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| Students have finished library time and are waiting to be led back to the classroom |
As I began writing tonight, one of my friendly roaches
crossed my desk (I got him). A moment later, I walked into my eating/kitchen
area and a gecko startled me as he ran down the wall. It’s nice to have friends
with me. Judy Newhouse is also back from Australia – their team got back about
noon after a good trip “down under.” Judy lives in the other half of this
duplex. She’s got all the conveniences, so I will have to be kind to her so that
I can continue to enjoy the refrig, stove, and microwave.
I had a bit of an interesting morning. I finished talking to
Rob and Penny on Skype and then hurried out the door to catch my #44 bus to
take me the 10 minute ride to LCK. When I arrived at the bus stop,there was
already a line of 12 people waiting (and the mini busses only hold 16). The bus
didn’t arrive, and after 15 minutes, people began looking down the street to
the right, obviously nervous about the time.
Suddenly it appeared and roared right up to my stop. I was
excited to get on because I didn’t want to be late for my first day at LCK, and
it was going to be nip and tuck. I boarded
with 14 other passengers. And the bus took off. At the next stop it picked up
one more passenger, filling the bus.
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| Students at LCK spend their lunch hour in a variety of games. The upperclassmen are very caring for the younger ones. |
What to do… I called
Shirley and Alan. Shirley answered and passed me to Alan. Obviously I had to
wait until the bus stopped or got to the end of the line. It traveled on and
on. I saw signs pointing both to Kowloon (downtown) and Shenzen (Mainland
China). I was cool because I had no choice. I knew that I could not go across
the border because I didn’t have a visa. And if we went to Kowloon, I could
probably find my way back to Tuen Mun.
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| Students love to pose as they have fun. I'm not sure what all the finger signals mean, but they love it. |
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, we stopped and
all but three of us got off. At the next stop, only two of us were left.
Fortunately, the next stop was the end of the line and the two of us got off. I
motioned to the driver that I wanted to go back to Tuen Mun, but I know that he
didn’t understand. So I got off, watched where he drove, and then scurried over
to that bus to get on once again. I even cut into a big line of people (not
good!) so that I could be one of the sixteen on this bus. I made it.
Expressway, then to side streets. One man in the back said, “On
Ting,” and I knew that was my stop. So I said to the driver “On Ting” and he
nodded affirmatively. Once off I was disoriented and didn’t recognize anything (big highway with train tracks for
the light rail). So I turned to Alan once again for guidance. Well, I’m here
typing, so you know that I made it. Praise the Lord!
As I left the bus, I noticed the number on the side: 4136666 (I thought the sixes did it). I had
taken 49S, an express bus. I’ll watch much more carefully from now on since I
promised to be at LCK for their morning assembly tomorrow.
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| The English Ambassador is an offshoot of a program offered through the NET, a native speaker hired by the government. |
I sang songs in the library, ate my school lunch with 5 giggly
fourth grade girls, and interacted with the kids during recess. The layout all
came back to me since we had been in this school last year with our team of 6.
Tonight Judy and I went to a sushi restaurant (sushi comes
around on a conveyor belt) where you pay by the color of the plate. What a nice
taste treat.By the way, the Christian faith is taught in each of these Lutheran primary schools. Yet it is the government who pays the salaries of all of the teachers whether or not they teach in a school where religious instruction is a part of the curriculum. I find that interesting (maybe a bit similar to our offering vouchers to parents to choose the school that they wish for their children.
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