Joyce's Hong Kong Blog #11

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2009 Yes, I know, I usually begin with Thursday but I forgot to tell you about my journey to my women's group. I had taken the bus to the Macau Ferry Terminal with the plan of walking through the MTR tunnels to exit E1 which was near my meeting. Well, after walking underground a few blocks, I realized that I would have to pay to ride the subway in order to get to E1, so I took the last exit I found before actually having to pay. That meant that I wasn't sure where I was when I came out of the subway. So, I got out my trusty map and figured out where I was and where I needed to go, which was about 3 blocks away. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure which direction I needed to go since I didn't know which way was North. I whipped out my trusty compass, turned my body to face North, which was looking back down the stairs into the subway, and figured out which way to begin walking. About that time, a very nice young woman came up to me and asked me where I was going. Now what do you suppose made her think I might need help?? I gave her the name of a store near my destination, and she pointed me in the direction I had decided to go. I thanked her kindly and headed EASTWARD down the street. The Lord keeps sending His angels to look out for me. Thursday, Sept. 23 As I left for my Daniel Bible study, I decided to walk a different direction to catch the bus at the 2nd bus stop right before Ap Lei Chau bridge. That gives me an extra minute or two in case I "just barely miss the bus" at the first bus stop. This walk took me by the Baptist pre-school as kids were arriving. They were SO CUTE. They were wearing bright orange shorts, white shirts and orange backpacks. As the bus wound around Lei Tung we passed other little kids in bright yellow shorts, white shirts, and yellow backpacks. Next we passed kids in light blue shorts with white and blue tops that had extra wide collars so they looked like little sailors. Of course, they had their parents in tow. They were so cute. The Chinese are big on uniforms, both at school and in the work place. The Daniel Study at Island Evangelical Community Church with Beth Moore was interesting. She is challenging us to have RESOLVE, like Daniel and his friends, to not defile ourselves in the midst of a pagan world that tries to pull us into an ungodly lifestyle. Afterwards, I decided to try to find Sunita's jewelry shop in Central, so hopped on the MTR and headed that way on the Island Line. (The MTR is "safer" than the bus because it has a little flashing arrow on a wall map that shows where you are and the direction you are going. It's more difficult to get lost, as long as you know which exit to go out.) Once up to street level, I asked a lady where Queen's road was, which she knew, and if she knew where a restroom was located. She told me that there was a very nice one across the street in The Landmark Mall at the 360 grocery store. Ernest and I had been to the store before, so I thought it would be nice to see it again since it has food items we can't buy near us. Well, the mall is much larger than I remembered, and I couldn't find 360. As I was looking around, Janet, from our Thursday evening small group, appeared. She was just getting off the escalator near me! She couldn't find the 360 either, but she asked someone in Cantonese and got me headed in the right direction. I was so amazed to see someone I knew - and just when I needed directions. Unlike in Canon City, I rarely see anyone I know in Hong Kong while walking around. By the way, the restroom was quite nice. Some are great, and some are awful!! The best 2 were at the 5 and 6 star hotels that Kathryn took me to where attendants in uniforms brought paper towels over for us as we were washing up. The worst were at a McDonald's downtown, at the sports field, and in an older market. The first one was filthy and the last two only had "squatty potties." The nicer ones have toilet paper in the stalls, but many of them have the toilet paper on the wall as you come into the restroom, or toilet, as they call it here. I rarely think to look for it until too late. That's where the trusty "Tempo" tissues come in. Everyone carries the packets here. I wound my way up the hill with the map Ernest had drawn for me. Sure enough, after a few blocks I found the right building. Unfortunately, no one was there! Sunita told me later that she is usually in the store during lunch while her workers go out to eat. However, today she had been invited to see a fashion show of Indian clothing at a restaurant, so she had gone out for lunch. Since I was there, I decided to wander around. There were small streets, many closed to traffic, and a myriad of restaurants, bars, and fancy shops. I rode the MTR to Causeway Bay where I met Lucy at the XanGo office. She doesn't have much energy, so was investigating the mangosteen. I headed home and had two hours before leaving for our small group. During dinner we had an animated discussion about domestic helpers. Rajiv and Sunita have 3 helpers from India in their 3500 sq. ft. house. Shirley, our Aussie friend, declared she could never give up her privacy but would consider having someone come in to help clean or cook during the day. Most of us agreed with her. Rajiv laughed and said that, even though he understood how some people don't want to give up walking around the house without a shirt on or other privacy issues, he LOVES having his tea brought to him in the morning and that's worth giving up his privacy. We discussed how hiring domestic workers is a social obligation for rich people in a poor society. In India, there is quite a hierarchy for helpers. Cooks are usually from the Brahman class, which is the highest caste in India. Rajiv and Sunita are from the next caste down, ///////////////// Drivers can also be Brahman, but don't have to be. Maids who are not from the lowest class can't clean toilets or take care of the floors, so Rajiv hires another lady to come to the house to do that work. Their live-in maid wasn't trained as a maid, so Sunita had to train her. However, she was the daughter of their former driver who had to quit for health reasons. He asked if they could help her out, so they hired her. That's part of the social obligation and relationships in their society. Their workers go home once per year. Their driver's wife, who lives in India , is having a second child soon.

It sure is interesting to have a small group where people come from 6 different countries!

Friday, Sept. 25

I rode the minibus to South Horizons. Ernest did some research and found that there are almost 400 non-Asians living in South Horizons and only 35 in Aberdeen. Therefore, we figure we can find more food items we want at the large grocery store in South Horizons. The massage chairs were still in the mall, but I was in a hurry so kept going. I found everything I needed for a three bean salad except the wax beans. While I was choosing the beans off the shelf, a bag in the cart next to me moved. No one was nearby, so I kept watching the bag. Pretty soon it began moving again. I finally figured out that the bag held a live fish. Ugh! Back at the bus stop I found a Filipina who agreed that the 37A was the right minibus for Ap Lei Chau, so I rode straight home rather than wandering throughout the Island on the 37.

Made up the 3 bean salad for the bar-b-que tomorrow night, then headed for the bus stop to tutor Arnold and Bruno. As happened last week, the 90B bus didn't come. Ernest had told me that I could also take the 91, so I hopped on it when it finally arrived but found out it has a longer route. A young lady, BoBo, sat with me and we had a delightful chat. She is attending university to get her early childhood education teaching degree. (The Chinese don't usually use the article "the" in front of the word, university.) She works at a Montessori School during the day and works with some British and American ladies, so her English speaking ability has been improving. The universities in Hong Kong teach in English, so students have to know how to read and write English, but speaking it clearly is often difficult for them. She was a half an hour late for her class and I was late for tutoring , so we were both frustrated, but we enjoyed the ride together.

Saturday, Sept. 26

Ernest and I decided to ride the tram up Victoria Peak and walk down. After getting off the bus, we walked through Hong Kong Park. It was impressive. The pathway meandered up the hill. Several photographers were out snapping pictures of butterflies. There was a manmade "waterfall" coming down a "mushroom" top; it had a small mote and a path over it so you could walk around under (behind) the waterfall. The office for the Registration of Marriages is in the park so we saw several wedding groups in their finery. It's a beautiful place for wedding pictures. After signing the paperwork the wedding couples generally also have a ceremony and a banquet. It's generally a very expensive affair.

After a 20 min. walk we arrived at the tram. It's a 2 car tram ride that takes about 10 min. to the top of The Peak, as everyone refers to it. The views of the city and bay were awesome. There was a mall and many restaurants. Ernest had remembered to bring his Hagen Daas ice cream coupons. :>) He sighted Aberdeen and we headed down the street in that direction. After walking about 6 blocks we came across the path through the trees which came out in Aberdeen. The shade was wonderful! There were two small parks, or sitting out areas, as they are called, next to the path. The first one we came to had two people there who looked like they were camping. They had tree fungus drying on a picnic table. There was a "foot massage" area. It was made of medium size rocks partially embedded in cement with poles in the center to hold onto as you walked in a elongated circle. I didn't try it because it was in the hot sun. After an hour of walking downhill we arrived in Aberdeen then hopped the ferry home.

After a two hour rest at home, we headed for Mailing's bar-b-que which was in the New Territories. We rode a bus to the N end of HK Island, then caught another bus take us across Victoria Harbor. Unfortunately, the bus passed our turn-off and kept going--we had hoppped the wrong bus. We got off as soon as we could, walked aways, then stopped to look at our map. A few minutes later a lady followed us from the bus stop and asked if she could help. She told us which bus to get on in order to get where we were going. We never would have figured it out ourselves. Another angel!!

After 2 hours, we arrived at the bar-b-que. People move out to the New Territories so that they can have more space. Mailing lives with her daughter's family which includes 2 yr. old twin boys. The grounds of their apartment complex were beautiful with lots of space for her grandkids to run. There were several parties utilizing the bar-b-q pits. The food was abundant and our 3 bean salad went over well. We caught the 10 P.M. shuttle from their complex which took us to the MTR, then we rode that to HK Island where we caught a bus home. We were home before midnight! Oh to have a car... (Not really, I wouldn't drive here.)

Sunday, Sept. 27

Church, a visit to some stores in Aberdeen, a walk around Ap Lei Chau Park, and we called it a pleasant day.

Monday, Sept 28

Nok and Juliet, both are Ernest's co-workers, came over for dinner. We had a great time together. I fixed bar-b-que chicken, potatoe casserole (sans the cheese since we didn't think Nok would like it,) tossed salad with the HK version of Ranch dressing, and corn on the cob. I had made brownies from a mix for dessert, a real treat. Unfortunately, they had to work late so didn't arrive until 8 P.M. Nok was leaving for a vacation back to Thailand in the morning and Juliet had an hour and 15 min. bus ride/boat ride home, so we didn't get to teach them how to play the card game, Flinch.

Wednesday, Sept. 30

Attended the ladies' group today. We break up into groups of 4 to 7, and I really like the ladies in my English speaking group. The other groups all speak Cantonese. I was gone for 5 hours to attend the 2 hour study.

Dawn brought the boys to our house tonight for tutoring. They were SO WOUND UP and excited to be in my house. Plus, tomorrow is a holiday, the 60th Anniv. of the People's Republic of China, so they were excited to have a holiday coming up. AND, they were tired from a long day at school. But, we did get some learning accomplished.