today's inspiration

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourselfany direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And you are the guywho'll decide where to go.

-Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss

lately

been super busy.
this weekend went to zhongshan to visit the girls there. They are always super fun to hang out with. After that, jeff and i took off to HK early in the morning. 4 hours of buses and subs later, we arrived at the HK temple and rushed into the meeting. We after went to a mall and walked around looking for mexican food. That was false. No mexican food was nowhere to be found. We hit the regular fallback in unfamiliar and expensive territories, Mcdonalds. A spicy chicken sandwhich later, we walked around and looked at cool stores. We went to a crowded street market full of fake rolexs and gucci glases. Most people i've ever seen. Super uncomfortable. Lots of nasty travelers there. Funny to see cultures mix and the way that the chinese interact with foreigners. They know exactly what to say. Then we came back and got a hotel by church in GZ. I lost my wallet in a taxi along the way. Little bummed about that but its pretty much spilt milk. Only had 150rmb in it, like 20usd. canceling all my cards soon. so it will be ok. life is too good to worry about little things like that. but it did point out something that i've always been terrible at, losing things. i've got enough money to hold me over for a few months here, so no worries about that.

Project sprouts is getting bigger and bigger. I guess if you wanted to say, you could say that it has sprouted. Some high rollers at church are going to lay out alot of money. woop. Everyone wants to help these kiddies but doesn't know how. Sprouts is going to be good way to funnel that desire. I don't know how many, and i really don't care about numbers, desks will be collected, but that we do something when we can and should do something is more important to me. It's not going to start here, so why start counting at all. We know where we need to be eventually, and whether that is now or later is the only question.

Its been funny to see my blind and sometime naive optimism pitted against the pecimism of many of sprouts' supporters. They try to get me to see all the negative and i try to tell them to forget it and be excited. So far i think its a tied game.

viva

happy easter. not much happen except an awesome time with awesome new friends. I spent 250rmb this weekend. thats about 30 bucks. pretty disappointed in myself. i live too gluttonously on the weekends. but thats the only time that i can, so why not. This weeks food intake is as follows (as best as I can remember).

2 ikea hotdogs.
2 large pizza hut pep pizzas
2 mango milks
1 coke
1 cheese and ham sandwhich
1 beef and brock
1 fried rice
1 grapefruit juice
1 mcds icecream sundae
1 ikea ice cream

wow. i feel sick looking at that. its gross. all of the sudden, chinese food sounds super good. Tonight I ate with the Xie family. They own a corner store next to my house. THey are awesome. they teach me to cook the veggies and then we eat together. if you seen pictures as of late, they are Sprout's parents. Good people. Tonight we had chicken parts, beef and cabbage. it was awesome to just sit down with a random person and talk for a few hours. he's got some really cool things going on in life. life is so simple for him. family, the store, and friends. that's all he worries about. its great.

cell phone

i left my cellphone in a taxi today. drats.

wow

I just spent a week of my life with a very negative person, but his heart is good. He keeps those he loves close to him by saying negative things. His job is to find faults in the products of this company and get rid of them absolutly. He does this very very well, but its ruining him inside. He said only a few thing that had a positive spin for entire week I have been with him. I've noticed alot of negative people around me right now, and it just drains them. The fact that I've realized it has made me react to it better. I've been able to look at my own thoughts, words and actions alot more than I normally would. I came across this quote. Its helped me to put into words what I've felt.

“If you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world...”-deepak chopra

Sorry for the philosophy, but I wanted to write this down somewhere useful.

poverty

hello.
been a while since i have written and so i thought i'd catch everyone up. I'm sitting in a room right now in a factory. This is the place where we can get online and do our work when we have some downtime. I've been asked to come to this factory and check our shipment that is going to be getting sent out soon. It's a pretty boring thing to do so far. We've mostly just sat around. We're staying in a hotel that's pretty standard. I don't know the name of this town that I'm in. I've heard it, but forgot it. I know that its on the border of the province, 400km from Shenzhen. THis is probably some of the greatest bits of poverty I've seen. Its amazing how the people here live is such low ways of life. If you were here, i'm pretty sure you'd be sickened by it. I've been here quite a while, but still am. There really is no hope for most these kids, and that's sad to me. If they don't work in a factory, the don't eat, and they die. That's the reality of it. There is zero government aid. Any buses that would get them out to a bigger city would cost half a months salary. The system has them stuck.

It's made me realize how well off I am. I go where I want to go. If I think I could or should do something, I do it. I really think America gave me that. I'm critical of the US government because I love it. When what it should do and what it does split ways, that's where the citizens step in. We have to speak up, if we don't, we lose. Here, they are dogmatic. The government is divine to them and they dare not question it. The few that do, have to do so in the shadows or a lowered voice. Its a terrible thing not to have free speech and speak your mind to a government that listens. As the economy opens, so does the governemnt. I hope in the years to come, the government here can open up more and more. I'd like to see a chinese kid travel to America, just because they want to.

chinese mullet

I've got my first chinese mullet. i was trying to go a long time without cutting my hair but i figured i'd just cut my hair. Only cost $.75 USD. nuts eh! well it's only worth about double that. But i've never really cared about hair. The kid that cut it was tripping out the entire time and said my hair was really soft. He said that chinese people hair is really thick.

Went and taught engrish at a little elementary school yesterday. It was good. The kids were really stoked for me to be there. Their teachers english isn't good. I feel bad for the education system in the country. Its basically helpless. 8 teachers for 400 kiddies.

I'm laying on my bed right now. I see 8 mosquitos.