Friday, January 30, 2009

Taiwan MK "brandjacks" Burger King

Former Taiwan MK Caleb Kramer, now in college back in the United States,  recently drew some attention after successfully brandjacking Burger King on twitter. Google "Burger King" and his name, or read on his blog about some lessons he learned.

Chinese New Year Banner Distributions

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Prior to and during Chinese New Year, our team gave away hundreds of 春聯 (Chun1Lian2 -- Spring Festival Couplets) with Beautiful News about Jesus Christ written on the back.

Compared to my teammates, who passed out more than 300 in the township where they live, I gave away relatively few (partly due to being sick with a stomach virus beginning a few days prior to the New Year).

However, this afternoon I was still hopeful that God could still miraculously take advantage of what I distributed in a way that might change lives. Today one little girl from a single-parent household told me she would be sure to put her banners up in her bedroom. Maybe she'll hold onto them, years from now taking another look at what's written on the back. Or maybe God's Spirit will lead someone else in her family to check them out. Anyway, it was a pleasure to bless kids in this way in the school and in the neighborhood.

Western Yunlin Clam Harvest

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The Wednesday before Chinese New Year, Roger Lu, Director of Academic Affairs at a nearby Middle School where I volunteer, invited me to come watch the clam harvest on his farm about 20 minutes southwest of here on the coast.

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After the clams are dregged up off the bottom of the ponds, the living clams are hand-separated from empty shells.

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The living clams are hosed down and filtered through grates of various width in order to sort by size. Then, they're packed into bags and trucked off (Sadly, there's a lot more to this process than I can remember now having waited more than a week to write up this blog entry).

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Roger hired locals to help bring in the harvest, selling his clams to a seafood wholesaler in Kaohsiung County.

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He did not turn much of a profit his first 3 years of learning the trade. But the last 5 years or so he's done very well. This year, in fact, he brought in bigger and healthier clams than most other farmers.

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Roger attributes his success to the special attention he pays to maintaining balance in his pond ecosystem. image

In addition to clams, Roger raises shrimp and fish in his three ponds.

In addition to here in Western Yunlin County, clams are grown in salt water ponds along the coast in Tainan to the south and ChangHua to the north.

(All Pictures Courtesy of Lorne White)