Getting Started

For all those reading our blog, thank you! Soon the three of us will be meeting in Beijing and heading to Qinghai province, and we hope to keep you all posted.

As a bit of background, all three of us have been friends since we lived together during freshman year in the Lewis & Clark international dorm. With post-graduation life looming, we wanted to travel together for the summer while doing something worthwhile. In September of last year we decided to apply for a 100 Projects for Peace grant. One hundred of these are awarded each year to undergraduates who design projects promoting peace in some form in the world. We wanted to work in China, so Professor Keith Dede put us in touch with Pentok - an organization specializing in small-scale development projects in T communities. In collaboration with Pentok members, who live in the area and are intimately familiar with its needs, we crafted a project proposal. In March of 2010, after months of hard work and lots of advice, we were awarded $12,500 to help establish a motorcycle repair shop in a small rural village in western China.

So now we've graduated and are off to China together! Starting in Beijing, we're taking the train west to Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Mekou village, where the shop will be located, is southwest of Xining. While working, we will be between 2,500m and 3,500m above sea level.

During our 2.5 months in Qinghai, we will collaborate with Pentok, Elvis (a university student from M village) and the rest of the people living in M to help establish a functional mechanic shop in the village. Our goals while working together are as follows:

1. Renovate a pre-existing building in M village to house the repair shop. This will probably involve buying supplies and transporting them to the village, as well as hiring workers.
2. Outfit the building with necessary tools and equipment.
3. Help arrange for two villagers to apprentice in mechanic shops in larger towns, so that they can return and run the motorcycle repair shop in M.
4. Have fun, always be listening to those around us, meet cool people, and learn a lot!

As excited as we are to travel, it is also important to us that our project fulfills the goal of promoting peace. On the T Plateau motorcycles are a primary means of transportation. When broken, they must be transported by truck to larger towns for repairs. We hope that easier access to mechanic facilities will save time, and maybe money, while bringing extra income to the village. We also hope that such a business will make it easier for villagers to send children to school (a motorcycle trip away). Currently schooling is rare in the village, in part because families are unwilling to risk damage to motorcycles resulting from constant trips to the closest school. Thus we hope to promote peace by providing a needed service in M village that will make the lives of villagers easier, as well as by providing easier access to education for those families who are interested.

We've put some interesting links in the sidebar, including a link to our full proposal, so check it out if you have time! We are so excited to soon be on our way, and hope to update as much as possible. Please keep in touch, either via email or by commenting on our blog, and we will try to do the same!

Best,

David, Sara and Jesse