Sea Turtles: both recent graduates of the University of Michigan. They are part of the organizing team for a new NGO with a powerful mission. They are tasked with providing teachers and training for 100 children orphaned by the Sichuan earthquake and now living in Beijing, aiding schools in the quake zone that have teacher needs, and the giving of time and talent to a hospital for young amputees in Chengdu.

今天早上我和两个中国的“海归”见面.他们都是密歇根大学的毕业生,现在在一个非政府组织的组织队伍里工作.这个新的非政府组织现在有一项新的任务-为100个现在住在北京,在四川地震中变成孤儿的孩子提供老师和培训,支援灾区急需老师的学校,以及利用他们的时间和能力在一间成都的医院为截肢者提供服务

I too have been part of the planning committee and have volunteered my Internet and educational skills to help recruit short-term and long-term help for the group.

我也一直是组织委员会的一分子,利用我的互联网和教育技能,义务为团队招募短期和长期队员提供帮助.

Teachers in every discipline and at every level of education are needed for in-province and Internet distance learning. English teachers will not need a to speak Chinese, but other disciplines will require fluency in the subject matter.

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现在我们需要各个学科和各教育水平的老师参与到省内和互联网的远程教学中.英语老师不要求会说中文,但是其他学科的老师需要能用的流利中文进行授课

Volunteers who feel they need preparation before heading into Sichuan and other affected areas will be trained in teaching methods, first aid, trauma counseling and critical incident stress de-briefing.

对于觉得在去四川和其他受灾地区之前需要一些准备的志愿者,我们会提供教育方法,急救,心里创伤咨询, 危机情况压力处理减压方面的训练.

You may leave your name, email, and teaching area of interest and in the comments section of this post if you’d like to be contacted. Your information will not be published on this blog. You will be emailed and asked for a resume and your expected availability so we can best match you to schools/students. Volunteers may come for training and a visit of the area before accepting an assignment.

如果你有兴趣和我们联系,你可以在这篇文章的评论区留下你的名字,电子邮箱,和刚兴趣的教育领域.你的信息不会在这博客上发表.我们会通过发邮件来索取你的履历和你能工作的时间.这样我们可以最好的安排你到最适合的学校,教最适合的学生.志愿者在决定接受工作前可以先来进行培训和去将要的工作地点观看

A tribute to the victims Called Love and Hope and written by popular singer JJ. You don’t need to know the language to understand this video rife with both heart-wrenching and triumphant images familiar to those of us living here.

这是一段向受害者表示敬意的视频,名字叫做爱与希望,作曲人是流行歌手林俊杰.就算你不懂歌曲的语言,你也能感受到其中令人心痛欲绝的情感和鼓舞人心的力量.

1.4 Million people in 4,000 villages were financially ruined by the earthquake ongoing aftershocks. There is much to be done for several years to come.

持续着的地震余震使4000多个村庄的1400多万人蒙受巨大的财产损失,在未来的几年,我们依然有很多的工作需要做

It has been a short two years since I first encountered David DeGeest. I met him shortly after he came to an exchange program’s rescue by traveling to China to replace a teaching fellow who could not accept the annual honor. The volunteers from Grinnell College, one of America’s top liberal arts schools, are competitively selected by Grinnell’s office of Social Commitment and spend one to two years in cultural education pursuits around the world. In order to come, David had to first surrender admission to a law school in America and then join Grinnell’s long tradition of International humanitarian service–unequaled in numbers by any college of any size.

Within a few months of his arrival David was forced by local immigration laws to leave his duties because host and parent institutions had failed to make the proper arrangements for his visa. He spent four months of uncomfortable nights on my sofa in Guangzhou waiting to return and finish what he had started. During his layoff David made use of his time in ways that would soon change him, and those around him, forever.

“Dawei ” as he fast became known by his admiring students, fervently studied Chinese, gave freely of his time to help an insecure translation student edit several hundred pages in a world-class set of books on Chinese Penjing (the parent art of Bonsai), served as an administrative assistant for the interim CEO of China’s top corporate leadership training company, studied Taekwondo with Macau’s Olympic Team players, wrote articles on his experiences in China for the Blogger News Network and became the beloved “American Son” of the Unsinkable Ms Yue, the cancer survivor who, along with The League of Extraordinary Chinese Women, would become the inspiration for this blog.

During his stay in Guangzhou his association with Ms Yue inspired his voluntary, and uncompensated, co-teaching of college classes on blogging, SEO and International e-Business. It was in in concert with his students that he co-developed the Dreamblogue and helped write and promote the Onemanbandwidth blog that won the Best Blog in Asia prize at the annual Weblog Awards in 2006.

By the time he returned to Guangzhou, after finishing his fellowship assignment, he had a deep and abiding love for China, one that permeated his personal and professional aspirations.

Within a few months David, once again sleeping on the sofa, had written more than 50,000 words in support of the Dreamblogue in the form of: grant proposals to Global Voices Online, and the Knight and MacArthur Foundations. He drafted sponsorship support proposals for colleges in the UK and the US; authored PR Web releases about our mission; sent out hundreds of e-mails to potential supporters (not donors as we decided never to accept funds directly); developed project profiles on social networking sites; created several successful groups on Facebook; corresponded and coordinated activities with intended recipients of our charity; edited and revised over 22 articles about the mainland provinces we intended to visit; and trained handicapped and able-bodied interns in the subtleties of SEO and online networking.

David helped transformed my apartment into a two-man hermitage where he literally spent 15 to 20 hours a day, carpals to the keyboard, in preparation for dreamblogue adventures. The only breaks he took were to watch reruns of House, M.D. (while he kept editing and planning) and to play an occasional round of online Scrabble. Chinese studies continued and Mr. DeGeest devoured dozens of books on Chinese history, business, language and culture while learning podcasting, photography, HTML coding and more. He spent a few weekends traveling the roads running through rural China and wrote beautifully of the magical work of the Library Project, the Volunteer English Program and the US-China Medical Foundation.

David made his spending and food money by teaching corporate communication classes for one of China’s top companies. Later, the generous support of students and staff of the best pound-for-pound MBA program on the planet, Cal Poly, kept us traveling, writing and promoting…

…until David realized that a more sustainable income was needed. Being in a country where non-governmental charities cannot be officially sanctioned, David pointed us toward creating money the old-fashioned way: earning our keep by giving something for something and then turning any profits into good works. He suspended travel in hopes of bringing in much needed funds.

We started offering SEO services to SMEs and Multi-nationals. It was during this time that David learned that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has a long maturation period ahead of it and is not always born of true good will or altruistic intentions. David was lied to, cheated and humiliated by some of the most high-profile advocates of engagement and good on the Internet. It was enough, at times, to make a saint doubt his world-view. But, he always looked for the good that came of his efforts and the fantastic people he met along the Internet Superhighway

Years ago, there was talk of a self-perpetuating machine…If he could have figured out a way to not take a food break daily he would have.

After we were contacted last year by a Fortune 100 company in Silicon Valley, David was certain that we would have the money we needed to help our interns and continue this blog’s original goal to promote rural education, literacy, charity and a positive understanding of China through travel and blogging.

The call I mentioned, and subsequent promises from Silicon Valley, were cleverly crafted lies that cost both of us hundreds of hours of labor and all of our savings. Culture Fish Media was born to accommodate the wishes of a company that we now know never meant to follow through with assistance. But, David learned much from the ordeal and undaunted, kept right on writing the blog, managing the photo group on Facebook (it now has amateurs and professionals lending him their work), writing business plans and teaching 20 hours a week at a college as a China certified foreign expert in education and culture –did I also mention he filled in for free when graduate professors in South China’s best University needed a replacement in Literary Studies?And he tirelessly campaigned for a chance to carry the torch in the Olympic relay (a glitch in the Lenovo voting software cost him a slot) as a tribute to the cancer victims to whom he had dedicated so much time (his essay is still in the top five results that come up on Baidu for “Olympic Torch Dream”)… He did all of this while negotiating with respected country and international marketing managers, answering digital marketing request for proposals, and optimizing small and formidable websites with only two, 3-day vacation breaks the entire time: one was to Yangshuo where he spent half of his time working on the computer and the other half in playful contemplation…

David went from reticent, inquisitive new graduate to passionate liaison engaged in negotiations with world renowned companies, service providers, Internet luminaries and educational institutions. He practiced and succeeded at tasks, with a BA in Math and English, that MBA students only dream of tackling….No, it wasn’t all work and no play–almost–and yes, there were cherished moments of complete frivolity:

There is more, but I will save that for future posts and maybe even a book. Many of his well-researched proposals are still making their way through the digestive tracks of various commercial and organizational enterprises–and anything that is achieved by the BOD, or its soon to be retired offspring, is directly due to David’s perseverance and dedication.

I’ve read several stories on the Internet this week bemoaning the lack of medical care in China, the widening gap between rich and poor, and descriptions of the continuing disasters in north and the south that have devastated China. We have a “surviverthon” scheduled for October that will aid the blog’s regular charities and contribute to cancer and disaster survivors. While some people may think the fforts are new others know that David started work two years ago trying to make life better for those challenged by cancer, flooding, poverty, earthquakes and lack of educational opportunities. Just ask Thomas Stader of the Library project what part David’s viral marketing gifts played in the building of numerous libraries this year in orphanages and rural communities throughout China. The first 400 members of the Facebook group devoted to their project were in some way connected to David and the BOD. And he has never asked for credit.

David has been my colleague, student, family member, friend and valued counsel. The only thing he has ever wanted in return for his efforts is that people would socially network his honest requests, give a few minutes of time and space on blogs (which he knows are valuable), and share when and where they could of their time and talents.

And before he sounds a little too altruistic to be true, you need to know what has been in this for him: He has selfishly wanted Ms Yue and the League of Extraordinary Chinese Women to live longer, he has wanted a new prosthetic leg for “Coffee” and he has wanted Chinese students to be able to achieve dreams of a better life.

He is off now to graduate school in pursuit of an MBA en route to a finance/Business PhD so he can teach at the University level. Some farsighted college needs to be putting in an early bid for his services.

Thanks David.

Post Script:

One of my favorite stories of the year was David’s first short return to the US after the visa issues. It involved his bewly learned ability to communicate with his adopted Chinese mom, Ms Yue, and her unique language. It seems appropriate to end with it here:
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