25 August – 2nd September
Tao Fong Shan (TFS)and the neighbouring Luther Theological Seminary (LTS) are beautiful sites with views down to the skyscrapers down in Sha Tin valley and over lush wooded green hills. Ingrid and I have been made to feel most welcome. We have met many people and been shown around. Everyone has been very helpful. Our general impression is that Hong Kong is clean,tidy and safe.
So far there has been a service unit lunch, a challenge for someone as clumsy with chopsticks as myself. This coming Friday there is the annual picnic on an island off Hong Kong. We are looking forward to that. The two Danish youth volunteers responsible for Ascension House, who arrived about a month before us and therefore can be reckoned “old hands” (everything is relative), have kindly accompanied us on a shopping trip. We soon found out that although the walk down is OK, given the heat and humidity, a taxi is the best alternative back up.
Us four Scandinavians took a ferry out to an outlying island for a hike and a swim. We did the hike but had to take shelter from a really impressive tropical downpour and there was no time left for a swim. We got wet anyway.
This sounds like all fun and games but I doubt very much if we shall be idle. Tomorrow a group of Danish religion teachers arrive and we are to show them around TFS. In the evening a couple of Swedish musicians arrive from Kunming on the mainland. We are to guide them around TFS and Hong Kong. Today I began teaching at the seminary: two Hong Kong students, two from Myanmar and one from Pakistan. At the English teacher committee before the class I got assigned two students whose English theses I was to help with.
Ingrid and I will be taking our turns leading midday or evening prayers and we have meetings with various others who hope we might prove useful. It is so nice to feel needed.
Continued - 10 September
After showing the Swedish musicians around TFS and LTS, we took them downtown to visit the Chi Lin nunnery and its neighbouring gardens. The gardens are beautiful, a haven in an island of skyscrapers, while the nunnery itself is like something out of a Chinese fairy tale. From there we went across to Hong Kong Island and took the tram up to the Peak. Quite a view! In the evening we crossed back to Victoria Harbour in Kowloon to see the eight o´clock light show. Time Square New York has nothing on this!
Friday was a staff trip to Tai O, a fishing village on Lantau Island. Conditions there are very different from in the more urban districts. Many move away as there is not much money to be made from fishing, but the place is popular with tourists. The former police station has become a luxury hotel with prices way above our budget.
On Sunday evening there was the weekly service of the English congregation followed by a meal in Pilgrimś Hall.
Monday evening was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday which is usually a family get -together and where candles are lit in highly coloured paper lanterns and moon cakes are handed out and shared. We invited a group of international students to our house.
I have had classes up at LTS both in reading strategies and note taking and sat in on class a colleague has on thesis and dissertation writing. Ingrid and I had a meeting with the head of the Christian Centre to discuss possible seminars and retreats we could assist with.
Tao Fong Shan (TFS)and the neighbouring Luther Theological Seminary (LTS) are beautiful sites with views down to the skyscrapers down in Sha Tin valley and over lush wooded green hills. Ingrid and I have been made to feel most welcome. We have met many people and been shown around. Everyone has been very helpful. Our general impression is that Hong Kong is clean,tidy and safe.
So far there has been a service unit lunch, a challenge for someone as clumsy with chopsticks as myself. This coming Friday there is the annual picnic on an island off Hong Kong. We are looking forward to that. The two Danish youth volunteers responsible for Ascension House, who arrived about a month before us and therefore can be reckoned “old hands” (everything is relative), have kindly accompanied us on a shopping trip. We soon found out that although the walk down is OK, given the heat and humidity, a taxi is the best alternative back up.
Us four Scandinavians took a ferry out to an outlying island for a hike and a swim. We did the hike but had to take shelter from a really impressive tropical downpour and there was no time left for a swim. We got wet anyway.
This sounds like all fun and games but I doubt very much if we shall be idle. Tomorrow a group of Danish religion teachers arrive and we are to show them around TFS. In the evening a couple of Swedish musicians arrive from Kunming on the mainland. We are to guide them around TFS and Hong Kong. Today I began teaching at the seminary: two Hong Kong students, two from Myanmar and one from Pakistan. At the English teacher committee before the class I got assigned two students whose English theses I was to help with.
Ingrid and I will be taking our turns leading midday or evening prayers and we have meetings with various others who hope we might prove useful. It is so nice to feel needed.
Continued - 10 September
After showing the Swedish musicians around TFS and LTS, we took them downtown to visit the Chi Lin nunnery and its neighbouring gardens. The gardens are beautiful, a haven in an island of skyscrapers, while the nunnery itself is like something out of a Chinese fairy tale. From there we went across to Hong Kong Island and took the tram up to the Peak. Quite a view! In the evening we crossed back to Victoria Harbour in Kowloon to see the eight o´clock light show. Time Square New York has nothing on this!
Friday was a staff trip to Tai O, a fishing village on Lantau Island. Conditions there are very different from in the more urban districts. Many move away as there is not much money to be made from fishing, but the place is popular with tourists. The former police station has become a luxury hotel with prices way above our budget.
On Sunday evening there was the weekly service of the English congregation followed by a meal in Pilgrimś Hall.
Monday evening was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday which is usually a family get -together and where candles are lit in highly coloured paper lanterns and moon cakes are handed out and shared. We invited a group of international students to our house.
I have had classes up at LTS both in reading strategies and note taking and sat in on class a colleague has on thesis and dissertation writing. Ingrid and I had a meeting with the head of the Christian Centre to discuss possible seminars and retreats we could assist with.