Hey friends and family,
We have now been here for two weeks and have finally adjusted
to the time change. Everyone is also
healthy now, yay! We have been busy
getting acclimated to the new environment as we slowly learn our way around
Hong Kong.
I know you all are dying to see some pictures, but
unfortunately you’ll have to accept our descriptions of Hong Kong for now. The morning we left for Hong Kong, Shannon
and I were out running errands and Ava decided to hide my purse (which had our
camera) while I was out. My parents
found it after we left for Hong Kong, so we’re waiting until it arrives. We promise to post some pictures as soon as
we can.
ICS (International Christian School) and our new home are
awesome. The building is relatively new,
and they really thought of everything when they built the school. We have been spoiled, and next year when we
have to live in typical Hong Kong housing (aka smaller) that will probably be
the real adjustment. Our apartment is
actually bigger than any place we’ve lived in since getting married. We essentially have two 1-bedroom apartments,
which equals two kitchens, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a living room, and a
dining area. My friends, this is the
year to visit us! We will definitely
have the room to house you. You might
want to wait until we know Hong Kong a little better though.
We live on the 7th floor of ICS, where the new
teachers and staff live. Our wing is
composed of families, and we are so happy that next door to us there is a
family with two little girls close in age to our kiddos. They have already become friends. Shannon has been busy with meetings and prep for
school since school begins this Monday.
A really neat thing has been that every morning for the past two weeks
they have begun orientation with faculty devotions and worship time. We are so thankful to be at a place where we
can really live out and share our faith with the staff and students.
I’m sure all of you are wondering what Hong Kong is really
like, and I can tell you that at least this time of year it is VERY hot and
humid. The heat seems just as bad as it
was when we were in Guinea, except we have air conditioning this time around! Anytime we go out to run errands, we come
back and feel like we have to take another shower. It will take a little while longer to accept
being drenched in sweat.
Hong Kong itself is a beautiful place. We’re in Shatin, and all around us we see
mountains and buildings. I was telling
Shannon the other day that if you just moved all the buildings out of the way,
Hong Kong would really be a beautiful place in terms of natural beauty (though
all of the lights at night make the city quite beautiful too). We’ve heard that the pollution has been the
worst it’s ever been, and it’s true. Most days the mountains have looked quite hazy
and sometimes the air is pretty bad, though still tolerable. I have a feeling that one of the things we
will enjoy the most when we go back to the States will be fresh, clean
air. When it rains though and the air
clears, the view is great.
The kids seem to like Hong Kong, especially Josiah, since
he’s gotten to ride on the bus and train frequently. He had never been on public transportation before
arriving here so every day has been an adventure. The kids also have both gotten really good at
riding escalators, which are prevalent here.
The transit system is quite clean, especially since you’re not allowed
to eat or drink on the train. Hong Kong
is definitely doable without a car, although we’ve learned that good walking
shoes are a must. Anytime we need to go
shopping (which has been quite often to buy household and food items) we do a
lot of walking. We are grateful that
someone at the school left a double stroller behind. We’ve taken advantage of it when walking to
the nearest shopping area where we get our groceries (about a 15 minute walk), and
we’re most thankful for the basket under the stroller since groceries need to
be carried home. There are some stores
that will deliver groceries to your door for free if you spend $60, so we’ve
done that once as we buy all the things we need to get settled. We truly have appreciated that service.
Ava has spent a lot of time being carried in our arms since
it’s not really feasible to take the double stroller on the train or bus. They tend to get very crowded depending on
where you are in the city and what time it is.
People are courteous though. If
you’re pregnant, elderly, or carrying a young child, people will motion for you
to take their seat.
Speaking of crowded trains, we went to a church called
Solomon’s Porch this Sunday and took the train to get there. It was a great church, but we’re hoping to
find something a little more local and closer.
It took three train transfers to get there and another ten minute walk
afterwards. In any case, on our way home
a group of us (eight from the school) were transferring from one train to
another. Seeing that the train we wanted
to get on was completely full, we stopped at the doors and decided to wait for
the next train since there was obviously no room to get on. Suddenly, about twenty more people pressed on
past us and pushed their way on to the train.
It was pretty hilarious to see that whereas we thought there was
absolutely no room, there was apparently still enough room for us (and more) to
board the train. Now we’ve learned and next
time, we will press on too. :P
The other thing that has been quite an adjustment for us is
shopping in general. During the first
week we arrived, I hardly bought anything from the local grocery store because
everything just seemed so expensive.
Here they sell milk by the liter and if we calculate the cost to US
dollars, it’s around $9.50 for one gallon for milk. Gulp.
Shannon and I have pretty much cut out our milk intake. I will say that others at the school have
been passing on ways to cut down on costs.
If you buy milk two days before the expiration date, the price generally
gets reduced by 50%. Since the kids
finish a liter in less than a day, we are learning to look for those reduced
prices on the milk as well as other food items.
We’ve also learned that when you shop in Hong Kong, there
are really two types of shopping. They
have the nice malls and bigger grocery stores, and then they have the “wet
market”. The wet market is basically
composed of little stalls where people sell anything from fresh produce to
umbrellas. Food is almost always cheaper
there than the grocery stores, although the vendors do not always speak English
well. It reminds us of the open air
markets in Guinea, except they’re bigger, cleaner, and indoors. Some of the new staff were taken aback by the
wet market and its interesting smells, but the hanging meat, live frogs, and chickens
have not phased us, thanks to our time in Guinea. The wet market is where we buy most of our produce. Most vendors have a scale to measure items
and they generally list the price of our purchase. So even though we can’t speak Cantonese we have
been able to get by and shop there.
Speaking of not speaking English, everyone here thinks that
I can speak Cantonese since I look much more Chinese than Korean. Even when I look completely confused, people
continue to talk to me in Cantonese and this seems to happen much more
frequently to me than Shannon or other teachers that don’t look Chinese. One of the other new teachers at the school speaks
Cantonese fluently, so this past week a group of us met together in the evening
and received our first language lesson.
I’m trying to memorize the phrase “Auw Hai Hon Gok Yun” which I believe means,
“I am Korean.” J I will say that it makes me want to learn
more of the language because I look like I should be able to speak it!
There has been so much to take in these past few weeks. We’ll end our first real post with the most
interesting observation we’ve made.
Whenever you’re out and about, you smell all different odors all at once
in the city. It smells really good like dim
sum, horrible like car fumes, sweet like flowers, and nasty like sewers all at
the same time. We’re getting used to it
all. J
Thanks if you made it this far, and please keep us in your
prayers. Here are our prayer requests
since arriving here:
- - Shannon begins school this week. He has been very busy as ICS gets ready for
the school year. Josiah also begins
preschool! Pray for a great first week
of school!
- - Pray that we find a good church. There are lots of options, especially if we
want to attend an international church, but are really hoping to find a church
where we can serve the local native community.
- - Pray that Carol would find opportunities to
develop relationships with people in the community. Now that everyone is finally healthy, Carol
can actually venture out during the day.
There’s a local playground nearby, so she’s hoping to meet other moms
there.
And thank you for your prayers so far. The transition has been much easier in many
ways than we anticipated.
p.s. Service is a big part of ICS and Shannon got to spend
some time Friday with other staff at Crossroads. They’re based out of HK, but have a
tremendous heart for all of God’s children and are doing incredible things to
help the poor, sick, widowed, refugees and orphans of the world. They do too much to easily summarize, but I
strongly encourage you to at least check out their website; http://www.crossroads.org.hk/ .
