writing from asia...

Two weeks in Hong Kong and these five western territory girls have been officially initiated into the city of rice, street markets and sauna-like conditions.

We were blessed with ample time to explore the city in our first days here and have done just that. The streets where we are staying in Yau Ma Tei are bustling at all hours. It helped a lot once we figured out that you have to walk on the opposite half of the sidewalk than we are used to in order to avoid the fish-swimming-upstream-in-a-sardine-can dynamic. A few stops down the MTR subway, the harbor line is lit up every night with clusters of shining, surprisingly stunning, towering buildings and a 15 minute light show to music is shown nightly.

Eating has been quite the experience here in Hong Kong. We have eaten both in restaurants and a variety of unidentifiable food from carts on the busy streets. My personal favorite to date were the duck and chicken feet (that’s right – a round bamboo plate of no longer feathered bird tootsies) placed on the table in a dim sum restaurant we went to yesterday with a few girls from the William Booth Secondary School. Props go out to Meghan, who gobbled down both types of feet, and to Jackie and Nikole for trying the latter mentioned fowl footsies.

I also read today the U.S. banned seafood from China. I’ve strongly encouraged my teammates to lay off the eel, squid legs and octopus bits due to the following quote from cnn.com, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it would detain three types of fish -- catfish, basa and dace -- as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing turned up contamination with drugs unapproved in the United States for use in farmed seafood.”

Our hosts are incredibly gracious and welcoming. Living in a headquarters building, we even have a bag of sandwiches hanging on our door practically every evening.

Our main host, Major Ma, took us to the Tai O fishing village on the far west side of the island – famous for their dried and salted fish that hang along all sides of the village. A couple of the open stands even had full sized dried and salted sharks. Riding in a mid-sized motorboat, we toured the town on stilts above water and caught a glimpse of the pink dolphins that are unique to Hong Kong.

The annual dragon boat races (a national holiday) were held at Stanley beach last week, which we attended in the seemingly 200 degree Fahrenheit weather. In one leg of the crew-like competition we watched, the USA team – wearing American flag headdresses and led by Uncle Sam – won! Go team.

We also attended the Hong Kong and Macau command commissioning ceremony, held last Sunday at a Salvation Army school and attended by roughly 1,000 people. The five of us helped celebrate the ordination of this year’s two cadets.

Thursday and Friday we visited the William Booth Secondary School, one of the many schools run by The Salvation Army in Hong Kong, to get to know the high-school aged kids and interact in English. Friday morning we expected six or seven kids that we planned to split in two groups. When we arrived, we were told there were six classes of nearly 30 kids each! Good thing we have chameleon like characteristics – we quickly modified the plan and I am confident our team and the kids we spent time with enjoyed the experience.

Today we traveled to the Kam Tin corps and community center to run one program for seniors and another for junior soldiers. The nearly 40 seniors who came to see us smiled throughout our entire meeting and presented us with a gift of appreciation in concluding. The 10 kids who came for our hour-long Saturday program especially loved that squeeze-the-hand-in-line game.
We helped with childcare for a wedding in the afternoon and spent a whole hour balloon sword fighting.

Another thing we have to mention…Our one concern thus far are the drops of demise (air conditioner fluid) that fall from every rooftop hovering over the sidewalks leaving passerby below darting about to avoid the inescapably vicious juicy batter.

Tomorrow we are visiting and worshiping with the Tai Hung Tung congregation and hopefully staking out a seat along the harbor to watch the much-anticipated fireworks show to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. We are hoping the now four-days straight of torrential downpour will cease upon our arrival to the outdoor celebration, but aren't counting on it. We do plan to purchase umbrellas, and keep meaning to – at some point, we will.

Attached are a few pictures for your aesthetic delight.

We’re thinking of you all – be safe and enjoy the days ahead.
christin