Sister Good Takes Time for Reflection

Greetings, all! I do not have any particular theme for this week's blog; it is a collection of my random reflections from the past few weeks, moving from the silly to the serious. Enjoy!

* I have now eaten duck/goose claw (I was never able to get a final answer as to which bird it was), complete with webbing between the toes. I didn't eat all of it, but I did eat it.

* I am aware that some of my readers may also be letter writers, so I thought I would post our address. Even if we do not know who you are, feel free to send us a note of encouragement in the mail. I promise we'll read it!

8-C
55 Yuet Wah Street
Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

* We only receive two English television stations at our apartment, and a lot of times the evening news is in Chinese, so we are often oblivious to the major happenings around us. I think there is a nightly news broadcast in English, but we are not usually awake to watch it unless it is the weekend. Although I try to check the news online when I get to school or church (no internet at the apartment at this point), I usually focus on American news, especially in light of the economic crisis and political situation; thus, we are largely out of touch with up-to-date information as it pertains to our life here in Hong Kong. For example, one day we came home from school, turned on the TV, and saw pictures of cows and milk cartons on every channel. All of the broadcasts were in Chinese, so we turned off the TV. A day or two later we asked Michelle, our mentor, about it, and she told us there had been a milk recall. Yikes! I am happy to report that Margaret and I have been unaffected by the recall and remain unharmed by our milk consumption (at least as far as we know). Another shining example of our ignorance is the recent typhoon. That is correct—I have officially survived my first typhoon. Schools and businesses were closed on Wednesday because of the intensity of the typhoon, so I didn't actually leave my apartment to investigate the weather conditions aside from stepping out on the balcony. In Kwun Tong it just seemed like a lot of heavy wind and some rain, but I suspect it was much worse on the coast. (We think we saw images of typhoon damage on the news, but the news was in Chinese, so we are not quite sure.) I enjoyed being "typhooned in" or having a "typhoon day" for the sheer novelty of it all. The most humorous part of the situation was that Margaret and I did not even know the typhoon was coming until we got to the church on Tuesday and Michelle informed us; we just thought it was unusually windy. We actually ended up leaving work early because the typhoon was about to intensify and we did not want to get stranded. Needless to say, the language barrier does pose occasional problems for us, but we have not consumed any poisonous chemicals or perished from weather phenomena yet, so I guess that means we are doing okay.

* I watched a news special about a week and a half ago about the poverty level in Sham Shui Po, the neighborhood in Hong Kong in which Pooi To Middle School is located. The news special showed images of people, especially elderly people, living in incredibly squalid conditions—they are crammed into buildings and living in cubicles with a dilapidated communal bathroom and kitchen. These people literally only have enough space to lay down and maybe a shelf for their belongings. These buildings are not air conditioned, and it is extremely hot and humid in Hong Kong. Although the government has plans to renovate some of these areas, the plans will not begin for another year or two. Now as I walk from the MTR (metro) station to the middle school each Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I look at the buildings around me and wonder if perhaps that building is one of the appalling living places I saw on the news, or if that is the store of the elderly woman who is unable to make enough money to earn a sufficient living. I recognize that poverty can be found in any major city, but I cannot recall ever watching a news special about poverty in an area in which I spend so much of my time each week. Now every short walk from the MTR station to the school is a prayer walk as I see signs of the poverty which has infiltrated my world.

A Day in the Life of Sister Good

Sister Good enters what is commonly, but not affectionately, known as "the real world"

After two and a half weeks in Hong Kong, the fairy dust has settled down and Sister Good and Sister Street are settling down into a routine that is euphemistically referred to as "the real world." We have entered into the workforce, loosely speaking, in a foreign country while taking graduate credit hours—it's been a bit of a rough introduction into the school of hard knocks. I now have a greater respect for my father, who managed to get his doctorate while on staff at a church and playing Barbies with me. I am sure things will settle into a rhythm, but we would certainly appreciate your prayers as we search for balance. I thought it might be good to describe what we do each week, rather than just describing our random adventures, so I apologize for not regaling you with tales of intrigue (I'll save those for another time). Welcome to the life of Sister Good!

We are at Pooi To Middle School on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Our primary purpose there is to be a resource with whom the girls can speak to either practice their English or talk about life issues. We have introduced ourselves via PowerPoint presentation to all of the form 7 classes (roughly the same age as high school seniors in the US), gone out for lunch with several groups of girls (the older girls can leave for lunch), attended the teacher and student lunch fellowships, and we also had the opportunity to present in an assembly to forms 4-7 about "eye on the goal," the school's theme for the year. We were able to use this opportunity to talk a little bit about our goals as they relate to faith—for me, knowing Christ more (see Philippians 3:12-14). We are also helping out with the English Activities Club, the English broadcast over the school's intercom system on Thursday mornings, and we have been interviewed for Clover TV (the school's English online television program). The girls here are really wonderful, and I enjoy spending time with them both over lunch and after school. On Tuesdays we go to work at the church. We use this time to plan for our Thai English class and the English Sunday School class we will be teaching. We also have a two hour lunch break every Tuesday, and we have eaten out the two Tuesdays we have been at church thus far. The first Tuesday the staff went to a dim sum meal, which is a meal in which numerous small dishes are brought to the table and everyone takes what they like out of the middle and puts it on their plates (one dish at a time). This past week we ate at a buffet restaurant in a hotel which had a mix of Chinese and more Western dishes—it even had salad available (not a common occurrence), which was a reason for celebration. In the evenings Margaret and I usually make dinner/heat up leftovers in the oven or on the stove (no microwave), do our homework until we're drooling on it, and then go to bed.

On Saturdays we teach an English conversation class with Thai women, and this is an absolute joy to do. They are very quick learners, and it is encouraging to see the immediate impact of what we are doing. After the Thai class, there are fellowships at the church, and we will join various youth fellowships for during this time. (This past Saturday there was a children's evangelical meeting, which we attended, but it was all in Chinese, so I don't really know what was going on. I think it's safe to assume they were talking about Jesus.) On Sundays we go church and usually end up eating out for lunch afterwards. I described the giant headphones and translation delay in my last blog, and that has continued, but now we sit in the balcony so we aren't quite as conspicuous.

Sister Good Goes on a Holiday

Fridays are our days off, so we use these days to explore the city. We also had a public holiday because of the Mid-Autumn festival, so we had last Monday off as well. I would describe the Mid-Autumn festival to you, but I don't understand it myself, so I recommend you google it. As far as I can tell, it has something to do with an ancient Chinese legend involving the moon, a woman who went to the moon, and a rabbit. People eat lots of mooncakes (a dessert made out of bean curd with an egg yolk in the middle…it has a similar texture and flavor to a sweet potato) and usually have a big meal with their families. We celebrated by going to our church's 70th Anniversary Concert in Hong Kong's cultural center.

On one of our first Friday off, we spent the afternoon at the beach at Repulse Bay. The beach had a warning sign up to let visitors know that although there are shark nets placed around the swimming area, swimmers should still swim at their own risk because it is possible for sharks to get through. That was admittedly a bit disconcerting, but we weren't overly daunted and enjoyed the afternoon nonetheless. We didn't spend very long at the beach because we had too many other things we needed to work on (and it started raining), but it made for a nice afternoon. We spent our Monday off at the beach as well, but this time we joined the Thai fellowship in a trip to the Gold Coast. We loaded onto a bus with approximately 60 Thai people for a sing-along journey to the beach. For you Veggie Tales enthusiasts, picture the opening scene of Jonah where they are all in the bus joyously singing to the guitar, except it was in Thai, not English, and we aren't vegetables, nor did we crash and meet vegetable pirates. It was fun and kind of humorous, considering, as usual, we had no idea what was happening. When we got to the beach the Thai people had a fellowship time, including a gospel presentation, and eight people accepted Christ at the end of the presentation. After the fellowship time, we had the lunch which had been prepared that morning at the church. My first bit of papaya salad was so spicy it literally brought tears to my eyes. With my second bite I could feel my nasal passages clearing. By the third bite my palette had adjusted and I actually started to enjoy it. I love spicy food, and this was definitely spicy. The other foods I ate were like eating candy after the burning sensation from the papaya salad (okay, that's an exaggeration, but the papaya salad was definitely the spiciest thing there; the fish salad was reportedly spicy as well, but I seriously didn't notice). It was all delicious—I love spicy, Thai food! After lunch we got in the water. This beach, too, had up shark nets, but it was in a less commercialized area and had much nicer sand. It was a very pretty beach. It is interesting to be out in ocean and look and see the beach, mountains, and skyscrapers. Hong Kong is quite a place of contrasts, which I am sure I will continue to discover.

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The Adventures of Sister Good

Who Is Sister Good?

First, a brief word about my blog's title, "The Adventures of Sister Good:" When Michelle, our mentor, was showing us around the church and introducing us to the lady janitors, she introduced Margaret as "Gai Tse," or Sister Street, and then looked at me and said, "Fine means good, right?" I told her that it did, and she introduced me as "Ho Tse," which roughly translates as Sister Good. (I am also called "Ho Gu Leung" because "Gu Leung" is a title given to lady ministers, which is me.) I find a bit of humor in being introduced to everyone as Sister Good (as one of my friend's has pointed out, the title makes it sound like I just walked out of The Crucible), so this blog will detail both the humorous and the more serious adventures of Sister Good and Sister Street.

The Adventure Begins

We arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday, September 2, and the very next day we went to lunch at a 5-star hotel with Uncle Norman, the man who organized the internship on this end, along with Michelle (youth minister, our mentor, and tour guide) and Miss Lee (the Thai minister at the church). (A brief aside—it is customary in Hong Kong to refer to one's elders as Auntie or Uncle, so many of the persons described in this blog will carry such a title.) The lunch was a seafood buffet, and I ate some things I have never eaten before and may never eat again. Fortunately, I have nerves of steel and a stomach of iron, so I can eat just about anything with no ill effects afterwards. I ate quite an assortment of mussels and shellfish (I'm not really sure what they were, but I'm pretty sure everything was raw) in addition to noodles, fish (and fish maw, or stomach), sushi, salad, dessert, and all of the other things on the buffet. After the meal, Michelle and Miss Lee took us on a mini-tour of Hong Kong, with Uncle Hon, one of the church deacons, as our driver. We visited the Peak (a mountain top which offers a view of all of Hong Kong), Repulse Bay (a nice beach area), and Stanley Market which are all located on Hong Kong island, before coming back to our apartment, which is located in a very local area on the Kowloon Peninsula. On Thursday we were able to tour the church, which has about 1,000 members, and on Friday we had a meeting with the principal at Pooi To Middle School, the school at which we will be working while in Hong Kong, so we were able to see several different areas of Hong Kong in a very short amount of time. Hong Kong is a very beautiful place with an incredibly varied landscape; it has mountains, beaches, and sky scrapers all in one city.

Here Comes the Bride

We had the honor of attending the wedding of Uncle Norman's son, Hansen, on Saturday, which unlike any wedding I have been to the U.S. The wedding itself struck me as being quite similar to an American wedding with a few minor differences, but the reception was vastly different. The wedding was at 2:30 in the afternoon, but the banquet did not start until much later that evening. We arrived at the banquet, which is held in a hotel, around 8 pm. When the festivities begin, guests have the opportunity to take a picture with the bride and groom and the pick up the picture in an hour from the stand off to the side of the stage as a party favor. In addition to her wedding dress, the bride had three other formal dresses, much similar to prom dresses, which she changed in and out of throughout the evening's festivities. The meal itself started around 9:20 and contained 12 courses. It was quite a culinary experience. There were slide shows and presentations throughout the feast as well, and the bride and groom go around to every table to clink their glasses with everyone and receive congratulations. The banquet concluded around midnight; although in the US a wedding reception such as this one was considered quite elaborate, as I was able to gather from the people around me it is quite normal for a wedding in Hong Kong. The wedding was a lot of fun and a very unique cultural introduction to Hong Kong.

And Now Introducing. . . Sister Street and Sister Good

At church on Sunday, we were introduced to the church in both the 8 am service and the 11 am service. During the 8 am service, we went down to a conference room and did some work in there after we were introduced. Then we went to Sunday School, and, fortunately, some English speaking Chinese girls translated a phrase or two periodically. During the 11 am service, we had on HUGE headphones and a translator up in a little box translated the sermon for us into the headphones. The funny thing was that we were on the front row, because we had to be introduced, and for the entire service Margaret and I were about 2 seconds behind everyone else because of the translation delay. Everyone would stand, we would stand. They would bow their heads, we would bow our heads. Everyone lifted up their heads, and two seconds later, we followed. It had to be funny to watch. After church we went to a dim sum lunch with Uncle Norman, his wife, and his newly married son and daughter-in-law. A dim sum meal lasts a long time because they bring a few dishes to the table at a time, and you just take what you want from each dish and put in on your plate. Margaret and I did manage a brief foray into the Ladies Market (an open air market) Sunday night, which has lots of expensive "name brand" items like Gucci, Dolce and Gabana, Rolex, etc., but they are all fake and much cheaper.

A Few Extras

· Although it is somewhat common to eat dog in southern China, it is actually illegal in Hong Kong. Nonetheless, I affectionately refer to my neighbors' two dogs as "lunch" and "dinner."

· I have eaten more seafood in the past week and a half than I have eaten in the entire rest of my life combined, and I don't even know what I was eating.

· Of the four apartments on our floor, ours is the only one without a small altar and incense outside the door. Although the hallway is very aromatic, I may never think of incense the same way again.

· When people ask if I speak any Chinese and I share my few phrases, they almost always laugh. I can only hope I am actually saying "How are you?" and not something like "I pick my nose."