Joyce's Hong Kong Blog #7

Thursday, August 27 Years ago I read 2 related series of books by Bodie & Brock Thoene, the Zion Covenant and the Zion Chronicles. They are historical fiction with emphasis on historical accuracy in the details, but the characters are fictitious. They are excellent writers and I’ve been enjoying reading 3 of the books in the “Director’s cut” version. The time frame is before and during WWII in Europe. Well worth reading. Friday, August 28 Twenty-four years ago we were blessed when our first child, Nathan, was born. We talked with him several times today since he was driving from Tulsa to Canon City after work today for Sam Stockton’s wedding, a 12 hour drive. He took part in a test with one of their “pigs” which clean out oil pipes. The experiment went badly and exploded and water went everywhere—fortunately they were testing the “pig” with water, not oil. Since he wasn’t in charge, that effectively ended his work day so he was able to leave early. Those in charge had to stay and fill out reports. Waited and waited and waited for a bus. Ernest called as he was catching a different bus headed to Central. I watched the 90B bus go by across the street which meant another 10 min. wait as it makes a loop around South Horizons. The 90B is supposed to come every 12-15 minutes; instead, 2 other 90B buses passed on the far side of the road as mine arrived. Since traffic is unpredictable, the bus stop signs don’t tell you the time the busses will arrive, they just tell you when they leave their beginning point and how often they are supposed to show up. Dawn had found an office near DeliFrance where I could tutor Arnold and his brother, Bruno, and after much persuasion, she agreed to meet during Ernest’s conversation group. So I said I would tutor them for 6 weeks, until I leave for the states, and then we’ll discuss it again later. They are cute kids and very sharp. The session went well, but Arnold at 7 yrs. old is doing 3rd grade work, which is more advanced than I had anticipated. I think Dawn wants me to help with his written homework more than with speaking and enunciation. Saturday, August 29 Erica was supposed to come over, but was delayed at the post office (can’t imagine) and so ended up not coming, so we just relaxed in the morning. We spent the afternoon exploring the English book stores in HK. Well, we had planned to, but only made it to three. We got off the bus at the Central Ferry Terminal, walked up a flyover, and amazingly, we walked for blocks without ever going down to street level. The first flyover was 2 blocks long and ended in a large mall which housed the first bookstore. Then we went out the back of the mall, down a corridor, out onto another flyover, across another large street, and into another mall. It amazes me that you can walk for blocks and blocks and never go down to street level. The flyovers in the downtown area are wide enough for 10 people to walk abreast, have high sides and large roofs, but are not completely enclosed. It’s like a maze, and fortunately, Ernest has already figured out how to get from one to the next without going down to street level. They don’t always have signs pointing the way. I spent a lot of time trying to find a suitable workbook for Arnold. The one I had looked at a few weeks ago and thought I wanted to purchase was disappointing upon future inspection. One exercise insisted that the words “good” and “pup” were pronounced the same as “look.” Well, perhaps the British pronounce “pup” differently than the Americans? So, I heard a man speaking “The Queen’s English” to his young girl, and I asked him how the British pronounce the word, “pup.” Lo and behold, they pronounce it the same as the Americans. The book was published in Singapore. Go figure. We went down to street level for the 3rd book store. After walking into a small entryway, there were stairs going up for the English books, and stairs going down for the Chinese books. I hunted around upstairs for awhile, and then was sent downstairs where all workbooks, English or Chinese, were located. It took a long time, but I finally found a workbook that is suitable. I just have to assume that “Cloze” means “Quiz” by its use. It also was published in Singapore. (That country came into existence in the early sixties. It had been a British colony and was part of Malaysia for two years, but the Malays wanted to be in charge of everything and have an institutionalized preference system. The Chinese majority in Singapore didn’t favor domination by the Malays, so became independent and made English the main official language of the country. Although there are 3 other official languages, all the signs are in English only. It’s a wealthy city/ state and in the top 10 of most expensive cities in the world for expats.) One of the malls contained a fancy grocery store called ThreeSixty. They had an awesome, freshly baked bread section that looked like it had been transported from Europe. We purchased Sundried Tomato Focaccio bread. Very tasty. I was also able to find several spices I need. If it were closer, I’d love to shop there. But then, our food bill is high enough, so it would just be a temptation. The store itself is in the shape of a “Z.” I’m not sure if that was planned, if it was just the space available, or if they started small and then expanded into available space. The HK people are experts at utilizing any space they can find, but that means interesting store lay-outs at times. Sunday, August 30 We headed out the door early because Ernest’s coworker, Juliet, had invited us for noon dinner. She lives in Discovery Bay on Lantau Island and encouraged us to attend church out there so we could eat soon afterwards. At 8 AM we walked up the hill to the bus stop and waited less than 5 min. for a bus. It was a 35 min. bus ride, then we walked 10 min. to the port, rode the ferry for 30 min., caught another bus (10 min. ride) that deposited us a 5 min. walk from the church. (I miss my car!) We attended an Evangelical Free Church that had about 80 in attendance and is held in a Christian College. They are presently searching for a pastor. The singing was led by a Filipina ladies group, which they indicated was not the usual group. The preacher told an interesting story about H.J. Ironside. He had been asked to speak at a street meeting in the park. While he was talking, a famous university professor challenged him to come to the university to debate agnosticism and Christianity. Ironside replied that he would be happy to with just one condition: the professor needed to find 2 or more people who would come to the debate and testify about how agnosticism had changed their lives for the better. Ironside would bring 50 Christians to testify to how Jesus had changed their lives for the better for every 1 agnostic the professor could find. The debate never took place because the professor couldn’t find even one person whose life had been changed for the better by being an agnostic. Everyone at church was friendly and we chatted for awhile with a couple who are missionaries with Christian Missionary Alliance. They are being transferred to Colorado Springs this week! It was about a 15 min. walk up the hill to get to Juliet’s apartment. The path to the street passed by a complex with a pond, a fountain, and 2 waterfalls with beautiful trees and benches. Juliet has a one bedroom apartment which is almost as large as ours even though ours is a 2 bedroom. It was very pleasant. Out her back window is a hill with greenery and a “waterfall” when it rains. In Chinese “water” and “money” are the same word, so it is considered “lucky” to be near water—it’s supposed to bring you wealth. Juliet fixed a lovely dinner of beef stew and rice, spring rolls and grapes with “Light” Coke, the HK version of Diet Coke. The beef had been marinaded overnight in soy sauce and black pepper, stir fried, then steamed in beer (1/10th a can) and water. She added sausage, chopped red and green peppers, onions, and green olives and cooked it an additional 1 ½ hours. Yummy! The spring rolls were likewise delicious, filled with vegetables and had oyster sauce for flavor. We dipped them in Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce. These recipes I’ll definitely try. After some good conversation, we walked down to the beach and along the walkway between the sand and the trees. Discovery Bay is beautiful and like living in a resort. (We don’t envy her the 1 hr 45 min. commute.) There were lots of college kids there, but it still wasn’t overly crowded. Juliet walked us past the 4 restaurants in town and then back to the ferry. By time we got home it was almost 6 PM. Monday, August 31, 2009 I was filling out a form on the computer to register for a Beth Moore seminar that will be at a large church in HK in Sept. It wouldn’t accept my birth date. How could I get that wrong? Then I realized that the day might need to be first with the month second. Sure enough, once I changed it the computer was happy. It’s a good thing the date of my birthday is higher than 12 or the computer would have accepted it and I would have forever had the wrong birthday recorded! Finished reading The Nazi Officer’s Wife, which is about a Jewish young lady who had been a slave laborer but manage to avoid being sent to Poland. Through acquiring a forged identity and by acting docile and ignorant, she was able to survive the war. A Nazi married her and at the very end of the war he was sent to the front and captured by the Russians. Tuesday, September 1 “Our “ four fishing trawlers are anchored in the middle of the bay and the busy sampans and motor boats scurry around them. A continuous stream of vehicles move over the bridge and on the road across the bay. The Ap Lei Chau (my side of the bay) and the Aberdeen (far side of the bay) high rises dominate the landscape, while the green hills peek out from behind them and, in some places, rise above them. I enjoy looking out the window while talking on the phone, although the tranquility is often interrupted. The clanging of metal security doors can often be heard in our hallway. (The sound reminds me of the high school locker room.) The front of our building, where we look out our bedroom windows, is directly above the street. We can’t see the street looking straight down, but can see it to either side. Our street isn’t very wide and delivery trucks and other vehicles often stop in the middle of the street to unload. When there is a traffic jam, many of the waiting vehicles honk their horns continually until the jam has cleared up—sometimes for several minutes at a time. This is generally my morning world while I talk on the phone and work on the computer. Ernest’s Thunderbird Alumnus association meeting was tonight. (Thunderbird is the nickname for The Graduate School of International Management.) They gather once per month and I attended with him tonight. They meet in the Night Entertainment District on Hong Kong Island, which is what some people believe is the most important part of HK. Many expats wander around the area in the evenings after work. Once again, I was astonished riding the elevators (up) and walking the stairs (down) and walking blocks and blocks up on the walkways on the second and third floor levels. Wednesday, Sept. 2 There is a festival going on that involves the burning of incense and papier-mache money and the offering of food to their ancestors. It’s called the Ghost Festival. Both Buddhists and Taoists celebrate this ceremony and it involves the idea of absolving the sufferings of the deceased. Everywhere we’ve walked in town this past week, especially toward evening, there are people on the sidewalks burning money and incense and other items. Just in front of our apartment is a large, rusty barrel with a lid that money is thrown into and burned. On the sidewalk near the barrel are smaller cans with incense sticks. One lady I passed on the sidewalk had a dead, plucked chicken sitting with its neck outstretched and something red and round in its beak before one of the little alters on the curb. She was burning paper money (not real currency) and incense and there were other food items like apples lined up neatly next to the chicken. It makes walking down the sidewalk a little nerve wracking since the sidewalks are narrow and the people are on the sidewalk burning these items on the curb or in the street. This happens daily, but much more so this past week. Today, Wed, is the main day of the festival so the burning should be much less from now on.