Apologies for the delay since I last wrote, but things have been fairly hectic. Anyway, here is the latest and probably last update this academic year.
We had the pleasure of receiving a family visit for Easter, in fact getting on for three weeks. So now all three daughters and their families have been to Hong Kong to share in its heady delights. As with our common experience of the Congo all those years ago, I am sure it will give us something to talk about in the years ahead.
We also had a visit from head office in Norway, which gave all five of us volunteers a chance to share our experiences with Grethe Raddum. We found that we had been fortunate in having each other to talk to. Øystein has already left since the teaching is over at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Heidi and Steffen, our Danish friends who have been in charge of Ascension House, the backpackers hostel, this year, are on a trip to Mainland and are wondering where they will be next school year. They are confident that something will turn up, such is the optimism of youth, and I dare say it will be justified.
I have been asked to stay on for another year to teach at LTS and have said yes. It is a pleasure to feel you are needed and appreciated at 72 and can still make a contribution. Since there will be new senior volunteers living at Ai Kwon Yuen, this means moving down to what I call mosquito bottoms, No 1 To Fong Shan Road. It is the bottom flat and perfectly adequate except that at present it seems to serve as a store house for unwanted furniture etc and lacks any household and kitchen equipment whatsoever. I hope this will be fixed before I move in and that I can leave the stuff I do not want to take home this summer there. So I shall be back in Hong Kong in late August and Ingrid will come in mid October. We shall both go home for Christmas and come back after the New Year in time for the Spring Semester. How long Ingrid will join me is up to her travel insurance but I shall be here till late June next year. Ingrid has already made appointments with TFS where there are all kinds of volunteer work without stepping on the new senior volunteers’ toes. All this means another round of visa applications and then renewal of our Hong Kong ID cards.
We had the pleasure of receiving a family visit for Easter, in fact getting on for three weeks. So now all three daughters and their families have been to Hong Kong to share in its heady delights. As with our common experience of the Congo all those years ago, I am sure it will give us something to talk about in the years ahead.
We also had a visit from head office in Norway, which gave all five of us volunteers a chance to share our experiences with Grethe Raddum. We found that we had been fortunate in having each other to talk to. Øystein has already left since the teaching is over at the Lutheran Theological Seminary. Heidi and Steffen, our Danish friends who have been in charge of Ascension House, the backpackers hostel, this year, are on a trip to Mainland and are wondering where they will be next school year. They are confident that something will turn up, such is the optimism of youth, and I dare say it will be justified.
I have been asked to stay on for another year to teach at LTS and have said yes. It is a pleasure to feel you are needed and appreciated at 72 and can still make a contribution. Since there will be new senior volunteers living at Ai Kwon Yuen, this means moving down to what I call mosquito bottoms, No 1 To Fong Shan Road. It is the bottom flat and perfectly adequate except that at present it seems to serve as a store house for unwanted furniture etc and lacks any household and kitchen equipment whatsoever. I hope this will be fixed before I move in and that I can leave the stuff I do not want to take home this summer there. So I shall be back in Hong Kong in late August and Ingrid will come in mid October. We shall both go home for Christmas and come back after the New Year in time for the Spring Semester. How long Ingrid will join me is up to her travel insurance but I shall be here till late June next year. Ingrid has already made appointments with TFS where there are all kinds of volunteer work without stepping on the new senior volunteers’ toes. All this means another round of visa applications and then renewal of our Hong Kong ID cards.