No doubt you guys have noticed that obnoxious, red ‘I BOUGHT A SHELTER’ logo over there on the right side of my pages. That’s an organisation that is helping out with earthquake relief in Sichuan. They’re contemplating teaming up with Hands On (the organisation that I worked with in Bangladesh at the beginning of the year) who are in the area now assessing whether they’ll be able to do a deployment. I’m told they’ll have an answer for us at the end of next week and if it happens, I’ll be down there in a flash to volunteer. I loved the Bangladesh experience and now I think I’m hooked.
If the Hands On deployment doesn’t work out then I’m going to head to Mongolia in late June for three or four weeks. Because of the visa I have, I need to leave the country at some point and my current visa extension expires on June 19th. Mongolia has been on my list for ages… horsies, Ger huts, Gobi Deserts, Naadam Festivals, vodka… what’s not to like?
So with a Hands On deployment looming and Mongolia as a pretty awesome second choice, this means that I really don’t have much time to work on my new Beijing site. Sure, I’ll be here for all of August, but so will my friends and so will the Olympics which means I will either be at an event, at a bar, or in bed hungover for the entire month. Sad but true.
So I’ve got about 10 days to get all of these fun and wonderful things done:
- come up with some kind of non-crappy logo or header image
- write a bunch of articles (or find people to write them for me)
- figure out how Beijing is divided and the names of different residential areas (harder than I thought)
- find people to write area guides for me
- make time to meet my writers in person to pay them
- get some more figures for my price guide
- snap some more photos
For anyone who wants to see how things are going so far, the site is live (living in Beijing) but seriously empty. Depending on the response I get from any writers I can find, I think this is doable but it won’t be easy, especially since I’ve been distracted by more interesting projects lately. But the pressure is on and knowing that if I don’t do it before June 19th it will never get done is a big motivator.
If you check the site in a week and it looks the same can you please send me threatening emails? Wish me luck!
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