Oriental Warning

Since leaving the Christian community that I was volunteering at I have been in Düsseldorf, Germany. From here I will leave for China this coming Saturday. It is odd for me to think that in just a couple of days I will be in China. I have always wanted to go there and now I am doing it. For a long time I have been looking forward to the volunteer project, Wuzhi, that I will be going to on Wednesday next week, however, a few days ago a was sent a message warning me about the project. Here is what I was sent about the project:

Hi there,

I found your blog while searching the web for info on
the Wuzhi Experiment. My purpose was to find people
like you, that plan to join the project. I do it for
two reasons: I want to warn those people, and - I
admit it - I want to take sort of revenge on Mr Yao,
the manager of the project.

The project was originally located in Wuzhi, which is a
small city near Jiaozuo. I've joined it in January,
after spending 2 months in China and having no
concrete plans for the future. I declared to stay
about one year if only situation let me so; I needed
to find some part-time job to cover my living expenses
and the cost of my visa.

Now, the first problem of the project was that it was
much less developed than it seemed from the website.
Actually I met only 2 employers (manager Mr Yao, and
an English teacher), no foreigners, no social work.
But it was ok for me; I thought I could do some good
by helping guys develop the project. You probably know
by now, that they plan to fund the project with English
teaching. Well, since January they've been trying to
start a school, but failed eventually. And without
funds, project can't work (it needs money for
employers, renting fees, utility bills, etc.). The
failure was, as I believe, the fault of the lack of
cooperation between Mr Yao and the main creator and
sponsor of the project. It doesn't matter whose fault
it was. What matters is that since June the project
was managed practically only by Mr Yao, and he became
also a sponsor. We decided to move to Jiaozuo, and
that's when the problems started to occur... actually
there were problems on the way all the time, but this
time the problems were quite serious.

But first, about the period between January and June.
We had not much money to do anything. Well, we could
do SOME kind of helping, at least teach English free
of charge, but for some reason (maybe lack of
experience, or terrible problems you encounter in
China, when you try to help others) we almost didn't
do anything. There were some free classes in public
schools and nothing else. In that time there were
several foreigners that came here to volunteer and
left disappointed after a few days, because of lack of
volunteering work. All that time I had a part-time job
in Jiaozuo, in a small private school (from now on
I'll call it Qi Se Guang, which literally means
'7-colour rainbow'), which let me make the living.

After the crisis in June I proposed to quit my job at
Qi Se Guang, and find another, better paid teaching
position in the city, to fund the project. Mr Yao
didn't approve it; he wanted to cooperate with QSG,
which also has a programme at the local TV station.
So, we stayed with QSG. About one month later Mr Yao
changed his mind; he found someone willing to sponsor
a new school. They decided to open it together. That
man promised to give his 50% of the income to the
charity, which was a great thing. There was just one
problem - they wanted to open the school from August,
and I happened to be the one to work there. To do it,
I'd have to quit my job in QSG immediately. QSG had
two kinds of courses: all-year and a summer one. The
summer one was to be finished by the middle of August.
QSG asked me to stay one more month before quitting my
job. Sounds reasonably, doesn't it? Well, not to Mr
Yao and his new associate. They demanded me to stop
working in QSG from the beginning of August. They
didn't care that much about me working at their new
school, as about me NOT teaching in QSG anymore. The
reason why they did so, were students. QSG didn't
provide English training before they hired me. From
March to August they've been promoting the new course
and gathering more and more students, which actually
appeared quite a difficult task. If I had quit my job
at QSG in the beginning of August, QSG would have lost
the students. And then Mr Yao would propose the
students learning at his school. If not from me, than
from some other foreign volunteer he would be able to
find.

It happened so, that I made some good friends in QSG,
and I found the way Mr Yao wanted to split with them
very harmful;QSG would have lost good reputation.
That's why I didn't agree to work for Mr Yao anymore.
After less than two weeks, and some stressful events,
which I choose not to tell you about, the Public
Security Bureau (police for foreigners) officers came
into my classroom in QSG. This is how my teaching at
QSG ended. Oops, I probably forgot to tell you I had
no working visa. Well, I will write later why I hadn't
got it. So, Mr Yao had been calling police every day
and telling them about my illegal working at QSG.
Police (as almost everywhere in China) didn't want to
deal with such a case, but eventually got tired with
Mr Yao calling everyday and decided to intervene. From
the 15th of August I've been waiting in Jiaozuo for
their final decision. PSB officers in that time were
interrogating both Mr Yao and QSG owner. Finally they
decided to charge QSG with a penalty fee (actually
it's more money that they earned from that English
course) and not to punish Mr Yao in any way. This
decision came up today. I was asked to leave China,
and not to work illegally here anymore. In fact, I may
not comply, and they wouldn't be able to tell, but now
I feel simply tired with China, Chinese mentality and
this whole mess and I want to leave. My plane is on
the 7th of September.

Relations between me and Mr Yao.
He helped me a lot. In the January I told him that if I
could find some job in Wuzhi and buy myself a new visa
(my current one was about to expire), then I would've
gladly come to Wuzhi to help him with his project. I
had other option - stay in Guangdong and work for 5k
per month, but I preferred the Wuzhi Experiment. So,
Yao helped me with finding a job, he lent me money for
the visa and daily needs. And he helped me in many
other ways over past months. I owe him, and I know it.
What Mr Yao apparently forgot, I helped him as well, by
staying in Wuzhi for so long, which in fact was a great
waste of time and our potential. Mr Yao felt very upset
when I told him I consider not teaching in his new
school he was going to open in Jiaozuo. He also hated
QSG for a couple of reasons (like not appreciating his
work). Furhtermore, he wanted to take the students from
QSG over to his new school. That's why he told on me.
Actually, I believe he also tried to call the HongKong
border port when I went there around the 7th of August,
but he was misled by a thought, that border port would
trust his words.

About Mr Yao.
I think you saw his profile on CS. 'castlelay' is his
profile name. Yao is a young man, seems friendly. Also
very opened and sincere, but it's superficial. In fact,
he lies every day. I saw him doing it many times,
although he stayed relatively honest with me, at least
till the time I told him I didn't want to work for him
anymore. In July I got to know, that Mr Yao was going
to withhold the truthe about his project from people
interested in volunteering there. In his opinion he is
fair providing martial arts training, Chinese language
tuition, and others, in exchange for English teaching.
He wants to develop the social part of the project, but
it will take time, and actually after last six months,
I just don't believe he can organise any serious
helping. So, everyone that comes here to help others,
may be strongly disappointed.
Another lie Mr Yao probably told you, is the one about
getting a working visa. To obtain a Z-type visa you
need to find a big company, because only such ones are
eligible for hiring foreingers. I'm afraid there is no
English training school in Jiaozuo that would be able
to do it. Yao can get you a Z-type visa... from
Jiaozuo University :) Because one month ago he bribed
someone from there (for which purpose I had to give
him some of the money I earned in QSG, thus leaving me
almost without any money) and that person is willing to
help him with obtaining a working visa. There are two
problems. Firstly, you'll have to probably work that
visa off teaching English for free in some public
school in Jiaozuo. Secondly, that visa will enable you
to work for the Jiaozuo University, and none other
school. Hence, this kind of visa won't cover your work
at Mr Yao's school. As PSB officers told me, a
foreinger needs a Z-type visa for any kind of work,
even volunteering. You may think it's not that much of
a problem; there are many people in China working
illegally, and police doesn't do anything. But this
case is different, because Mr Yao has now enemies in
QSG. They know he is going to open a school and they
know he already has, or will have soon a foreign
teacher (actually it may be you). They're just waiting
for the moment he takes money from the students to call
the PSB and then he and the foreign teacher will have
same problems, as QSG and me in past three weeks.
All this lying Mr Yao does for the good sake of his
project; he believes, that only in this way he can
develop it, just as he believed that telling police
about my illegal work was a necessary thing to do to
protect the project :-/

It will be better for you to not to work in any way
with Mr Yao. Mind your own safety.

Sorry for such a long message.

Take care,

fijau

This is concerning to me, yet I do not want to rush into making any judgements about what is going on until I actually get to the volunteer site. Afterall, if things are bad there, I can always just leave and go somewhere else. I am not sure where I would go or what I would do, but I will cross that road if and when I need to.

I suppose I just need to go into this volunteer project with an open mind and have no expectations of what it should be like and instead take it for what it is. Ever since reading about this place for the first time a couple of months ago I have been very excited by the idea. After speaking extensively with Yao, I did get the feeling that perhaps things were not as I had pictured them in my head. That is all okay though. I do not mind if the project is just getting off the ground and they are having difficulties. That is to be expected with things such as this. What does bother me is the thought that the people I will be working with may be misleading and untruthful. If this is the case I doubt I will be able to stay there for very long. I do not get along with liars and I do not think I will want to stay and give my time to a project that may be misleading and untruthful even if it is for a seemingly good cause. Yao seems to be very commited to this project, but if that means taking actions that I consider to be unethical and immoral then I will not stay at this project.

I am looking forward to being in Beijing. I am going to be staying with a native couchsurfer who speaks English. The day that I fly into China just happens to be the annual festival of lights. Apparently a lot of Chinese people will be coming to Beijing to celebrate so I might see some interesting things and perhaps take some good pictures. I am excited for Beijing in general. I hope to see of the buildings that were created for the Olympics. I will be flying into the 14 million square foot airport which apparently is the largest building on the planet. I will only have a few days in Beijing before I head south to the place where the Wuzhi project is located. It is not that far away from Beijing, however, so if I choose to I can always go back if there are still more things that I wish to do and see.