Its so strange
being back in Hong Kong after 3 weeks in China. Materialism and over crowding are two things you'll find here as I was in the thick of it today being pulled into a A/V expo or for you non A/V people "Audio/Visual" electronics expo. The 6 booths they put up in the middle of a shopping center was quite the exhibit and all part of Hong Kong's latest and greatest scheme to entice shoppers. Yes we have the official HONG KONG SHOPPING FESTIVAL "bonanza" going on from June 24 to August 31! That's right a festival to celebrate the season of summer, the season of shopping! What more could someone ask for? Next week we'll be dancing our way into Knutsford Happy Day, were you can dine at some fancy restaurants and of course be Happy! Come on everybody its Happy day!
On a more serious note, it was quite sad to see our American brothers depart today. As difficult as the coming year will be, these guys know what it will be like as we taught together for 3 weeks. I could see each of them being stretched while being there, from trying out the bathrooms to teaching for at times 8 hours a day. More importantly I think was the desire to do more, to come back again, and even a sense of loss because we didn't get as much interaction time with our students. Especially since we got to bus back to our hotel while our students stayed in the residence almost every evening. One person really held out this point as he thought in retrospect that being able to stay at the school with the students would have a bigger impact with the students. Of course there are things to overcome while living at the school such as the sanitary conditions and danger of being emotionally burnt out, but those kinds of situations are times when we are stretched and have to learn to become more flexible.
I have to admit I was not able to reflect on this trip as much as I would have liked and I was having a little difficulty adjusting to the new environment and I would just like to thank the Alice, the Canadian and American team for being there and showing me ways to be open even in light of my own pride.
That's all for now from Hong Kong!
On a more serious note, it was quite sad to see our American brothers depart today. As difficult as the coming year will be, these guys know what it will be like as we taught together for 3 weeks. I could see each of them being stretched while being there, from trying out the bathrooms to teaching for at times 8 hours a day. More importantly I think was the desire to do more, to come back again, and even a sense of loss because we didn't get as much interaction time with our students. Especially since we got to bus back to our hotel while our students stayed in the residence almost every evening. One person really held out this point as he thought in retrospect that being able to stay at the school with the students would have a bigger impact with the students. Of course there are things to overcome while living at the school such as the sanitary conditions and danger of being emotionally burnt out, but those kinds of situations are times when we are stretched and have to learn to become more flexible.
I have to admit I was not able to reflect on this trip as much as I would have liked and I was having a little difficulty adjusting to the new environment and I would just like to thank the Alice, the Canadian and American team for being there and showing me ways to be open even in light of my own pride.
That's all for now from Hong Kong!
posted by Chris at 3:52 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home