The First Two Weeks

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 7^th 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/ .