OUR MAINE GUEST

My sister-in-law Joni visited us from Maine, USA in September. We had a great time with her. Three days after her arrival, she went on tour of Beijing with Tamari. They joined a group tour and the company that organized the trip took care of their transport, food, accommodation and visit to places of interest.

Upon their return to Hong Kong, I

was able to take a day off from work and we visited some places of interest in Hong Kong. notably the Hong Kong Museum of History and

the

Peak.

There were so

many interesting display in the museum that we spent about three hours there.

The Peak was equally fascinating, with the breath-taking views. We arrived at the Peak late afternoon and stayed at the viewing pavilion till the city lights came on. It was a very beautiful sight.

In addition, we did go to a recreational theme park called Ocean Park. I went with Joni, Alex, and Chika. Tammy is not comfortable riding the cable cars or going on the rides. So she did not come with us. At the theme park Joni finally saw the giant pandas. She had hoped to encounter them in the wild, but no we do not have wild giant pandas in Hong Kong. However, she was fine with seeing them in the park, and she bought a panda T-shirt to boot.

NAMIBIA 2010

We traveled to South Africa on June 15th and after spending a week there, we proceeded from Johannesburg to Windhoek, Namibia. We spent five days in Windhoek with our friends (Jimmy and Mynie) and interacted with many other friends, most of whom we have not seen for over nine years. One of the main highlights of staying in Windhoek was the popular Namibian 'Braai' (BBQ).

We proceeded to the north, also known as Ovamboland. On our way we spent three days at Etosha National Park driving around the park viewing the animals. At one of the watering holes, we saw 32 elephants. That was incredible! We also saw lot of ostriches, deer, zebras, giraffes, guinea fowls and more.

At Ongwediva we stayed at Etunda Guest House, a quiet and family-friendly guest house. We visited BB10 where Henry used to live and WB 13 where Tamari used to live at Ongwediva College of Education. We also visited the Christian Baptist Church where we wedded and Alex and Chika were dedicated to God. Furthermore, we visited the Four-square Gospel Church and were greatly pleased to see all the people and their spiritual growth.

Southern Africa 2010

It was a great coincidence that the World Cup tournament in South Africa and our planned trip to South Africa and Namibia fell on same year and period of time. We were not aware that the world cup was going to be in South Africa when we started planning our trip. Anyway the coincidence made it possible for us to watch some of the matches live while still visiting with friends as we had planned. Henry, Alex and Chika were able to watch the Ghana vs Australia match. In addition, Henry also watched the Nigeria v Greece match with his friend Gabriel and a few other friends.

Easter 2010 In Hong Kong

It has been another vacation time spent in Hong Kong. Just before the vacation started, the “Hong Kong Community Wind Band” had a concert in Shatin. Tamari recently became a member of the band and she is playing trumpet again after a 26 year hiatus, and enjoying being part of an ensemble once again.

We have settled into our Hong Kong late night routine of staying up far too late, just hanging out with one another, and then sleeping late the next morning only to arise to a yummy breakfast that Flora has cooked up for us! Flora is our domestic helper who lives with us and has become an integral part of our family here. Her ability to stretch a dollar and create delicious meals are equally matched with her quiet and gentle spirit to make her highly valued by all in our home!

We did manage to do a bit of hiking out to a pretty part of Hong Kong, a place called Sai Kung, which is not too far from our home. Hong Kong is an amazing city in that there are parts where tall cement buildings predominate the landscape, and then after a short bus or ferry ride, you are hiking on well-preserved trails in lush green vegetation looking at picturesque mountains and the sea.

Our church organized an ‘inreach’ where those of us who stayed around HK for the holiday (as opposed to going on one of the three mission ‘outreaches’) shared a BBQ at the beach. Our church is blessed with people from all over the world – there are actually four different language groups besides English and Chinese. We have a group from Nepal, one from Sri Lanka, one from Pakistan, and one from Africa. The African fellowship is a large group with people from many African countries. The in-reach was an opportunity for the various groups to mix together and get to know one another and the rest of the church body.

Chinese New Year 2010

Chinese New Year has just been celebrated in Hong Kong and the rest of China. It is celebrated with greater fan-fair that New Year's day and Christmas in this part of the world. There are great decorations, parties and the famous red packets. The red packets are small envelopes, usually containing varying sums of money, that people gave to one another, especially from married people to children. It can also be given by an older person to a younger person, such as junior associated. It is based on the superstition that year will be very prosperous.

We had a week vacation during the Chinese New Year and again, spent it in Hong Kong. It was a relaxing time.

We volunteered with some other members of our church one day and visited old people's homes. We also, did some fun things such as playing some games of tennis and visiting the "Ocean Park" - one of the theme parks in Hong Kong.

Arrangements for our trip to South Africa and Namibia are going well. From the look of things, we feel positive that it will all work out, by God's grace. We are making our bookings, most of which are being done by e-mail or phone calls. We are excitedly looking forward to the trip.