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."