So this week finally marked the end of the first term or semester, at school. And what a term, I thought the Christmas term back home was bad enough!! Term finished today (Monday 27th) and we are back in full swing on Monday 10th February, raring to go for the next 5 months until we break up in July (with various says off and a week for Easter in April when I might be going to Australia, funds have to be consulted there! I'm so excited for my trip to Cambodia, I fly on Friday and I've got an action packed week planned with plenty of tourist stuff because that's what you do on holiday!!
I spent Monday and Tuesday teaching K3 about Chinese New Year, or at least specifically about the Good Wishes signs that are often hung up in homes at Chinese New Year, wishing for good luck on that place for the coming year. We got the kids to write their own ones that they decorated in a later lesson which went down a storm and they all enjoyed it, I hope...
On Wednesday most of the Tuen Mun group plus Yuen Long, met up for sushi. With no battery in my phone and with the only clue of going for sushi, I wandered around a little before remembering the last place we had all gone for sushi which thankfully turned out to be the place where they were. It's very good sushi and a lovely atmosphere so combined with excellent company, it made for a great mid week meet up.
On Thursday I travelled down to Wan Chai as Murray and I were due to meet up with some of the worship team as both of us have been feeling called to this area of serving the church. Sadly neither of us had been told that the jam session, as they had called it, had been cancelled because Jon, Worship Pastor, had a wisdom tooth flaring up so he was in no state to do much/any talking! But we found friends of Murray putting together a collage of prayers that the congregation of The Vine had written on multi coloured pieces of paper last Sunday so we helped stick them on and it looks like an image of Jesus, which was the idea. So it was not an evening wasted, just spent not in the way we thought it would go! Got to love lots of surprises.
Friday was the last day of lessons, although it wasn't really as we had our monthly Birthday Party which was combined with a flower market. These are markets that crop up all over Hong Kong at Chinese New Year and sell a variety of things including flowers, Chinese paintings, clothes and Best Wishes signs. We gave the children fake money and each year came out and 'bought' items that the teachers were selling, ranging from horse piggy banks to the Best Wishes signs that the K3 children had made to flowers. It was hugely successful and all of them loved it. This was followed for each year by a performance from the K3s. In the morning, the whole day class had learnt a dance to show and there were some performing a lion dance which is a huge costume that was very well executed. In the afternoon, the children were shown the lion dance as rehearsed by the afternoon children and two very talented K3 children showed the routine they had been learning in...I'm not quite sure which martial art it is so I will get back to you on that one as I don't want to make a mistake and be highly embarrassed...but they are very impressive, disciplined and sharp, incredible for two 5 year olds.
On Sunday Ruth, Becky, Lucy, Tom, Will, Katie, Ben and his friend from England Tom and I travelled to Tai O, a dishing village on Lantau Island. It was very quaint with rural fishing life mashed with the arrival of tourists and the effect hay as having. It was fascinating to see what as clearly a much poorer part of the city and see it has Hong Kong may have been before it became so modernised.
From there, all of us minus Will and the Yuen Long crew, went on to the Big Buddha. This is a giant statue of the Buddha overlooking beautiful scenery and a monastery and temple. We had to climb up over 200 steps to get to the top but the view was very much worth it it and it strongly reminded me of my visit to Christ the Redeemer on the mission trip I went on in October 2012. We then saw the temple before getting in the cable car that had a glass floor, allowing us stunning views of what was below as well as around us.
In the evening, the same group minus Will and plus Becky and Tom met up for some more bowling. Turns out Ben's friend Tom is quite the bowler and almost managed to get the better of Ruth in the second game. I magnificently lost both games but I did get a strike and a couple of nines which is something to be proud of at least.
Now I am on holiday, I cannot wait to fly on Friday to my holiday in Cambodia. It's going great fun but I cannot promise that I will be able to write my blog so apologies if you don't st one next week, you can have double in two weeks time!
Apologies for the lack of photos again, there's been some trouble accessing the website on my laptop so I've had to do it another way where I can't access my photos to upload...
Until next time,
Batkinson xxx
Cantonese phrase of the week: pronounced - san Lee fy lo; translation - Happy New Year (used for Chinese New Year)
Quote of the week: 'Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. Like this journey never ends.' - Jamie Sullivan (A Walk To Remember)
Prayer points:
- that I feel refreshed by my holiday and don't get overwhelmed by it all.
- that I feel calm as I a little worried about it, flying out again with stopovers...it's a little nerve-wracking...
- that I recover from the horrid cough that has been plaguing me for the last couple of weeks and has not been nice.
Out in a boat on the sea, going rather fast!
Homemade doughnuts, warm and sugary, delicious!
The Tai O market, a fascinating place to be in!
Mis-spelling of the week...I assume it was supposed to say snacks...
This probabaly would have been where several houses would have stood, now all that remains are charred stilts that they stood on
Should we be concerned about this?!
We did it!!!!
Gee, thanks Ben for the photobomb of what was going to be a perfectly good windswept shot!
That's much better!
The view from the top, pretty impressive huh?
The view from the top, pretty impressive huh?
12 of these lined the walk way to the Big Buddha, eaach representing one sign of the Zodiac. This is the dog, the Zodiac year in 1994 when I was born!
The temple we visited after the climb!
The sun starts to set as we begin our descent on the cable car...
The cable car route that seemed to stretch forever!
The glass floor we had in our cabin and the stunning views below!
Cheering on Tom and Will as they took their turns!
Ben and Willow...
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