Greetings from Hong Kong. We hope this blog post finds everyone doing well, staying healthy, and
enjoying this crazy adventure known as life. As October has begun (and in some ways has sneaked by)
we find ourselves still unearthing new adventures and challenges, meeting new people and new ideas,
and being really thankful for technology like FaceTime and Skype that allow us to spend some time with our family and friends who make us laugh and smile.
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| The Service Trip Crew :) |
So what have we been doing lately? Lots of things! On the 29th of September, the two of us helped to lead a school service trip to Manila in the Philippines. The trip consisted of twenty-eight students,
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A jeepney - one form of
transportation in the Philippines :)
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teachers, and community adults and lasted a total of four days. While on the ground in Manila, we helped paint an orphanage, dig mud for a new pool, meet with children and families in a slum, and play volleyball and basketball with the local school children. We even got to help with the special project of tearing down a woman’s house and helping to rebuild it because the roof was collapsing. We also spent some time getting to peruse the Mall of Asia (as in the exact same acronym for the the "Mall of America” and basically the exact same set up) and try some great new foods. Still, the people we met and the images we saw were very moving and touching and help us to feel soooooo thankful for the very basics that we have in our lives: safe, clean housing, healthy food, jobs, and an education. And the ministry that we stayed with was exceptional at providing a “hand up and not a hand out” to the people of the Philippines. It is amazing what small acts of dignity and empowerment can do to improve the lives of families and communities.
At the same time as we were in the Philippines, Hong Kong was in the middle of celebrating the Mid-
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| Handmade dragon lantern |
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| Some of the festivities |
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| :) |
Autumn Festival and National Day. For all our Stateside friends and family, this is the Chinese equivalent of the Fourth of July, with all of China having one week off to vacation. Hong Kong, wanting to flex it’s independence a bit still, gave everyone Monday and Tuesday off. And don’t worry, we still got to participate in the festivities on Friday night before we left. The signature symbol of the festival is a paper lantern. In the month leading up to Mid-Autumn, stores and shops all over this city were hanging and selling lanterns of all sorts. Cartoons, superheros, mythical figures, and some crazy odd looking creatures were all on displays for weeks. Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island was turned into a giant festival plaza for the weekend and they erected a giant paper lantern that gave a light show every fifteen minutes. Other performance groups included Chinese puppetry, Traditional Chinese string ensembles (think Ar-hu and gamelan) and even the Hong Kong Youth Marching Band (it was so cool and the uniforms made us think of a whole lot of cool band students back in the states ). Food items of the festival included mooncakes and egg tarts. We had good samples of both :)
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| The marching band :) Check out those uniforms! |
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| The giant lantern that was the centerpiece of the festival |
We also found one of the prettiest places on earth a few weekends ago. The beaches of Sai Wan are
in a very secluded portion of Hong Kong near the village of Sai Kung (refer back a few posts ago.) To
reach them, one must hop a bus, flag a taxi, wind through harrowing curves with no shoulder in a land
where speed bumps are widely regarded as suggestions to floor the gas, and then trek up and down
valleys for forty minutes while sweating more than a refrigerator in July. But it is so totally worth it.
Once in Sai Wan, you can stay on the main beach (which we did one day) and enjoy the pristine view
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| The second beach! |
and crystal clear water, or you can meet up with the MacLehose Trail (mega-hiking trail for diehards) and travel on to two other beaches further removed from civilization be a series of ups and downs on the mountainside. Bring water! Last weekend we headed to the second beach and were richly rewarded with beautiful sand, energetic waves, and a breeze from the ocean that makes one say “I like being right here.” The local café has great food. But, believe it or not, the best part of the trip is
actually the speedboat ride back to Sai Kung. Reserving our spot on the boat three hours in advance, a traveler wades into the water, hops on a boat and is treated to an insider’s view of the secluded islands and untouched areas of Hong Kong’s Eastern coast. We buzzed past geographic anomalies, floating fishing villages, and really big yachts with the Asia sunset right in front of us the first time we made the breathtaking trip. The second trip from the second beach last weekend was breathtaking, but more
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| At the second beach :) |
because it was dark, the waves were killer, and we were all packed in between six French women who screamed every time we “thwumped” back into the water. None of our crew spoke French, but one didn’t need a translator to figure out that these people were quite frightened. We made it back safely, found another great seafood restaurant in Sai Kung (not a hard thing to do) and slowly made our way back home after a day of excitement.
Love and hugs to all of our friends and family back home and abroad. We think of you all often. Do good in all things that your lives lead you to!
Tim and Christine
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