When Captain Planet LOSES!!!

"By Your Powers Combined, I Am Captain Planet!!!"

In China there are tons of different cartoon shows with all sorts of corny and cliche life lessons for the youngsters, plenty of which are from western ideas. Well, let me tell ya, there is no way saving the planet was one of them!

I'm from the great state of Nebraska, and the worst air we might get is some dust from the endless fields of corn or maybe some firework smoke. For the most part, the air is pretty clean. Beijing is a bit of a different story.

When the pollution here gets bad it is fondly referred to as 'black booger weather". Let me explain...  Have you ever been in a house that is under construction, or in a raging desert sand storm? Well if you have then you when you pick your nose, or at least look after you blow your nose, (we all do it! be proud of who you are!!!) then you know, the color is a rather modern sheik shade of black. I'd post a picture of it but... na i better not.

So here is my point; The American embassy has a meter that measures the air quality for Beijing. It runs from 1-500. A one would be crisp, bright, beautiful - an early morning sky in Montana. A 500 would be death. The embassy describes a 450 as dangerous or ultra-hazardous. For the last week or so the air rating has been off the charts. Literally rated OVER 500. BLACK BOOGER WEATHER!!!

I was told today that is healthier to sit inside and do nothing, then to go out and exercise in this level of pollution because of the effects the pollution has on your lungs. If only it were always so... Anyways, it's pretty nasty out right now.

So what are the driving forces behind the demise of the Good Captain? Well maybe it's the 4,360,000 cars in Beijing. Or it could be the 2,142 new cars on the streets EVERY DAY. Or it could be all the factories in and around Beijing (i couldn't verify a statistic). Whatever it is, there are a lot of them!

Well how come it didn't look all that bad during the Olympics?

• The government shuts down all the factories and limits the number of cars that can drive on the roads anytime Beijing, or other cities, are in the worlds public eye. No big deal.

Along with the black boogies there are also health effects. My room mate and I are both sick. I have a sore throat and congestion. Plus my whole body just aches. And i have a sore throat. Did i already say that my throat is sore? Cuz i have a sore throat.

High Rise Fire!

"holy sh!t dude there was a fire!!!"

i was blessed enough to be able to go back to the states for christmas this last year. this was awesome but it also meant a lot of shopping for gifts and packing and getting ready to go and fighting fires.

my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:10 in the evening on a tuesday. at around noon on the same tuesday i left my apartment to get some last minute cheap china shopping in before i sat on a plan for a quarter century. as i was leaving my complex i ran into jason the rap sensation of my last post. we said hey and kept goin our own way. jason had left just a little before me and had to go back because he had forgotten something, the best mistake hed made in a long time.

i had been in a cab for about three minutes when i got a call from jason, here is how the conversation went;

me- hello

jason- holy sh!t dude there was a fire! (as stated above)

me-... huh?

jason- an effin FIRE DUDE!!!

me-... what do you mean?

jason- ugh, there was a fire! just come back to the aprartment RIGHT NOW!!!

                                                                me-... ok.

needless to say i had no idea what was goin on.

when i got back to the apartment there was smoke all through the 16th floor and i learned that soot seems to get everywhere,  places you woudlnt even think of. i walked over to our little nook type thing and saw a charred chair sitting in a pool of water, with a surge protecter in the water, and two dirty bowls half full of water.

the surge protector had popped and started the chair ablaze. when jason got to our apartment, no more then 5 minutes after i had left, the whole chair was on fire and it was moving towards the table and up the wall.

now, looking back in hindsight, it probably wasnt a good idea to throw water on an electrical fire, but i dont hold it against my fire fighting, panic stricken hipster room mate.





everyone seems to think the best part of this story is the we called help us clean up was convinced it was all my fault. at least until we figured out the faulty surge protector. i didnt think it was all that funny. ha. i dunno why she thought it was me, but i was singled out of the room mates and guilty until proven innocent. she even had jason considering the possibility for awhile, though he'll never admit it. haha. i couldt even understand half of what she was saying, but the looks she kept throwin me was communication was enough. i was a foreign devil. lol


so my last few hours in beijing was spent cleaning up this huge mess, but i was able to get my shopping done cuz when i went out to buy some stuff to clean up i was able to snag some things for my brothers in the same market, so it all worked out.

so by the time i had gotten all my things to the airport and checked in and i had boarded the plane i was MORE then happy to "sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight."

Dinner With Greatful

In December GPiH hosted a group of about 20 doctors, pastors, fortune 500 executives and various business owners in Beijing for two weeks.

The team went throughout the city teaching, training leaders, and exploring all the various opportunities in Beijing.

On a chilly night towards the end of the trip we decided that the team should go out and see the part of Beijiing that isn't in school, or doing business.

Every year about 13 million farmers or other workers put out of their jobs by machinery or modern techniques move from the countryside to the cities every year. Once in the city they usually less then one American dollar for every 12 to 14 hour day.

So what did we do? we split our team into groups of three foreigners and 1 Chinese local to translate and also be involved. The teams were given the task of finding one of these many workers and just talking with them and buying them a hot meal of their choice.

Since i live in Beijing a knew exactly where i wanted to go. I spend a lot of time in Wu Dao Kou, which means i see a lot the same people there asking for money or working. My group quickly found one of these people familiar to me and asked him to join us. he eagerly accepted. we asked he had any friends that would want to join us and our group quickly grew by two.

We took them to a small restaurant that serves pretty basic rice porridges and meat dishes. The eagerly ate what was put in front of them, and while they ate i tried to keep up as our translator spoke to them about their pasts and families.

It was a pretty powerful experience for me. I see people begging for money and just see it as a slight annoyance. something to be dealt with and brushed aside. what i dont think about is that these people are just that... PEOPLE. they have families, worries, they experience joy and they experience sadness. that had never struck me before.

I'll be posting more about the individuals we shared the meal with later on.

JGLC

As i posted before i have an awesome room mate and mentor, Jason Chu. Not only do i really like him, but i also think he is a really interesting guy and is doing some awesome things in BJ.

Aside from leading the F@O group from the last post, he is heavily involved in Hip-Hop and Rap scene in BJ. he writes his own lyrics and mixes his own tracks. he has some pretty awesome lyrics, and since he has set up his own recording studio in his apartment i get to listen to all the different steps it takes for him to produce his new tracks.

Now.... i know there is the stereotype that all Chinese people look the same, i won't say anything about that other then Jason definitely does not blend into the crowd. i just get a kick out of it.

Is that Jason?

If ya wanna see what else Jason is up to you can check out his Youtube, Facebook, and blog pages.

Thanks a ton Jason!

F@O

Since being in Beijing i have become involved in multiple organizations and groups. My favorite of these, and most important is Friday @ the Oasis. I was asked to be a part of the leadership of this group and even though i really didn't know what it was i agreed.

It was one of the best decisions i have made in a long time. 

Basically we are a group the reaches out the NUMEROUS international students in Beijing. we try and create an environment that is relaxed and an easy place to hang and just.... be. our fearless leader, Jason Chu, is an ABC (American Born Chinese) he also graduated from Yale (pretty sharp dude). he has become somewhat of a mentor and role model to me, and is an all around awesome guy. he also found me a place to stay, which also happens to be where he lives as well.

 Our fearless leader

Jason Chu

F@O has provided me with awesome friendships with from all over the world. some that come to mind away are people from america, singapore, germany, macao, and all over africa.

i know it doesnt sound very exciting, but we are doing some pretty awesome things and i just thought i would mention it. i'll be posting more about it later on.