Girls House

Saturday April 7th

We didn't really sleep in, even though we had Night Duty, We wanted to make the most use of our Rest Morning. We were supposed to go to Outreach Friday Night but were rained out and switched to Saturday Night. So Saturday morning we went to Starbucks (not our first or last time!) and organized a games night for both the houses, Blk 3 Saturday evening and Blk 4, Sunday evening. I brought my stuff for The Girls House and after our great morning meeting, we went to find the bus for me to take. I tried asking Woodsy how long it would take to go to the Gold Coast but at that moment he saw my bus and took off running. I wasn't given much information other than that  I was going to meet the leader of the girls house at the Tuen Mun bus stop. So I jumped on the bus and waved goodbye, praying that I would make it to the right stop. I felt pretty at peace about the whole situation and paid attention to the road signs, in  hopes that they would give me a clue where to get off. When I saw a sign saying Tuen Mun, I figured that my stop would be coming up soon so I asked the lady behind me, who only spoke Chinese, if this place was Tuen Mun, she nodded, and I hopped off the bus. Soon I realized that I was at the wrong place, there was no one waiting and the sign said I was at Garden Choi Rd. Fortunately all the buses were going much in the same direction so I got on the next bus, this time asking God to let me know when to get off, as well as looking for a stop that read Tuen Mun.

It was about the second stop when I saw a bus junction and knew I was at the right place. What a relief! I met up with the lady I was supposed to and we boarded another bus to The Hong Kong Gold Coast. On the bus the lady asked if I was prepared to do Night Duty and I answered honestly that I was tired because of my Duty the night before, but that if she needed me to, I was willing.

Upon arriving to the girls House I was met by Hot Pot, a bit like Potluck except that everything is thrown in a pot of boiling water to cook and then scooped out. It was alright, but definitely not the best Chinese food I'd ever had. Most of the girls knew some English and were interested to talk to me. They were struck by two things about me, my height of course, since most of them are about 5ft tall, and my green eyes.

The property was about 10x smaller than New Man House, as well there were less girls. However there were too many girls for the small tower like structure that housed them. It wasn't very clean, and the girls were crammed into the rooms. The atmosphere was really heavy and the whole place was spiritually draining, I started to get a bad headache and felt emotional and almost started crying. I couldn't figure out why though and I prayed about it, and was given relief. I later found out that Libby was supposed to live at the girls' house for three days a week but when she went, she couldn't deal with the atmosphere or stop crying and now only goes Sunday nights. God was definitely watching out for me!

Right away I spotted who I thought could be the New Girl. She was rough looking, really skinny and missing many teeth. I was hoping that it wasn't her, because of her rough appearance, or at least that I wouldn't have to do Night Duty... But as the Night went on, my heart softened towards her, and when I was told that I had first Night Duty, I was prepared.

The guys had  great experiences at Outreach in the meantime, as well as earlier on, Seth getting lost in the mountains with some helpers and brothers from their House. God protected all of us and gave us encounters to build us up!   

First Night Duty

Friday April 6th

So Woodsy had asked me early in the week If I wanted to visit the Girls House if he could arrange a day and I said sure, on the basis that I would be visiting to see how its different from the New Man House. So he told me friday that the next morning I needed to bring my overnight stuff so that after our morning out, I could head there. Friday Night was my first New Man Duty. It went quite well, I had second shift. So I went to bed at 8:30pm and then woke up at 2:15 am to head to Blk 3. The other guy on duty in the next room brought me noodles at around 4am and the New Man slept almost the entire time, save for a bathroom break. He was a loud snorer but maybe it was a good thing, since it kept me awake. The duty went fairly quickly since I prayed in tongues and drew some pictures. The boys also had night duty and got to talk to their charge since he could speak some English. He told Seth and Regan afterwards that without them and their prayers, he wouldn't still be there.

Hong Kong Extras

Food we tried: Squid; fried and boiled             pork rib                                    Tofu

                        chicken feet                             fish balls                      Fish Eye soup

                        pigeon                                      oyster pancakes                       Prawns

                        pig skin                                     beef balls                     Duck

                        cuddlefish                                Radish cake                 Squid

                        shrimp                                     pig stomach                 Cockles

                        fish belly                                 coconut bean jelly

Quotes:

"I don't feel full, but I definitely feel done." -Brianna

After the meal at Kings Palace, it wasn't the greatest...

"I thought I was hungry, until I took a bite of pig skin." -Regan

"I feel legit full now, not just done." -Seth

"It tastes like normal jelly, just with a little bit of Chinese flavour." -Woodsy

"When Woodsy tells you that the Chinese Food is 10x better in Hong Kong, he's lying." -Regan

"It didn't taste like plum to me... I love plum!" -Woodsy

"I'm not a big fish...." -Brianna

I was going to finish with the word person, but I thought no one was paying attention to what I was saying, so my sentence trailed off.... they were listening!

"I'm not a big black guy." -Seth

As he walks out of a store that sells all black clothing...

Five Chinese Flavours:

Sweet, Spicy, Sour, Salty, and Bitter

Colors:                                                 Looking after New Boy:

Hungsek=red                                       In the day there are two hour shifts, starting at 7 am. All

lambsek=blue                                      the brothers and helpers take turns. Night shift: 7pm-10pm,

loksek-green                                        10pm-2:30am, and 2:30am-7:00am.

wongsek=yellow                                  The first 10 days he is watched 24/7

Schedule:

Wake-up 7am

Morning activity (praying in tongues, stretching, VBC) 7:30am

Breakfast 8am

Brother Sharing Time 8:30am

Esso 8:40

Worship and Bible reading 9:30am

Cleaning 11am

Lunch 12:30pm

Activities/Lessons 1:30-4pm

HFC Games 4pm

Shower 5:30pm

Dinner 6:30pm

Worship/Prayer Group 7:30pm

First Day at New Man House

So we arrived in New Man House on the night of March 31st, we got to meet Woodsys' friend Ron Tsung and his family of two boys, with a little girl on the way. He arranged our schedules so that we could go out with them for Dim Sum Sunday after church in Kowloon City, originally our schedule said that we would have to stay at the House. Woodsy had told me before we came that I would be staying with the girls but he had assumed that I would still be in the same house as him, just on a different floor with the other girls. But, instead I was in an entirely different building to sleep. All the girls, whether they were helping in Blk 2,3, or 4, stayed where I did. We actually were right next door to Ron. We had a little kitchenette, and a washer. It was quite nice and was probably better thean staying in the same house as all the brothers. I got to know the girls well. There was a Chinese girl that was a teacher for the teenagers, and then Libby who was in Blk 3 with me, as well as Georgina with Blk 4 (same as Seth and Regan). Both from England

The way that New Man House is set up, is that there is gate to get in and once in, the building to your right is Blk 5, where I slept upstairs. In that same building is the school and downstairs the kitchens and weight room. Behind that building is an Olympic sized swimming pool.

Then to the left of the pool are four buildings. Blk 1, 2,3, and 4. Blk 1 is for visitors, Blk 2 is the teenager house and Blk 3 and 4 are for the adults.

Last day before Hong Kong

So today we went out as a team to the National Park and saw the "Grand Canyon". Then we went into Bundanoon and ate at a Chinese restaurant, the food was amazing. We had Jasmine Tea to drink in little tiny flower cups, funny to watch the guys use them. Then our entree was Dim Sim's, so yummy. They have meat and vegetables wrapped in a thin dough and you dip them in a sauce. After that we had 4 main courses with rice. There was King Prawn in garlic, Szechuan Beef, Chicken, and sweet and sour pork. It was quite the feast and we all learned some Catonese phrases as we ate. Woodsey talked to the waitress in Chinese which was pretty neat. As we left the guys were still practicing their Chinese. All I could think about was how funny it would be to walk fast us and hear Chinese coming out of us (definitely white) ;).

Tonight we are ordering out for pizza. Randy, Adam, Seth, Regan, Nicole, Olivia, Taylor, Rachel, Miriam, Shelby, Brittany, Rachel and I are the people staying at Capers tonight. I think we might watch some movies as well, although I'm going to make sure not to stay up too late. Still recovering, this morning my head felt really heavy and it was as if I had been running around in my sleep since I was SO sore. I guess some people snuck out last night to go swim in the river, I definitely wasn't one of them!

Well tomorrow at 6:15 am, Breakfast before we take off to the airport... Our flight leaves just before noon so if at 7pm you think of me, Prayers would be great!!!

I don't know that I'll be able to access the internet while I'm gone so I'll write lots when I come back!!! :D

2 week Break and other news..

And the countdown begins! At 11:45 am, there will be exactly two days before we board the plane to Hong Kong!  It's going be the biggest, most upper class plane I've ever flew on! A-380. I should probably do a lot of packing tomorrow. Some other students are staying here Friday night and getting a ride with us to the airport in the morning as well as the others who are working. Woodsey is going to serve us all breakfast at 6:15am on Saturday, so that night should probably be an early one. But on Friday I think we are going to do something as a team... go out for Chinese food (as if we won't be sick of that by the end of break) and then do something fun. Woodsey has tickets for the Opera that night so he's probably going to be exhausted the next day.

So if you are wondering what everyone else is doing for two week break... here it is.

Jamie is going to Korea for two week, Brittany and Shelby are going to surfers paradise, Nicole, Miriam, Rachel and maybe some other girls are going on a road trip, Olivia is heading to Colorado, Emily is going with Nathan, and the 2 Johns in Rosa Parks(their car). Hmm, and I think some of the guys are heading to Sydney. Ashley, Dustin, Morgan, Emma, and Amanda are going to New Zealand I think... Randy's family is coming up to see him. Kyle is going home to Tasmania. We get back a few days before break is over and are probably going to hang out in Sydney. Regan and Seth were making plans to meet up with some of the guys so I figured I was on my own but now I might end up tagging along and go to the Sydney Zoo.

So tonight was the bush dance.... SO much fun. It was our equivalent of a Barn Dance with square dancing, line-dancing etc. The principal here used to work at a radio station and he was the caller. We all dressed up in something we deemed Australian and had steak for dinner and Pavlova for dessert!

Oh and Haldane announced that if anyone was considering staying for second semester they had to let Kim know by the end of this week, so I guess we'll see if anyone else is considering staying. Kyle told me that he is pulling out of second semester because of his health, which makes sense since he misses so many lectures. Anyways that's all for now....

My week so far

Seems like it was a VERY long week. Baking was great and a lot of fun on saturday. Hannah and Regan made cookies and I made cinnamon twists. Both of them tasted great, the cookies didn't look the same as when we make them back home and I figured it was probably because of the margarine (canola oil spread).

We also signed up for our Prac Week teams where we go off campus for a week into a community and get involved in programs that they have going on. We may or may not get our first choices. I was hesitant to pick Woodseys group because they will be sleeping on the floor in a building with one shower and have to cook meals for themselves. However, none of the other leaders seemed sure of what they would be doing. There are three teams, two to Victoria and one in Goulbourn.

SN@ C went REALLY well on sunday night, we raised over 800$ from the head shave and 8/10 people that volunteered for the event went "for the chop", including me. Zach's name was pulled first and his head got shaved, but not his beard... Then Sam's name got pulled and now he is staying for next term. Woodsey wouldn't have had to cut his hair but said if someone donated another 40$ HE WOULD, and someone stepped forward right away with a 50! It was a very successful fundraiser!

I'm still getting used to my short hair, it's about shoulder length which is shorter than I've had for a long time. Yesterday was the room switch. I am now in the three person room at the end of the hall with Jamie and Brittany. Right behind us are the guys dorms and room D's window is right across from mine. Regan, Seth and Taylor are in that room so I told Regan we'd have to call "Good Night" out our windows before going to bed and he did, it was really funny.

Workday is today from 8:30-4, and then after that we have a Bush dance. I'm really hoping that the sky clears up so that we can be outside!