Asian Invasion: Day 2 - Into the City (Sept 22)

Well, here we are. In Asia. It is hot. When I say hot, I mean the kind of hot that we feel in the South when it there is a humidity upwards of 90% in the middle of July. They have this everyday and I feel for them because, by the end of today, I was sweaty, hot, tired, but it has been a great day. In the morning, we ate at the Rea's place and Celeste Rea then took me to see the city while my grandfather was in meetings. The picture you see to the left is a view from the ferry that goes across Victoria Harbor to Hong Kong Island. As you can see by the haze in the picture, the pollution is unbelievable. The many gasses in the air hold in heat, but the locals say that the pollution is comprable to smoking 8 cigarettes a day. I'm not a fan.

But, the skyline is impressive. The island is a corporate metropolis covered by the heat-absorbent miles of concrete and much of the high-end architecture is unique and modern. Though HK Island is filled with famous architecture and banking money, the architecture in most of HK consists of mostly apartments. There are hundreds if not thousands of these high-rises that contain hundreds of apartments each. The tiny city of Hong Kong manages to cram about 7 million citizens into it, which results in a large population of low income individuals. Beyond the apartments, Celeste and I trekked through HK Island to ride the longest escalator in the world as you can see a portion of it on the left.

After spending the morning swimming through the HK heat, I had my first encounter with Chinese cuisine and chopsticks... The picture to the left gives proof that I actually figured out how to use those diabolic utensils, but I had to defeat the forces of evil in order to gain the skill. Lunch was at a nice restaurant in the middle of a large mall, and the food was delicious. I ate chicken feet (also in the picture). Have you eaten that before?... Dinner was at a small local Chinese place and we ate some excellent sweet & sour chicken and rice. At every place there is rice, so much rice. The rice, however, is much better than most American rice, and it goes nicely with the local menus.
In the afternoon, I was asked to participate in an sports awards ceremony for the local Christian high schools. My grandpa was supposed to come as well, but he was still in a meeting, so I served as his representative. Since the schools are supported and loosely owned by OMS (the company my grandpa is with), the field director and I gave a few thoughts to the participants. This was the largest group that I have ever spoken in front of, as there were about 900 individuals attending the ceremony. The picture on the left shows about 1/3 of the people. In the evening, I was able to serve as a guest speaker to an English class for Chinese who want to become pastors. The group had prepared interview questions for me and they asked me about where I lived, my family, my church, and even my house. They were very interested to know what my house and my yard looked like, and I was humbled by the blessing of a house, a yard, and having space. From today's experiences, the main thing I have come to realize is how blessed we are in America. By seeing the living conditions of many in HK, I am all the more stricken by the privileges we enjoy as Americans. I thank God that He has allowed me to live in a country with a non-oppressive and mostly non-intrusive government. Our complaints as Americans are nothing compared to the trespasses that these citizens suffer as Chinese. To be continued...

As always, more pictures at picasaweb.google.com/nate.tilley/Asiatrip

nate.