Visit To Beijing, China

My family was in Beijing from Thursday April 20th to 28th 2008. That was the first time we visited Mainland China. By the way, Hong Kong still has a separate governmental administration from China, so you need a Chinese visa to go from Hong Kong into Mainland China. This separate administration will continue for another forty years or so. It was interesting to see the differences between the two places. For the first time in seven months we were not so limited by space as we feel we are in Hong Kong, Beijing is spread out and there aren’t as many thirty story high-rise buildings everywhere you turn. Everyone is not rushing around so much as well. On the downside – people are poorer and the grey hue and lack of HK fashion and techno gadgets everywhere were glaringly different than we are used to seeing here.
The Great Wall: It was a great privilege to visit the Great Wall of China, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It is a major tourist attraction. You can hike up and down the mountain to the wall, or use cable car service. They also have a toboggan ride down the mountain, which the family thoroughly enjoyed!
Tiananmen Square: This is said to be the world’s largest public square. Around the square are the “Great Hall of the People” and the “Forbidden City” – the latter so called because it was off limits for 500 years. We also visited the “Temple of Prayer for Good Harvest”, more popular known as the “Temple of Heaven.” It is located on a different part of Beijing city.

Fundraising at the Carnival For Care for Children Organization: Among the activities we carried out during out trip was a fundraising carnival. Alex acted as one of the two clowns. Henry helped with soccer, Chika had fun hiding eggs for the hunt, while Tamari helped with the jumping castle.
During a different event (called Sunday Night Live), Chika and Tamari acted in a wordless drama performance. The drama took place during the intermission in the gospel-music show.

Chinese New Year & Chika's Birthday

Chinese New Year in Hong Kong and other parts of south-east Asia is like Christmas season. It was celebrated this year on the 7th and 8th of February. In fact, it is the most important holiday for many people here. There are a lot of decorations, and festivities. Many offices and shops were closed and people were in merry mood.
Our school had a week vacation. However, we did not travel outside Hong Kong, although a number of our colleagues did. We hope to travel during the Easter and summer vacations. For Easter, we are considering going to the Philippines, Thailand or Hainan Island (China). For the summer, we will be in Nigeria, by God’s grace.

Chikacha has just turned nine years old. Happy Birthday Kacha! Our family prayed over him and celebrated with cake and ice cream. The following day, a few of his friends came over to our house and celebrated further with him. By the way, Alex is currently ten and a half. He will be eleven years old on August 26th this year. It is amazing how time flies. We are very grateful to God though, because they are doing very well. Alex is in grade five while Chika is in grade 4.
The facilities in the new school building are certainly better than what we had in the old campus. There are better equipped classrooms, laboratories, two gymnasia, a standard-sized swimming pool, fitness center and more.

Our Life In Hong Kong

Alex and Chika were away for five days on “week without walls” camp. That was the first time they have gone away from mom and dad for that long. We were a bit concerned about that, but they coped very well. We thank God for that. They are increasingly growing independent and, in a way, we like that, since Hong Kong is a pretty safe place.

Also, the boys participated in a soccer as a way to acquire some skills and get some exercise. They played once a week on Saturdays. They are continuing in January, but will be practicing at a different location on Friday evenings and for longer time.
Their classes at school put up some performances - bands and singing. They also took part in the Christmas peagent organized by the children’s ministry of our local church – The Vine Fellowship. Chika participated in singing while Alex was an actor.

I was an under-12 soccer coach for International Christian School during the first season of games/sports. We did okay and were in the third place out of six teams in our league. Some of my players had never played in an organized soccer team before. So it was like starting from the scratch.

The secondary component of our school went on week without walls in November (26th – 30th). It was the first time I participated in this program. It was really fun. Another teacher and I had sixteen students with us and we went biking, bouldering, camping, and kayaking. We also went on a canyon.
The Christmas break was a good time to unwind. My family did not travel out of Hong Kong. However, it was a good time to sleep in, travel within and enjoy Hong Kong. We visited the beach at Cheng Chau, the botanical and zoological garden, the Ocean Park (a park that has cable cars, many rides, and the largest aquarium in the world). We also travelled on the longest escalator in the world. It takes 20 minutes to complete. We were a little bit disappointed though, because the escalator is not one continuous piece. It is a chain of escalators from Central to Mid-Levels.

Living in Hong Kong

My family arrived Hong Kong safely. We have been battling with the adjustments that come with being in a new place. We are pretty settled now.
Hong Kong is a great place. It has many beautiful sceneries. The public transport system is efficient, with alternative modes of transport available. There are so many tall buildings, malls, elevators, and escalators. However, Hong Kong is also challenging in a number of ways. The apartments are generally small, except for the village apartments located in the more suburban areas. Most people here speak Mandarin (Chinese) or Cantonese (Hong Kong version of Mandarin). That makes communication with the public difficult. There is limited English Language usage.


Furthermore, the international school I am working for does not have as many resources as the last school I worked for in the United States.

That makes things tough sometimes. However, the school is moving into a brand new complex in a few months and the facilities/resources would be better.