Thursday, October 23, 2008

1/1000

So I am now finished with my idea submission to Google's Project and the deadline for submission has passed. Looking at Google's Project 10^100 page now indicates that Google received over 100,000 submissions to the project. Only 100 ideas will be released to the general public to vote on in January. This means that I have less than 1 chance out of 1000 to get my submission into that top 100 project ideas. I have confidence in my idea, but 1/1000 is pretty stiff odds. It's not the lotto, but it is pretty intimidating.

I am concerned that my project might not touch enough peoples lives to be considered as a top idea. There are sure to be other ideas that would have direct effect on more peoples lives as compared to mine. I am excited to see what other ideas have been submitted; January cannot come fast enough. I have found some other submission ideas that have been posted online by the idea authors. So far I have seen about three or four. I am not the only one trying to promote my idea prior to January. UVOL needs the support of volunteer organizations and volunteers all over the world if it is to be a successful website. Therefore, I have started trying to spread the word about UVOL now. Even if it not chosen as one of the top 100 ideas, perhaps my own efforts to promote UVOL will open doors.

When the idea for UVOL first hit me, it was like a rush of mental craziness as my brain started thinking of all the possibilities for what can be included in the site and how it could change things. I do not think this idea would have formulated if not for Google's Project, however. Since I began writing my submission last month I have been going over in my head how I first started thinking about what eventually came to be my idea for UVOL. The idea was certainly born out of my personal frustrations in finding volunteer work which stem back all the way to my high school days. Over the years I have had numerous experiences which have led to the formulation of this idea. The most recent experience I am still...experiencing. Had I known exactly what the volunteer project here in Jiaozuo was like, I probably never would have come. Things here are very disorganized and I still have my doubts about how trustworthy the project coordinator is. If UVOL had existed when I was searching for volunteer positions in China, I would have known to steer clear of this project and would have had a much easier time in finding a more worthy project of my time. I must be thankful for this project though; it has allowed me the time and opportunity to spend many an hour working on my UVOL submission and it has directly contributed to my ideas about what UVOL will be and how it will work to solve the problems volunteers and project coordinators face.

Searching for a desired volunteer project is like trying to find a needle in a haystack; after a systematic and planned search you might find that needle after hours upon hours of relentless searching. The only problem is, you never really know how the particular project you find will be or what the people are like that run it. Many times it takes a leap of faith that the project is how it is made out to be in the description (just like I had to do with this project). Same thing goes for project coordinators that are trying to find volunteers as well; how can anyone be sure that a volunteer is trustworthy and will do the things that he/she says they will? With luck, UVOL will make things a bit more transparent in the volunteering world. This will instill confidence in projects and in volunteers allowing people to make more informed decisions. Hopefully this will allow more people to volunteer who otherwise would not even try.

In the world of technology, simplicity is king. UVOL aims to make volunteering simple which will help volunteerism penetrate into the minds of the mainstream masses.

Okay, enough about UVOL. In less than a week I will be in Shanghai. I am very excited to be moving onto the next thing here in China. I always hate goodbyes though. I am not looking forward to saying bye to people that I will probably never see again. Saying bye to one of my Tai Chi teachers will be especially difficult, I think. He and I have become quite good friends even with our very difficult time communicating with each other. He has been teaching me things about Tai Chi that he is apparently not supposed to. The Chinese culture is very interesting in this regard. From what I have gathered, their "secrets" and wisdom that has been accumulated over thousands of generations are only passed down through family or to very select individuals. It is only very recently in Chinese culture has this trend started to change and the open sharing of information been introduced into the minds of the Chinese people. My Tai Chi teacher's teacher is very upset with him that he has been teaching me the things that he has. Even though my teacher is being open with me by teaching me these Tai Chi secrets, he makes a point to tell me that I am not to pass on the things that I have learned even to other Chinese people that he considers friends. He says that they are not his students so they cannot be taught this information. I do not fully understand this concept and tradition, but I find it very fascinating. In any case, I am very humbled that he has accepted me as his student even though it is getting him in trouble with his teacher. It will be very difficult to say goodbye to him.

I will be taking a train to Shanghai, but I will not be immediately meeting up with my friend Alan in Shanghai. Alan's family own an apartment in Shanghai where I will be staying for a time, but at the moment there are some plumbing problems in the house and we cannot stay there until those are fixed. Upon my arrival to Shanghai on Monday, I will be staying with a couchsurfer. I am very thankful for the existence of couchsurfing and not just because I get to stay in wonderful people's houses for free. Couchsurfing has also played a part in formulating my ideas for UVOL. Anyway, I am looking forward to staying with another couchsurfer and I hope that one day when I have a place of my own I will be able to host people from around the world as well.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

UVOL: Google's Project 10^100 Idea Submission

I have been working long and hard on my submission to Google's Project 10 to the 100th. Thank you to everyone who has helped me along in this process, I greatly appreciate it. With luck, UVOL will come into being and make finding a volunteer position easier, faster and more affordable for all.

The document below contains the description of what Google's project is along with my submission to the project. If you cannot see the document below, click the following link or copy and paste the text into your browsers address bar:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/7196515/UVOL-Googles-Project-10100-Idea-Submission


Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Wuzhi Project Faliure

I have a little over two weeks to go before I travel to Shanghai to meet up with my friend Alan. In the scheme of things, two weeks is nothing and will pass in the blink of an eye. It sure does not feel like that right now though.

I feel as though I am wasting my time here at this project. There is not much for me to do. Even when I do teach English it is for 2 hours at most in one day. The rest of the time here is spent trying to think of things to do which could occupy my time so I do not go crazy. The problem is, I do not have much energy and things that I could be doing I do not feel like committing any time or energy to. I could be spending a lot of my time trying to learn Chinese, like I was hoping to do before I came here to China. At this point though, I feel it would be a waste of time. I do not foresee myself coming back here to China after January and I also am not interested in teaching myself to learn a language. I have been spending a considerable amount of time learning Tai Chi in the early hours of the morning and in the evening. I find this to be a good experience. I do not particularly care for the ideas or philosophy behind Tai Chi, but I find it to be a good way to wake up in the morning, stretch, and keep my body in a healthy condition. I think I have been overdoing it a bit though; my left leg is currently injured. It started out as a small pull and eventually then complicated some other parts of my leg as well. I choose not to do any Tai Chi last night or this morning and I probably will not do any tonight either in the hopes that my leg will be well enough to wake up for some Tai Chi tomorrow morning.

Overall this volunteer project is not what it is said to be. It has potential to be a great volunteer experience and benefit a lot in the local community, however, the people that are currently running the program (which is Yao as far as I can tell) seem to be focused only on what can make the program money which at this point is just teaching English to a few school children. Yao is trying to liaison with others in the community here in Jiaozuo to expand the number of students that are taught, but it does not seem to be going very well. There are many other things that volunteers who come to this program could be doing to help the local community, but it seems that if it is not making any money for the project, Yao is not interested in it. This project seems doomed to failure if this trend continues as it certainly will not attract any foreign volunteers and people here in China are not even familiar with what the word volunteer means. Working for nothing is not a concept that Chinese are familiar with so the likelihood of finding people here in the community that would be willing to volunteer are slim to none.

I have to hand it to Yao and his girlfriend, Wangsha,though for their very kind nature in letting me stay with them. Even though I am doing very little for the program in terms of volunteering, I am staying with them for free. Wangsha cooks food for me on many days and they even just bought another computer because I was spending so much time on their laptop. Actually, they take care of so much for me, I am becoming quite lazy in a lot of ways; a feeling that I hate and is contributing to my not wanting to be here at this project anymore. I would leave this very instant if it was not for the kids that I am teaching English. There are two kids in particular that I have been teaching which are very keen to learn as much as they can. When I leave, I will miss them both and I hope that my time and effort in their English education will help them in the future. I do hope that one day they will both be able to venture outside of China to an English speaking country to see what the West has to offer them.

This experience in Jiaozuo at the Wuzhi project, coupled with many previous experiences with regards to volunteering and finding a volunteer project, has given me first hand experience with the difficult nature and, at times, all consuming task of finding a volunteer project that best suits me. Yao's project does not really suit me, and I know that now, but only after coming here and experiencing it first hand. These experiences have given me an idea for a website that, if successful, will make volunteerism a much easier and manageable task for not only would be volunteers like me, but for projects who are trying to find people as well (even here at the Wuzhi project). I have been spending a considerable amount of time writing up a project proposal that I will be submitting to Google's Project 10 to the 100th. If you have not heard about it, check it out here.

Many of you who read my blog on a regular basis have already seem some version of my project proposal. Thank you all for your feedback and input on the proposal. It is hard taking a step back and looking at my idea from an objective standpoint and you all have helped me in doing that, so again Thank You! I will be posting a blog with the final version of my proposal once it is finalised for all to see. With luck, my project will be chosen by Google as one of the 100 ideas that will be voted on by the public starting in January. I am hoping that with the exposure through Google's project, this website will become a reality and finally make it easy and fast for people to find volunteer projects and for projects to find the people that they need regardless if it is a domestic or international project. I am very excited by the possibilities of what this website has to offer volunteerism everywhere. The hard part will be convincing everyone else of what it can do and that is why I have been spending a lot of time trying to get my proposal just right.

It was bound to happen, and I suppose I am lucky that it happened now instead of earlier in my trip. My camera has died. I am sad to say that I will probably not be posting any more pictures from my time here in China. This is quite unfortunate since I will be traveling with Alan in Shanghai and Beijing. The great wall, the birds nest, the temple of heaven, the summer palace: all places that I will not have pictures of. Hopefully Alan and his mom will have a camera and I can take some shots that I can post after my return home. For now though, enjoy the last of the pictures:

China