As usual I question whether the effort spent on in-kind aid wouldn’t have been more efficiently allocated by simply giving money to charity; contra argument is that it’s harder to motivate people to simply give money and, more importantly, it’s a lot easier to embezzle money than heavy sack-o’-rice, so China-dwellers might be much less trusting. There’s also probably a multiplier effect among your volunteer group also, since money is crass and food is necessary to live. There were two other groups at different Carrefour stores, between the three I believe 1700kg of foodstuff was collected.

People seemed very positive, overall it didn’t seem very different from an average food drive in the U.S. Some people ignored us completely; others donated a lot. Observations: Old couples tended to be very curious, and asked at length what we were doing/why we were doing it. Several people pointed out that they were “members of disadvantaged group, why aren’t you helping us?” People responded better when we indicated that we were affiliated with an international charity rather than a Shanghai charity. Likelihood of donation increased if subject was part of a couple, especially if they had a child.

One long conversation I had with an older Shanghainese man went something like this: “So where you all from?” – “I’m from the U.S. and she’s from Venezuela.” – “Oh. So why are helping Chinese people?” – “Global development is important.” – “Oh. Okay. What do I do?”

Generous and wonderful people everywhere.

Tony: Why Hello Mr. Li, have you eaten yet?

Mr Li: Me? No. Oh, I see you’re making Italian Noodles again.

Tony: Yes, it’s one of my favorite things, and I can eat a single batch for a week.

Mr Li: That’s so very troubling.

Tony: What? No, I really like doing this.

Mr Li: No, I know… I used to have to cook for myself when I was stationed alone at a post outside of Beijing. Such a sad time of life.

Tony: But. I’m not sad.

Mr Li: Ha-ha! So troubling. So troubling.

This could just be a matter of me misinterpreting the colloquialism (辛苦), but I’m pretty sure I got the gist of it. Speaking of Italian Noodles, here’s a picture of the special sauce. All you need to do is add yon wine to anything, and deliciousness increases in direct proportion to the quantity used (not unlike the general correlation between liquor and happiness):

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Busy weekend, several discoveries – the part about the chicken hearts is especially true. Previously dubious, I stand converted. If you ever have the opportunity to eat them, do so.