Never underestimate where the world will take you

Welcome back! It feels good to be back on Macau soil. This weekend we were in Hong Kong at the Kadoorie Institute for a retreat with all the Fulbrights from the area. These Fulbright scholars, fellows, etc. all come from a variety of backgrounds and are at a wide selection of universities and communities in Hong Kong. The 8 ETAs were the only representatives from Macau, and there are no ETAs in Hong Kong, so we were the younger of the crowd.  I was able to meet some interesting faces while there, and the theme of the weekend was sharing ideas about teaching, English, learning, culture, community, Hong Kong, US-China relations, etc. There was a younger guy researching urban planning and development in Hong Kong who also had a background in Economics. We were definitely the least educated of all the scholars and fellows there. All but us had Masters, and most had a PhD. Lots of brains to pick! A sweet lady named Rosalee was the spouse of a Fulbrighter, but had a significant background in teaching. She offered to sit in on my elementary classes and give me pointers at any time I wanted. And the grand finale of interesting folks that I met was an adorable elderly man named Morton who works at a university in Zhuhai. He had one of those cozy personalities and first introduced himself by asking if I went to a church in Macau—he’d seen me at our tiny church! How nifty. He’s worked for the U.S. government/consulate around the world in multiple positions, and he worked under Nixon trying to find the Peking Man. The most exciting part? My sweet friend hails from none other than Owensboro, Kentucky (no wonder I liked him so much). He didn’t recognize the name of Helms, but was quick to remind me that with 50,000 people, Owensboro used to be the 3^rd largest city in KY.

Also this weekend, I finished my next book. The English Orphans is a classic written in the 1800s that I downloaded for free. It’s a story about a family that comes from England to America. The father, mother and brother all die toward the beginning of the book, leaving a baby and 2 older sisters as orphans. A wealthy lady in society adopts Ella, the younger of the 2 sisters because the older sister, Mary, had told her mother she’d take care of the baby. Because of the inability to separate from the baby and no one wanting to take 2 children, Mary and baby end up at the poor house. As the story continues, Mary gets the horrible side of each situation while her sister is extremely well off—even to the point that she sticks her nose up and refuses to associate with her pauper sister (as children). I won’t ruin the story, but I enjoyed the book for how it dove into the prejudices tied in with economic well-being. It is a sad truth that many ‘friends’ in life are there in the good times and want to mock you or just leave you in the bad. Stories like this remind me never to frown upon someone’s situation (be it wealth, health, beauty, etc.) because I may very well be in their shoes or worse someday. Also, it is important that no matter what life hands us, we press on.  I definitely recommend this book.

On the same theme as the book, one of the interesting topics that we discussed at retreat was Language and Empowerment. First off, there are many different dialects in China. Although the Chinese government attempted to make a consistent language throughout the country in the 1950s and were to some degree successful with what we call ‘Mandarin Chinese’ with simplified characters, there is still a wide variety of language in the country. Sometimes I think we tend to forget just how HUGE and spread out much of China is. If you spoke Mandarin Chinese in the United States as few as 10-15 years ago, you were considered poor because it was seen as a pauper’s dialect. Not only is Mandarin (or Putonghua as it is known here) taught in many U.S. universities now, but if you speak it in the states as a Chinese person, it would be perceived that you were wealthy and your family moved to the U.S.  Amazing that a language/dialect can have such different implications over such a short period of time.

The Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, and the Canton province is known as Cantonese. It uses the traditional characters (those are the characters that were used up until the 1950s when Mandarin became the ‘official’ governmental language of China). When I say dialect, I don’t mean like Yankee and Southern accents, I mean that these people can’t understand each other. Also interesting is the cultural tension that exists between north and south China. The south is seen as wealthier and the north is seen as more of the countryside (opposite of the good ole’ south in America having the ‘country folk’). There is definitely pride associated with where a Chinese person is from, and although mandarin is pretty widely spoken throughout China now, there are still many other dialects of Chinese. It seems a lot of people speak or understand multiple dialects. …I’m still working on my first.

Well, I’ve blabbed enough, here are some pictures to tell more story in less time:

The scene from the Ferry Terminal. This is the Sands casino along with part of Fisherman's Wharf. And yes, that is a fake volcano...which apparently doesn't even put on a show?

This is the view I woke up to every morning, surrounded for the first time in a while by chirping birds and greenery :)

These were the buildings we stayed in: meet the Kadoorie Institute

This was at Kadoorie Farm--this really neat place that was set up I think in the 1950s to train farmers so that the poor could fend for themselves. The farm now also sells organic food, has museums, and several animal exhibits. It was a Typhoon 1 warning today (aka rain) so we didn't get to see much of the farm, but I liked this motto.

There was a bus tour of the farm which they underestimated the demand for. Two people had to not go on the tour, so Ray and I volunteered to stay behind. Not going to lie, I was a little bummed at first, but then Ray and I found the museum/market and this neat little arts and crafts building. Seen here: a cute little old man teaching us how to make pinwheel spinners out of some grass like plant. The cool part: there was a story behind it about a boy that grows up, starts earning money, buys a car etc. behind each time we folded a leaf. Too neat! Ray translated. We also made herbal potpourri type of bags with mint and we think lavender that we got to mash with old fashioned pestle and mortar.

The end result pinwheel thing--it's hard to show in a picture.

A porcupine wood thing I purchased. I forgot the type of wood, but it's supposed to keep bugs out of drawers. I bought it mostly to help the farm, but isn't it too cute!?!

Our room. This was the first time I had seen 2 twins and 1 full bed in a room like this. There was lots of bug friends visiting (that's what you get being in nature). It was comical to watch Athena (from Staten Island) cope with bugs. She hasn't been camping as much as Lauren and I. The 3 of us girls work together well--at the very least to entertain each other. I killed a roach, spider, and some other bug in the first hour or so. Lauren wouldn't let me kill her friend the daddy long legs, though she wouldn't touch him and put him outside either. Next day he had made a web on my night stand. I was nice, I didn't kill it (though I keep reminding her that bugs outnumber humans with no problem).

We want one of these for our apartment. Seen here: a fish trash can from the park.

A woven masterpiece done by the community at Kadoorie Farm.

Beautiful flower trees in the tropics

 This is just an example of what a typical sign would look like in Hong Kong--both English and Chinese. Also, it was really rainy today. We got to ride back on a really bumpy ferry, but we are here and safe. Public holiday tomorrow! No work! I hope its nice out. :)