blog of Joe cz Liao

Note that my UCLA shorts’ color match surprisingly well with the curtains of my room

Best Contact, still: joe@liao.cz

If, seriously, you want to send me good stuff:

Rm. 213 J&F Plaza
4-7-16 Kire-nishi Hirano-ku, Osaka-shi
Osaka, Japan 547-0026

Here for three months, hope to learn Japanese with alacrity and become a polyglot(and they say you should use your GRE words so to bolster your learning.) The fixed schooling schedule and the pleasant bonhomie of the common room in this building is an anodyne to my inchoate, indolent life in Hong Kong.

Spent over 60% of my time last week working on the website for Match&Fusion. Soon to be released. Everything besides sushi and gogo-no-koucha (午後の紅茶) is very expensive.

Enough of being verbose. More update to come.

—Ingenuous (adj.)

Innocent and unsuspecting.

Deserve (v.)
—do something or have or show qualities worthy of (reward or punishment)

Last night, most of the volunteers were told by the director of OHS that they do not deserve to be here. I was not present at the meeting, but only heard about it through second-hand account. Had I been, I would most likely belong to the not-deserving group. Either way, I think it raised a worthy question.

What happened was that a few of the ex-street boys-who now have apartments paid for by OHS-were voluntarily working on our construction site, shoveling and wheel-barreling dirt for around 4 hours in the morning yesterday. During that whole time, all but 2 volunteers helped out with their effort. Moreover, most of the daily chores were not performed, or only by a few volunteers. Some were already consuming alcohol in the morning.

The situation was observed by the director, and, in the evening meeting, some distaste was shared.

As young and immature and unprofessional as we are, we are all coming out here, investing great amount of time, money and effort, trying to solve a situation which is only so slightly and indirectly connected to our lives back home. I find the use of the word ‘deserve’ quite unintelligible.

I believe what the director meant by here is not east Africa, or Tanzania, I think he meant the OHS site in Mateves. Maybe he meant they should have picked ‘better’ volunteers, more worthy ones to be on the sacred piece of 2.5 acres OHS site which, of course, is bought and with houses erected with the volunteers’ money.

(more…)

a-drift : adj. adv. [figurative] (of a person) without purpose or guidance; lost and confused.

As we were cruising the calm stretches between the class V rapids of the Nile, Brett – our rafting guide – told us his stories from the six years of wandering around the world. He hadn’t stopped. He was just being a rafting guide on the Nile for a couple of months, before moving on again. People after people, adventures after adventures, his stories were alluring. His skin is seasoned by the sun shining from all angles, at different latitudes. The glitter in his eyes suggests visions that is polished by the constant exposure to new environments, cultures and people.

We met him through Adrift – the rafting tour company. That was three weeks ago, I think.

The lack of differences between weekdays and weekends dissolves the sense of a week. And so the week flies by. Everyday, as my friends proceed ahead within their career choices – mostly bankers – while making a growingly desirable income, here I am in a developing country, spending other people’s money, running around town day after day, trying to find stories to tell…

When asked about my future, I have no definitive answers. Neither traveling around the world nor meeting new people is considered a satisfying answer. I suppose aspiring to be like that guy from Adrift is, literally, an ironic choice. But really, just imagine.

“You have to be the change you want to see in the world.” – Gandhi.

I recall reading this so often quoted phrase on the wall of some museum when I was a child. Perhaps it has subconsciously altered my life forever – forever ’til the day I shall, someday, pass away. (more…)

noun. a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

What does it mean and feel to be a volunteer? Since I departed for Tanzania, I have received a handful of encouraging and often flattering regards, including my friend Edward’s email and my brother Kelvin’s comment on my first post. I have been thinking about the question a lot myself, and tried to justify my own choice. (more…)