Tzu chi volunteer Organisation

Attended a three day volunteer camp...organised by the Tzu Chi Volunteer Organization in Nanjing, China. Great three days spent with lotsa GOOD food...food really perks me up...haha...Nanjing is another city in China, about 5 hours bus ride from Shanghai. From there we headed on to Anhui Province (another 2 hr bus ride from Nanjing). A Nursing Home in a village of Anhui Province greeted us. Wonderful sweet oldies as I fondly call them. Full of smiles and unconditional love for their visitors (me and several other youths and senior volunteers of Tzu Chi). We sang songs, danced around with them and later they were treated to an almost first class SPA, SALON , MANICURE AND PEDICURE service..LOL...the boys went on to help the ye ye (grandfather in chinese) appear years younger with an almost professional shave;) the rest helped with the feet massaging, nail clipping and lotion applying routines. Not bad yeah...two of the senior volunteers cooked noodles for the oldies in the home...When time for us to leave one of the nai nai (grandma in chinese) had the chance to cut cake for turning 90 in the month of October...good for her...haha

The time spent at the nursing home was a truly satisfying experience. Being the reason behind the smiles of those grandmoms and granddads makes each and every volunteer there feel like a great achiever. ;)

Back at the camp...we were again greeted with wonderful food and lots of other interesting news.

Why should one be a vegetarian???

• 16 kg of barley and grains are needed to produce 1kg of beef (thats why humans are facing a food crisis and a price rise)
• Animals consume 40% of the world's grains so that humans have meat to eat
• In China alone 1.6 billion pigs are slaughtered daily (the population..haiz)

I haven't exactly been a very good environmentalist and was thingking of taking up at least one idea and following it diligently...for instance minimising the usage of the aircon (ok u may think I'm gonna have winter anyway) well in the future i will man!!!....and to minimise the usage of plastic bags and I should say China has really instilled in me hte habit of bringing bags when I go shopping as a habit:) And about styrofoam cups and plates we should be aware that 4.3 billion pound of styrofoam is being disposed every year and sea turtles are are decreasing in number partially cos of the styrofoam being disposed in the seas and these turtle fellas unknowingly commit suicide by consuming them!!!

Every individual as a part to play in this environment. We can and should have a comfortable life, lets all begin my minimising our resources porbably limiting them to our required needs and hte amound of money we spend can be used for the better of other nations. Nations and places which are still surving in the dark..basically with no electricity!!!