Getting from there to here

We left at 7:30 am from the Church at the Crossing located at Keystone and the Crossing in Indianapolis and I am staying at Tao Fong Shan Retreat Center on the side of a mountain that is beside Tai Wai in Hong Kong (I am writing this at 4:30 AM because I can't keep my eyes shut - body clock, jet lag, you name it) We took off from Chicago at 12:30 pm (Friday Nov 2) and arrived at 4:39 pm (Saturday Nov 3) in Hong Kong. It was 15 hrs. and 39 minutes of cruising at 50,000 ft above the ground. We flew on a Boeing 747-400. The 400 means there were 399 people sitting up there with me. I don't like sardines but if I did I would stop eating them just out of respect because I have a new understanding of "being packed in like sardines." I was sitting in 52A - the good thing: a window seat. It was great to see out the window. We went straight north through Canada, Iceland, Artic Circle, Siberia and China. I saw mostly clouds but there were moments before the sun set that I could see the scattered islands of Greenland and then the continuous frozen ice and snow around the artic circle; - the bad thing: I couldn't get out very easy. (I wished they had a giant shoe horn that could have helped me into my seat.) I sat beside a couple from New York (I assume that because he wore a Yankee hat) that was going to Singapore after the plane dropped most of us off in Hong Kong. I attempted to get out in the aisle twice in those 15 hours to get circulation back in my legs and to give relief to my bladder.

The Hong Kong Airport was so beautiful. I watched them build it 12 years ago by cutting off part of a mountain and pushing it into the sea to have the land needed. It was spacious and easy to get through immigration. Customs never stopped us. We exchanged money from US to Hong Kong Dollars. ($100 US gave me $716 HK - I felt rich until I looked at the menu and saw the hamburger I ordered cost $103. I will let you calculate the exchange) We met Jamie and Patrick Natchigall and their 5 year old son Marco outside of customs. They gave us a cash card that gives easy access to the trains and buses without having to always keep looking for the right change. We rode a double decker bus across the suspension bridge, through the tunnels that took us from the harbor through the mountains to the New Territories, where we took two taxis loaded with suitcases and drove to the retreat where we are staying. It is a Christian retreat that is a Christian mission to Buddhists. The architecture looks similar to a Buddhist temple but with Christian symbols.

After getting settled, we walked 10 minutes down the road to catch another taxi that took us back to a large mall where it seemed everybody was out shopping, eating and just hanging out. We caught a bite to eat at 8 pm. and took a taxi back to where we stayed for a hot shower and a little sleep (in the horizontal position instead of in vertical on the plane). We are heading to Sun Chui where the church operates a social center and we will have worship.

I had so many things rush through my head and my heart as I put my feet back on Hong Kong soil. First it reminded me of our time here. I could remember pushing carts with our suitcases and two small children (Rachel 3 years and David 6 month) through the airport for the first time. I heard the sounds of Catonese (Chinese dialect) and my ears recognized the sounds but my mind was still jumbling around trying to recall what I had learned. I remembered why they call it "the concrete jungle." The tall buildings I remember have now been dwarfed by the more recent ones. I kept saying "it has really changed." I am sure the group will get tired of me saying this if they have not already. As I tried to recall things from my past, Jamie would often say, "Oh yes, that use to be there but they tore it down a few years ago to build what we have now." I soon realized how much faster life moves here in comparison to what I have become accustom to knowing back home in the States. In some ways I feel "old and outdated." But in other ways it is stirring within me this part of my life of having lived in Hong Kong surrounded by Chinese. There seems to so much energy in the air as people are out. There seems to be so much optimism as new construction is everywhere. It reminds me of magnitude of humanity as we are rubbing shoulders with people, keeping up a good pace as there are thousands behind us heading in the same direction. I have swam in this "sea of humanity" but it reminds me of how different it is from "the pond" back home.

Stepping out in Hong Kong,
Alan