Anniversary At Cheng Chau Island

Tamari and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary two weeks ago at Cheng Chau Island in Hong Kong. We went to a quiet resort-type place known as Bethany House, right at the peak of Cheng Chau Island. Our actual anniversary date is March 23rd, but I was in Nigeria for my dad's funeral and Tamari was in Malaysia at that time.

It is amazing to realize that we have been married for 15 years. It feels like we just got married 'yesterday'. We are grateful to God for His blessings over our lives and family and for the gift of our our wonderful children, Alex and Chika.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

My dad, Mr. Apollos Eze Alozie passed away on February 20, 2011. He was about 105 years old, the oldest man in my hometown.

Despite his age, he was in good health and sound mind up t

ill few weeks to his death. He was a kind man. Although he put himself through school, as his parents did not have much money or fully understand the importance of education, he was generous. He took many of his nephews 'under his wings' and ensured that they got, at least, a basic education by taking them to live with him and paying their tuition as they went to school.

He later got married and started his own family. He cared for his family and made sure that we, his children, were educated, even though he was not rich. I remember in 1981 when he was preparing to build a new house and had even prepared many cement bricks for the house.  I had even gone once or twice to help clear out the construction site. Then the result of my university admission test came out and I had passed. My dad left the whole idea of building a new house and channeled his money towards my university education. He never built the house he had intended.  However, I praise God that today we have a better family house than the one my father had planned. 

Christmas 2010 & New Year Vacation

The Christmas/New Year vacation was spent in Hong Kong. We visited a few places of interest inHong Kong such as the Science Museum and also did some fun things such going on a bicycle ride. We rode a total distance of about 30 km to and from Tai Po and had a family picnic while out there.

We also went to a location called Lion’s Rock to a public barbeque area and had a barbeque. It was a funny time because we got there and realized that we had chosen a wrong day to be there. The whole place was full of people and we could not find a BBQ pit to use. It was New Year’s Day and almost everybody was on holiday. So many people were getting together with their family or friends or club members and having a BBQ that day. We ended up sharing a pit with another group of people.

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.