quelle jour!

Today I went to Wan Chai to apply for a Hong Kong identification card. Since I am here on an employment visa I am eligible for this card, which among other things means that when I go through immigration I can go through the (much shorter!) HK resident line rather than the (extremely long!) passport holder line. I wasn’t sure what the process would be like, and when I finally got to the 8^th floor of the Immigration Tower I stood for a moment looking around, trying to figure out the next step. Most everything is in Chinese and English, so it was rare that there weren’t instructions boldly printed on a huge sign.

After a few moments a young woman came up to me with slips of paper in hand. She looked official—with her HK Immigration Department lanyard and badge—so I told her I was there to apply for a card and not sure what to dot. She asked to see my passport so I showed it to her. Then she gave me a slip of paper and told me to come back at 2:45. It was 10:30 then. Yikes!

I wasn’t sure where to go next so I wandered the streets for a little while. I called Father Dwight and my boss Cynthia, both of whom were busy, so I just wandered around looking at signs and ended up in a little park nearby. Father Dwight called and I told him what was going on; he said to come to the mission until it was time for me to be at immigration. The nearest and cheapest transportation was the tram (we would call it a trolley) so after standing awkwardly on the platform looking at the tram map trying to determine which direction I needed to go, I hopped on. 

This, my friends, is a great way to see the city. I was only on for a few stops but I really think one Saturday I’m going to take it from one side of the island to the other. For one, it’s cheap, and another, it’s double decker so you have a good view. I hopped off at the platform closest to St. John’s and headed up to the mission.

We have quite a few interns right now—myself, two Chinese girls who are just finishing up a service term, another Chinese guy studying law at HK University, and another guy whose father is Chinese but his mom is British so he has dual citizenship. He’s here for a few weeks before heading back to school in England. I’ve enjoyed getting to know them all! I stayed at the mission for a few hours, helped with some filing and then at 2 headed back to immigration.

You would think that a big city like Hong Kong would be a bureaucratic nightmare. Lines, horrendous waiting times, stuffy rooms. Happily this was not the case. I stood in a line waiting to go to reception for about fifteen minutes, filled out a form and waited in a small waiting area for about ten minutes, when my number came up on the screen I headed to the designated cubicle and had my thumbprints scanned and photo taken, waited in another small area for another ten minutes, scanned my thumbs again and that was it. I was in and out in 45 minutes. Had I phoned ahead or made the appointment online I could have probably gotten in quicker but I wasn’t aware of the option until I was actually at immigration. 

Since I was done so early I went back to the mission for a while. There were a few clients there who had appointments with other case officers but otherwise it was pretty quiet. I chatted with the other interns, and Stella, one of the Chinese girls, started talking about having sushi and this great website (www.openrice.com) where you can find great places to eat around town. So we looked and found a place in Tsim Sha Tshui (which is near where I live) and decided to go after work. 

I was glad to have plans and glad for some company. Lately I have just been coming home, using my computer, cooking dinner and going to bed. Not a bad routine but I am craving social interaction. So, I was glad to have a friend to go out with and break bread with. Breaking bread together is such a universal way to build friendships---feeds the soul and the stomach! 

The sushi was amazing, and we were in the biggest mall I’ve ever been to in my life. Stella was a good companion and after the sushi we went for some frozen yogurt. As we sat talking, an older blonde woman sat nearby. After a few moments she leaned over and asked “where she might find a curlin’ iron”… we suggested a few places and then I asked her where she was from. Maybe it was something in the way she said “curlin’ iron” or the fact that she needed one in general that tipped me off that she was from the south like me. Yup! South Carolina. Her husband came and sat with her and we struck up a conversation.

They are missionaries with an organization out of Charleston and have been all over the world serving in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. They are currently at a place in Seoul training missionaries (South Korea is actually the biggest deployer of missionaries, as I learned at orientation) and shared some stories with us. The lady was gracious and kind and her husband was spry and funny. I enjoyed chatting with them and wished them luck in finding the curling iron. While I am enjoying everything about Hong Kong, it was good to talk to someone familiar with home.

If you are following me on facebook I have uploaded some photos; it's kind of a chore to upload pictures to my blog AND facebook and it is easier to organize pictures there. I will still post photos here occasionally but be aware that there are probably more on facebook.

I invite, as always, your thoughts and comments!

Grace and Peace,
Kathleen

Serving

"If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.
But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine,
then let us work together."
 -Aboriginal activists group, Queensland, 1970s

I have to be honest here: I am uncomfortable with "helping" people. This might seem strange, considering my current occupation. But it's the bold truth--I tend to shy away from words like "fixing" and "helping." It's why the title of my blog is 'living and serving'... because I am intensely uncomfortable with 'helping people.'

I recently read an article by Dr. Rachel Remen that resonated with me: Helping, Fixing, or Serving? Here is an excerpt that more eloquently explains what I am getting at:

"Helping, fixing and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.

Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.

Serving is different from helping. Helping is not a relationship between equals. A helper may see others as weaker than they are, needier than they are, and people often feel this inequality. The danger in helping is that we may inadvertently take away from people more than we could ever give them; we may diminish their self-esteem, their sense of worth, integrity or even wholeness.

When we help, we become aware of our own strength. But when we serve, we don’t serve with our strength; we serve with ourselves, and we draw from all of our experiences. Our limitations serve; our wounds serve; even our darkness can serve. My pain is the source of my compassion; my woundedness is the key to my empathy.

Serving makes us aware of our wholeness and its power. The wholeness in us serves the wholeness in others and the wholeness in life. The wholeness in you is the same as the wholeness in me. Service is a relationship between equals: our service strengthens us as well as others. Fixing and helping are draining, and over time we may burn out, but service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself will renew us. In helping we may find a sense of satisfaction; in serving we find a sense of gratitude.

Service is not an experience of strength or expertise; service is an experience of mystery, surrender and awe. Helpers and fixers feel causal. Servers may experience from time to time a sense of being used by larger unknown forces. Those who serve have traded a sense of mastery for an experience of mystery, and in doing so have transformed their work and their lives into practice."

Dr. Ramen published that in the Shambhala Sun, a Buddhist magazine, in 1999. While I learn much and use Buddhist meditation techniques in a centering prayer practice, I am a Christian and therefore cannot think about service without thinking about Christ, who "did not come to be served, but to serve."

At the end of our liturgy we end with:
And now, Father, send us out
to do the work you have given us to do,
to love and serve you
as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.
To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

We are called to love and serve as Christ loves and serves--to follow the commandments to love God and love one another. In serving others we serve God--we recognize that holy mystery that resides in all of creation. I hope you will seek out ways to serve--in small ways and not-so-small ways, because all service is service to God.

UNIFIL Celebration

Hello Friends!

Yesterday I attended the 26th anniversary celebration of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-HK) organization. (http://www.unifil.org.hk) One of the streets in downtown Hong Kong was blocked off, and the day was full of singing, dancing, and honoring people and organizations that contribute to the ongoing efforts of UNIFIL. The acts ranged from Filipino pop, American pop, dance numbers (both modern and traditional), and events from the sponsors.

Through its campaigning, UNIFIL fights for rights of migrant workers in the Philippines and abroad. The collection of organizations that are members of UNIFIL (including the Mission that I am serving) come together to lobby the governments of Hong Kong and the Philippines on issues that affect migrant workers and their families--wages, illegal agency fees, right of abode, etc.

I also attended the 8AM service at the Cathedral, at which I will hopefully be a server in the future. I have been looking over the manual for servers and will be going over it with Father Dwight on Wednesday.

Here are a few photos of the event. Please feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions!

Members of the mission at the booth

two of the MCs announcing the acts

UNIFIL Banner (the organization is two months older than me!)

Ladies performing a traditional dance

Grace and Peace,
Kathleen

Picture Post!

As promised, some photos from my first week and a half here in hong kong!

Getting Acquainted with Hong Kong

The last few days I have been wandering Hong Kong, learning the routes to and from stores and the places I will be working.

Four days I will be at the Mission for Migrant Workers, located at St. John's Cathedral on Hong Kong Island. Two days during the week I will be at the Bethune House, a shelter for women located in Kowloon (close to wear I live). I have had a little training so far, and a history lesson about the Philippines as well, but I have so much to learn!

Spencer left for home yesterday and I was sad to see her go! She was an amazing guide and gracious hostess during my first week (and her last week!) here. If not for her I would be so lost! So I am wishing her lots of success as she heads to law school in DC this fall.

Services at the Cathedral are amazing. I have been at the 9am sung service the last two Sundays and I just adore it. The basic format of the service is the same as it is back home-- songs, readings, prayers, Eucharist-- with some variations. I learned today that the Intercessors write their own prayers (and the congregation responds en masse, Lord, have mercy or something similar), which I think is such a lovely idea. You have to get here early for a seat though---services fill up quickly! They have a Filipino service in the afternoon as well. I am so looking forward to being a part of the spiritual community here.

My friend Christian was here for a few days with his mom and sister. He attended the YASC discernment weekend with me in February but chose to defer for a year. It was so good to see him again!! I hadn't seen him since then (except for a brief Skype conversation that we had with him during the orientation in Toronto), but it was good to spend time with him. We went on some tours around Hong Kong and had our fortunes told on Temple street. So interesting!

Learning about the plight of migrant workers here in Hong Kong has been particularly interesting (and important for the work I am doing). People come from the Philippines (and other countries), some of them have university degrees and have been nurses or teachers, but the pay is so much better here as a domestic helper that they leave behind families and loved ones to come here and work. Unfortunately, they cannot just become direct hires, they have to go through Recruitment Agencies, and often these agencies charge exorbitant--and illegal--fees. I will commend to those interested in learning more to read the following articles:


Overseas Filipino Workers : article from a blog by the Central Philippine University

Mission for Migrant Workers : The Mission I am working for has a great newsletter with many articles about current events going on in the migrant community.

A video documenting the experience of a migrant worker with the Philippine Labour Attache to Hong Kong Romulo Salud:



Please feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions. The internet at my apartment is down so I have to go elsewhere for a connection, but once it is fixed I will upload the photos I have taken so far. Thanks for all your support!

Grace and Peace,
Kathleen

Week 1 almost gone!

What an amazing week!

I have been getting acclimated to my new home here in Hong Kong. Spencer has taken me around the neighborhood and introduced me to my co-workers and a few friends. The Cathedral is amazing and I'm looking forward to working there. The Bethune House is also a wonderful place to be--I met so many lovely ladies there, and I even helped make Spring Rolls!


I will start working on Sunday so I am taking this first week to get over my jetlag (I get so sleepy in the afternoons!) and find my way around the city. Spencer and I went to Lamma island last night for dinner--I am really looking forward to going back there to hike when it gets cooler! Such a neat place.

I really love Hong Kong so far and will share a few pictures! Looking forward to an amazing year here! I promise I will upload some pictures soon ;)

Greetings from Hong Kong!

I have arrived safely (with all my luggage in tact!) in Hong Kong! I got here Saturday night around 7pm local time after a long 15 hour flight from Detroit. The flight wasn’t too bad, there were lots of movie and tv choices and I even got a nap in.

Spencer collected me at the airport and has been a very gracious hostess so far. The apartment is small but can hold two people comfortably, and after we dropped off my things we went out for sushi. I was pretty tired though so when we got back I pretty much crashed.

This morning I went to the 9am service at St. John’s Cathedral (http://www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk) and it was so beautiful—and packed! Standing room only at most services, and a wonderful blend of people. They even use incense at some of the services. I am so thrilled to be a part of this community.

After the service we had coffee with a few folks in the parish hall and then Spencer and I headed up to the mission for migrant workers. She introduced me around, showed me where things are located and we spent some time chatting with some of the ladies there. Spencer treated everyone to a fabulous pizza lunch, but afterwards I was feeling pretty sleepy so I headed back to the apartment to catch a nap.

Spencer came home around 4:30 and we went down to check out the harbor. It is amazing!! What a view. We walked down the Avenue of Stars (which is a lot like Grauman’s Chinese Theater), and I got my picture taken with my hands in Jackie Chan’s handprints and beside the Bruce Lee statue. Around 8 o’clock every night they have a light show with music, and all the buildings in the harbor coordinate a big light production. I haven’t seen it yet but it is definitely on the list.

We stopped by a neighborhood restaurant for a dinner of chicken pineapple fried rice (and octopus soup!) and came back to the apartment to eat. I am catching up on emails and skyped with my parents a bit. Looking forward to a great day tomorrow!!! Hope all is well back home, please feel free to comment with any thoughts or questions!