Last Tuesday, I stepped one year closer to that dream, and I waved goodbye to 23 and said, "what the hell do you want" to 24. My Birthday was August 28th. Many people know that I usually don't make a fuss about my birthday; in fact, I usually walk silently through it, which often results in some of my closest friends never noticing that my birthday has come and gone. That was my plan here, but it was thwarted by the magnificent Manie. There was a B-day dinner planned for me in town; which was suppose to be a surprise, but do to an e-mail malfunction I received an invite. Nonetheless, it was wonderful. There was a nice assortment of Chinese and American food, and two small cakes, one covered in slices of Mango (once again missing Mozambique). Afterward, one of my colleagues treated me to a healthy desert, it was a strawberry/mango/rice balls/syrup/some other stuff concoction that was delicious (remember, you can't ask me about food, I don't remember such details). As for gifts, I don't exchange gifts with my friends. I always consider the friendship as the gift. I don't need to give you a gift, I give you myself, my hand and service, because we are friends (Yes, my wife is going to be pampered). Nonetheless, there were a few gifts. One was a wooden train with the inscription "Ben's Thinking," on it. One of the students named Po gave it to me. Manie gave me a beautiful cross keychain, which I have on my room key right now. My Brown sista Shanita gave me the gift of poetry, which of course is very dear to me. I also received cards and an interesting mechanical pencil.
Lastly, and this deserves it's own paragraph, my Malaysian friends Epin and Val gave me a cell phone that one of them had received as a free gift at a bank. Now, I have been debating getting a cell phone my entire time here. At first, I didn't want one. I didn't want to pay $60 USD for a phone I will only use one year. The phone isn't for talking just so people can find me. I had decided that if I am going to buy one, it will have to be a nice one that I can take home and use. However, I am trying to budget until our next paycheck, so I couldn't buy one until October. I actually prayed about, because I didn't want to be extremely inaccessible to the group, but I didn't want to spend the money either. I prayed for God to make it simple, and threw wonderful people he did.
All in all my birthday was one of the best I have ever had, truly.
Switching topics, I went to get my Hong Kong ID card on the 29th, and ran into an interesting conversation with one of the ladies that worked their. I was wearing my crucifix, and she asked whether I was Catholic (She is Catholic). I said "no, but I am Christian." Then she asked whether I am a Christian by choice or because of culture or my mother, and I said choice. She asked me several other questions, and we had a wonderful conversation. I have come into contact with many Chinese Christians who are interested in such conversations with me. Wanting to know about my church, and beliefs, one even wanted to learn to read the Bible in English. This is all very unexpected, but very refreshing. Also, this week, I have begun sitting in on tutorial classes in Human Development. In Hong Kong, as well as other countries, the students attend a mass lecture, and then a smaller class later in the week to tease out some of the issues from the mass lecture. I sat in on two Human Development tutorials this week. In one, everybody got into four groups of about 5 and discussed a couple of the questions from class. I sat in on two of the small groups and cleared up any confusion that they might of had with some of the terms. These students are taking a Human Development class in English, which is their second language, and a language that they are not proficient in; thus, you can see the difficulties. Many come from mainland China where there isn't much opportunity for them to practice their English that they learn in school, which is quite different from the Hong Kong natives. Nonetheless, I did what I could and listened to them debate the questions. Here is where it gets a little interesting. While I was with the other table, my ears kept floating to the table next to me, because there was one student who spoke English fluently and I was surprised. I went to investigate, and found out that the student was from Canada and her parents where from mainland China. They were talking about nurture vs nature and she was commenting on how sometimes you can go against nurture; and to make her point clear she began to make a comment about dating, and turned to me and said, "no offense" and turned back to the group and said "my parents would be very upset if I dated a Black man or White man (I felt a little better since she threw White man in their too), but I don't feel that way." Now, I wasn't offended. I live in America. Not to mention, Birmingham, Alabama, and I have several white female friends who have at least one side of their family that would be upset if they brought me home. Consequently, Race is my life, there really isn't much you can tell me about race. However, in this environment (although I know in many instances Chinese aren't too fond of Blacks. That enemy list just gets longer every year. LOL) I was caught off guard, and didn't know what to say. She meant no harm, and didn't cause any, but color follows me everywhere.
Let us move to some random pictures shall we. I forgot to mention that my next door neighbor Ramon, bought me some PB&J and bread. The perfect lunch on any day.
Let's talk about laundry. Our dryers are horrible. So, I have resulted to utilizing my balcony as well as my room.
Gigantic Thanks to all of the B-Day wishes. Today, I say goodbye to my first month in Hong Kong, and now I began my academic endeavors. As always, you all are in embedded in my heart. Continue to keep me in your prayers, and occasional day thoughts. Until I blog again.
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