Chinadoll Needs Help

(This is a long, unecessarily drawn out story. For the highlights, check the sentences in bold. You're welcome.)

I knew I wanted to go to the Philippines for my winter break. Last year, as many of you remember, my 6 week break included a tour of Northern Thailand, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and a brief stopover in Hong Kong. All summer I had been looking forward to planning my Southeast Asian beach getaway.

Then, Super Typhoonn Haiyan hit. Much of the Philippines remained unaffected and I could have continued planning my trip as scheduled. But reading the devastating stories of makeshift hospitals, entire communities displaced and homeless, and bodies strewn across the coastline made me realize how selfish I have become in China. In America, I gladly spent my time volunteering to build, to teach, to sing, anything I could find. But in China my life has become consumed with earning money doing extra work, going out to bars with my friends, and dreaming of the things I want to do and buy both in China and the US. I forgot what it felt like to be so affected by the plight of others that I feel moved, even obligated, to help.

That morning the first of the online articles and photos started to roll in, the titles that touted,"Things You Can Do to Help Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts" started their viral online spread, I spent in bed researching how to help on the ground. Most organizations only needed monetary donations to send abroad to pay for food, water, and other immediate resources. No one was sending people to do physical work because there was just too much to do before that could happen. The only organization I could find that even suggested they would be sending people anytime in the near future was All Hands, a US based organization that rebuilds both domestically and abroad after natural disasters. I applied quickly to their program, but after doing so reread the fine print: they wouldn't be sending anyone yet and they didn't know when they would be able to organize a team.

Two, maybe three weeks passed. I desperately hoped I'd be able to find an organization going to the Philippines in January, but the chances grew slimmer.

One morning late November, my alarm went off and I rolled over in bed. I mentally started checking off the things I had to do that day. Grade presentations. Grocery shop. I added "Plan winter break" to the list. I had given up waiting. But that's the day I finally received the email: "Your application has been accepted!"

Since I am entirely incapable of writing short stories, the end of this long saga is that I am going to Bohol (a community hit hard in the Philippines) for 20 days in January. During this time, I will "safe" houses (clear debris, makinng the homes safe for the occupants to reenter and find their belogings) and rebuild. I will be staying at an All Hands camping ground, and I'm still unsure whether I will have running water, let alone electricity or internet.

I don't know what the situation will be when I arrive. I know that a lot of work has been done this past month and will get done during December, but I think that I will still see the immediate results of the disaster firsthand when I'm there. All volunteers have been warned of the dangers involved with safe-ing houses, from physical injury to illness caused by asbestos and other mold. I've never been one for camping or roughing it. And to be honest, my rebuilding skills from the trip I did in New Orleans, LA and Galveston, TX (and from the years on tech crew at Tenafly High School) are a little rusty, no pun intended. But realistically, this is something I fee like I have to do. Selfishly, it's something I want to do. I would never forgive myself if I hadn't followed through once the idea to help in the Philippines popped into my head.

I am currently running a personal fundraiser for All Hands. All donations go directly to Project Bohol, for the materials needed for volunteers like me. My goal is $750, and after posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Grinnell Plans, I've already received a few donations. So please, help me out! Not everyone can travel to help physically, but everyone can donate money, even $5, from the comfort of their own home. Click here to see my fundraising page and to help me reach my goal!

I hope to keep everyone updated from the Philippines, but it might have to wait until I've returned to China. China Doll is gearing up to tough it out!