Friends and routines of life

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The Routines of Life

I’m so busy now that I can’t catch up in one sitting when writing my journal. So, I’ll continue where I left off. Last Sunday I went to church for the first time. The U.S. Consulate had located an English speaking church service for me to attend. It is a daughter church of St. John’s Cathedral near the U.S. Consulate. But, the daughter church where I go is called Emmanuel and is located nearer to campus. It is an Anglican church. It is similar to a Lutheran traditional service in the sense that we sing hymns and an organ plays. But, the Gloria is sung to a different melody. And, the Lord’s Prayer is quite different too. Father Matthew is very kind and considerate. When I called him up to arrange a ride to church, he didn’t even bat an eye when I told him I was blind.

Last Sunday, a Lutheran pastor preached a sermon about unity. This Sunday, yesterday, Matthew held a service that included the children. He read a book about a Chinese girl who painted pictures that came to life. She was charged to only paint for poor people. When the emperor demanded that she paint him a tree with golden coins, she refused. So, the moral of the story was to help poor people.

Father Matthew gave all of the children in the service red pockets with money in them. This is a common practice at the Chinese Lunar New Year. Then, after he read the children the story, he gave them empty envelopes and encouraged them to give other people their money. What a beautiful lesson!

New Friends!

Anyway, back to last Sunday. After church, I met several kind people while drinking tea. The couple that brought me to church, Rebecca and Thomas Abraham, took me back to the graduate house. They are from southern India and have two children, Isaac and Tara. This week when they invited me to their home after church for lunch, I discovered that they have a dog named Penny. She is a Labrador Cocker Spaniel mix. Gosh, she makes me miss Jill, my Seeing Eye Dog who is currently living with my step-mom and dad while I’m in Hong Kong. Of course, Jilly is nicer, friendlier, and generally much more huggable! But, it sure was nice to pet a dog.

The Abraham’s invited another guest yesterday for lunch. Suzanna is a lawyer who works on international human rights and torture issues. She is absolutely fascinating as well! Her mother is Malaysian; her father is German. She has traveled around the world and has so many stories to tell.

For lunch we had Indian food! Since I prefer Indian food to almost any kind, this was a very comforting meal for me. We had pork curry, okra, beans, Indian pickle, rice, and yogurt. Tara made a lovely pudding cake dessert. We had coffee and talked after lunch. Thomas drove me to the Admiralty Station to take a subway to the New Territories. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Learning the Ropes

Back to last week. Piers, the Orientation & Mobility instructor from the Ebenezer School for the Blind, taught me how to ride the buses in Hong Kong. He has made index cards with Chinese written on them. The cards have two purposes. The bigger ones are designed to alert bus drivers that I want to catch a certain bus. The smaller cards show the driver at which stop I would like to get off the bus. I also learned how to ride the MTR or subway in Hong Kong. The subway is very easy, since there are guide paths for me to follow in many places. And, someone speaks English almost everywhere. So, I just ask for help when finding the right train to take.

Last Monday, I met with Sylvia Wong, the coordinator for students with disabilities at HKU. She remembered me from my trip to Hong Kong with Dad in March of 2003. I also met a blind student who has agreed to participate in my research! But, I’ll not say much about that issue, since it’s better suited for the findings of my dissertation study.

I have successfully checked out books at the library at HKU! I’ve got lots of books to scan now! They are really interesting books too. One of them outlines the details of a study of the public transportation in Hong Kong for people with disabilities and the elderly. I’m looking forward to reading them.

Warnings

On Wednesday I went to the U.S. Consulate for my briefing. I thought they would explain some about Chinese culture and warn me not to discuss certain topics. But, Lance Sung, the assistant to Richard Stites who is the Public Affairs Officer, mostly talked about weather warnings and visa issues. Both he and Richard Stites are very kind people. After the briefing, Richard took me out for dinner at the American Club. Founded in the style of English clubs, one must pay an exorbitant membership fee and monthly dues to join. I had French onion soup and a salmon dish with sun dried tomatoes. Before the meal was served, I actually had a roll and butter! This was a very big deal for me! I like rice well enough. But, I really do miss bread.

Richard and I took a taxi back to the U.S. Consulate to participate in the Avian Flu briefing provided to U.S. citizens. I’ve got to say that I was pretty scared at the way the nurse practitioner there was talking about the imminent likelihood of a flu epidemic. It sounds like those of us who have asthma and other difficulties breathing will likely have a rather difficult time, should the Avian Flu mutate into a virus spread human to human. They even suggested stocking up on water and food. Let’s hope that any flu epidemic that may come is mild.

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