120 hours

Finally. My hand looks like a hand again. There is some residual redness and pain, but the swelling seems to be almost completely gone.

Whew!

72 hours

It still itches like crazy but at least the swelling seems to be going down noticeably.

48 hours

Sigh... when will the antihistamines start taking effect?

Hot computer

So my computer is hot. Really hot. 75 degrees Celsius hot, that's how hot it is.

Whew!

Swollen Paw

What looks like horrible eagle claws here are actually my hands. Okay, so the perspective is somewhat screwed up so that my fingers look longer than they really are. But what I'm actually trying to show is how my left hand is so much bigger than my right.



It was caused by a tiny little sting and a completely freak accident. I was doing laps at the pool in school, when my left palm brushed against something thin and hard (kind of like insect legs) when it entered the water. My first thought was, oh, that's another insect that fell into the water. A split second later, a piercing pain went right through my palm. Having been stung by sea urchins, jellyfish and stinging plankton before, I didn't think much of it and kept on swimming. But the pain got worse, not better, and by the time I thought the better of it, I could barely hang onto the ladder as I climbed out of the water.

Turned out that it was a paper wasp, about 3-4 centimeters long (I made the lifeguards fish it out so I could at least know what it was). I have been stung by bees and wasps before without any problem, so I decided to ignore it. Which was a bad mistake because the swelling got worse, not better -- it's been more than 24 hours and my left hand is so swollen that it's a little frozen at this point. I can't even see my knuckles on my left hand right now.

I went to the doctor this afternoon and to the hospital this evening. Both times they told me that it looked like a hypersensitivity reaction and not an infection. Let's hope they're right. I am just glad that I'm a human and not a caterpillar!

Loss of Control == Faith in God?

In a recent blog posting on the NYTimes.com site, the author posited a correlation between a tendency to see patterns where none existed, and the perceived level of control (or lack thereof). His hypothesis was that when people are feeling out of control, they tend to see patterns where there is none, which is why people who are working in dangerous professions such as deep-sea fishing tend to have more superstitions than people who work run-of-the-mill jobs.

(He has an experiment that you can try out on the blog as well. Try it. It's interesting.)

Among the comments on his blog posting was one in which the reader pointed out that people of low income, who, by nature, have less control over their finances, are more likely to be superstitious or do irrational things like buy lottery tickets, etc.

Which then made me think: people of low income and those who don't have much control over life's events also tend to believe in God more readily. What does that mean? To a statistician, it might mean that "seeing God's hand at work" is seeing patterns where there were none, and faith in God is simply superstition.

What do you think?

Lots and lots and lots of trees

I'm writing this from onboard a ship, cruising in Alaska. It's the second time that I have been on this cruise -- the last time was well over 15 years ago -- and it'll be interesting to see how the landscape has changed. I heard that the glaciers have retreated quite a bit since the last time I was here.

We flew into Vancouver two days ago and spent yesterday cruising the Inside Passage. Last time when I was here, we managed to catch a pod of killer whales as they hung about the side of the ship for a while, so it was a disappointment to not see any whales this time. The scenery was stunning, though -- miles and miles of evergreen trees lining both sides of the channel.

Today, we're landing at the port of Ketchikan and we're going to try and see some bears. Will try to post pictures of some bears upon my return -- that is, if we're lucky :-).

Cool GPS maps

This will be a quick post because I'm almost falling asleep... having bought a new GPS some time ago, I decided that this last week when I was out of town on a service trip, would be a good time to try it. Here's my first attempts:

Part of the travel route that we took, from Huangshi, Hubei (our destination), back to Wuhan, by bus; then from Wuhan to Hong Kong by plane; and finally, by airport express and taxi part of the way to my home.



In case you are interested in how planes circle over Hong Kong before they land, here's a zoomed-up view of the part over HK...



Finally, here's a geotagged album of a walkabout around Huangshi. I still haven't managed to find a way to superimpose the track of our stroll onto the map, but at least the pictures are there...



Will be back with more details later, when I have a chance to recover...

Oh, the stories they could tell...

I had an interesting experience yesterday with my cell phone. Shortly after noon, I realized that I did not have my cell phone with me. I wasn't alarmed at first; I often leave my cell phone in my office, but I started freaking out after I realized that it wasn't there, and wasn't in any of the places that I remembered going to, either. Considering that we're leaving on a service learning tour tomorrow, it would have been very inconvenient, to put it mildly, to lose the thing at this point.

I made a number of phone calls to my phone, to find that it was ringing, but nobody answered. That gave me some hope that the thing hadn't been stolen but was in fact sitting around somewhere still.

About 10 minutes later, I get a phone call from my mother, who told me that somebody had called home, asking if an iPhone had been lost. My parents arranged to meet the guy and hand over the phone -- bless his heart, the finder refused to take a reward, saying that it was his duty.

The interesting part is this: the finder said that he had picked up the phone in TST East. I hadn't been off campus all day. How could the thing have made it all the way over there? The only thing I can think of is that I dropped it somewhere on campus; somebody picked it up with the intention of stealing, but for some reason left it in TST East. But why that would happen is the question.

I wish that thing could talk and tell me where it'd been. For that matter, I wish I could put some sort of logging onto an inanimate object and leave it sitting around for somebody to pick up. I bet those things have interesting stories to tell.

New Toys

I feel almost guilty for posting this, because it seems so decadent. But since I have a feeling that I won't be able to help talking about them anyway...

I got two new toys this long weekend. The first is a GPS logger:

I have wanted something like this forever, since I do love traveling and taking photos, and my photos have kind of gotten out of control. The idea of being able to geotag them has tempted me for a long while, and when a colleague of mine told me about the Holux M-241 GPS logger, it seemed that it would fit my needs. Basically, I didn't need something with a fancy map display, but I needed coordinate logging plus something that would show the current GPS coordinates on the fly (i.e. it needs an LCD display).

The minus side is that it's got HORRIBLE Mac support, and the only way to get the GPS tracks onto the Mac is through using a piece of freeware that's got (and I quote) "an exceptionally ugly interface". Yeowch. Oh well, but it works for me.

The second toy is a cappuccino machine! I have owned several of these when I was living in the US, but then, being a poor graduate student, I could only afford the semi-auto ones that I gave up on using after a couple of tries :-(. When I was visiting Ivy about a month back, I got introduced to her coffee maker, and decided that I needed my own :-). I wasn't too convinced by the Nespresso system, though, and after much research, decided to get the Saeco Giro Talea, which is fully-automatic, does a fair bit of self-cleaning, and brews an amazing cup of coffee to boot.

I think I can say goodbye to Starbucks now.

Fast(er) machines

I had a surprise this evening. I was backing up my Mac -- an operation which used to take 15+ minutes on my old Powerbook. The same operation has been taking less than 2-3 minutes on my new MacBook, and I had been assuming that it was because it's a new machine and there's less junk on it.

Until I clicked on the "In Progress" icon today and saw the INSANELY fast speed that stuff was getting copied over the backup drive. I think that it was transferring approximately 0.2G per second. Freaky.

The scary thing is that right now, I'm impressed. Give a few weeks, and it'll be normal. Give another year, and I'll be whining about how slow my machine is.

Just like my first 9600 baud modem, which I thought was heaven. Until the 14,400 baud. That lasted until...

Back to Nature

Well, not really. It's not really "nature" when you are experiencing it from the sanitized location of a resort. But at the very least, it's much more than anything you could get in Hong Kong.

A friend and I went to Redang, Malaysia, for a couple of days, just to chill out and relax. Maybe we just got there at a lucky time, but the sea was absolutely calm and the waters crystal clear. For somebody like me who's terrified of waves and also claustrophobic, it was swimming heaven.

The day after we got there, we went on a snorkeling tour. There were tons of sealife to be seen, the best of which were sea turtles. We saw three of them and actually got to see them interact with each other. Okay, sea turtle interaction isn't all that exciting. They just kind of stop being oblivious to everything around them and swim in the direction of each other, then swerve aside at the last moment.

Another exciting sealife moment was when we ran across a humongous ugly-looking fish with really sharp teeth that we later identified as a "Titan Triggerfish". Now, I don't scare much where animals are concerned, as a rule, but this one scared me badly. I had been fish feeding when all of a sudden I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I had known that he was in the vicinity -- I had been warned about him -- but still it was enough to really scare me. He gave me the evil eye and I threw all the bread I was holding in his direction and swam frantically off in the other. Apparently they are really territorial and aggressive, and they have a habit of chomping on divers.

Apart from that, I also saw a random monitor lizard hanging around on the beach (who kind of took off as soon as I got close to him with a camera -- so much for the Komodo Dragon reputation), and a bunch of bats which I mistook for birds at first. Having been closer to wildlife for a few days is making me really realize how completely artificial and sterile Hong Kong is. We hardly see any non-pet non-bird animals in HK. Well, except for the pests. So the general feeling is that any living non-human and non-pet is a pest and harmful to humankind, and deserves to be stomped on and killed.

Not quite a healthy view to have.

Goodbye Angel...

Angel, the white Persian cat that has accompanied me since my college days, passed away this afternoon. I wasn't at home when it happened, but apparently it was a very peaceful process. He had been incontinent over the last couple of days, and he seemed to be having trouble seeing, but was still happy to eat any cat treats and canned food that he was given. My mother made him a little box that was lined with old towels and rags, so that he could have his own space and not have to share the cat kennel with my other cat. He went into the box this morning, sitting in the sun, and fell asleep, and slept all through the day. He came out briefly in the afternoon at feeding time to eat another can of cat food. Then he went back into the box, and went to sleep again... and by this evening he had passed away.

I guess this was the best that I could have asked for him. I got him as a kitten at a cat show, and shortly after I got him, he was diagnosed with a heart problem. I was told then that he would not live for more than 5 years or so, and he has been on daily heart medication since then. He beat all the expectations and proceeded to move through 3 states and 2 countries with me. When he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism about a month back, the doctor told me that it was already a miracle that he had lived for so long. Every day by then was truly a gift.

He went in the way that I would have most wanted for him to go. I had been terrified that I would have to make the decision to end his suffering like so many of my other friends who are also pet owners. But apparently he was happy till the end, and even got to enjoy his favorite activity (I have never seen a cat who liked to eat so much that he would literally be bouncing up and down outside the French doors waiting for mealtime!) only hours before he passed away. I could not have wanted better for him.

Rest in peace, Angel. I will miss you.

Angel
White Persian
March 15, 1993 - April 16, 2008

The convolution that is life...

I got my graduation gown in the mail today. And if you are wondering, what the heck, I didn't know she was going to school again -- well, what happened was that when I graduated from JHU, I never bothered to actually buy the official gown. Part of it was because it's so expensive, another part of it was because I was COMPLETELY sick of academia by the end of my PhD and wanted nothing less than to be reminded of the trappings thereof. (Against the advice of my supervisor, I didn't even try to interview for academic jobs then.) I was fine not having my own gown until last Fall, when the new graduation ceremony required most of us faculty to be present, in full academic regalia. And the incongruity of wearing a gown that I did not earn finally drove me to order my own.

Looking back now, it's kind of weird, the convoluted path that life weaves for us. I don't think I would have ever imagined myself staying in Hong Kong for this long. Never imagined myself going back to the hated academia, either. Certainly would never have dreamed that I would actually find a love for education and be doing all those projects that have been keeping me busy.

I do wonder: is it me who has changed, or is it simply that I have learned to know myself better? My supervisor told me when I graduated that he did not see that the cut-throat corporate environment would suit me; he told me, even then, that I would probably be happier in a more nurturing environment. Maybe it was obvious to those around me, just not myself? My pastor said in his sermon last week that the further we get away from God, the less we know ourselves. I haven't given that enough thought to have an opinion about it one way or another, but in a spiritual sense, that wasn't one of the best times in my life, either.

Maybe it was God guiding me when I didn't know myself. I certainly would like to think so.

Race Day

This photo was taken during Race Day in Shatin. Horse Racing is a big thing in Hong Kong, with prize purses per race coming in at easily over a million HKD. One of our family friends happens to be a trustee of the Jockey Club, and he invited us to spend the afternoon at the races with his family.

It was an interesting afternoon spent in the luxurious private boxes above the grandstand, and listening to people talking about the races, and about their horses: bloodlines, races won and lost, etc etc. As somebody who has been an avid cat fancier in the past and who owns a could-have-been champion cat (he got first best kitten once, and then I decided to retire him because he clearly wasn't enjoying it), I can understand that enthusiasm -- the act of refining nature to get the "perfect" animal. It's a passion and a hobby, albeit a very expensive one!

I also enjoyed spending the day outside the city for once. Okay, the racecourse is artificial, but look at the green hill behind the course. Hong Kong is covered in vast swathes of these green areas. I just wish that the urban and rural areas were more evenly distributed -- methinks there would be a lot less stress living here if that were the case!

Computer training for refugee kids

Last Christmas, my pastor gave a wonderful sermon on "Home", during which he spoke about Christ's homelessness while He was on earth. From there, he extrapolated to how many people in Hong Kong are homeless -- not in the sense of street sleepers, but rather, they are refugees in Hong Kong, in a state of legal limbo.

Inspired by that sermon, I had then decided to try and see how we could help out. I learned about the name of an NGO here that looks to serve these people, but I was very busy then and didn't follow up. Then, about a month back, I had dinner with a friend of mine who happened to be volunteering for the same NGO. I decided that twice couldn't be a coincidence and jumped onto that, and got my friend to introduce me to the director there. They welcomed our help and we decided to do a short computer training camp for their children, just to see if our students could handle it.

After a flu-scare-induced delay, today saw our first IT camp for these refugee children. They come from a variety of races and backgrounds, and their English speaking ability is also very varied. Some of them are also a bit unruly -- like any other kid, perhaps, they would rather play computer games on the Internet rather than learn how to take pictures! But once you got their attention and their interest, they got excited about the subject matter in a hurry.

I think it was a big challenge for our students, too. Looking at those kids today, it suddenly occurred to me that most of our students had probably never interacted this closely with somebody who's not Chinese before, excepting their professors, and none of their professors come from similar backgrounds as these kids. Hong Kong is truly a little too racially homogeneous, I think. But kids are easy to deal with, and by the end of the morning, I would say that they were quite comfortable with each other.

It was a good feeling to come home at the end of the day today.

Where is my Galilee?

Our pastor today gave a wonderful sermon on Matthew 28, which I guess is pretty much standard Easter fare. As usual, our pastor had a lot of points that he was trying to stuff into the 35 minutes, from the role of women in the church to that of worship, to the part that doubt plays in the Christian faith.

The point that struck me the most, though, was his closing message. He took a combination of words from the angels at the tomb and Jesus' first words to the women who came to look for Him, "He is not here. He is going ahead of you to Galilee, where you will find Him." In other words, go into the world, where He has already gone ahead of you.

Where is your Galilee? He is ahead of you, and you will find Him there.

Academics

In several of his blog posts recently (1, 2, 3), StephenC lamented the declining proficiency of academic skills in Hong Kong students, especially in the languages. Actually, if one takes a sampling of local students and tests their language skills, I suspect (no hard stats to back it up) that you will find that the situation is very, very polarized. The good students have excellent English skills -- much better than I would have had at the same age myself. The bad ones... sometimes I wonder if they know what they're trying to express themselves!

Many people might attribute this to the growing prosperity gap in Hong Kong. And certainly this is very true: the rich get richer, and the poor have been getting poorer. Take into account the numerous tutorial schools, after-school activities, etc etc that are available to the children of those who can pay, and you can see why the rich get a leg-up on their academics.

However, there is another factor. Today, we hosted a Hong Kong-wide robot contest for primary and secondary school students. I went walking around the pit area where all the teams were doing their preparation, and I was astonished to see students from some of the teams with their homework and revision materials spread out on the table, trying to get in some test prep in between contest rounds. It was not a surprise to find out that those students were from the elite schools.

What were the other teams doing? Most of them were just hanging out, some were playing computer games, some were even playing card games. The more serious were actually trying to make some final modifications to their robots or programs. I did not see anybody reading any books, either Chinese or English.

Is it a surprise, then, that students from the elite schools keep on sweeping all the best places, all the prizes? Then the question is: who's to blame?

Individuality and collectivism

I was trying to hunt for something on Youtube tonight when I came across the following video. It's a collection of clips from the North Korean "Arirang" mass games. Watch it -- or at least part of it. The display of mass collectivism is absolutely stunning, especially the giant human-powered video wall. Apparently, schoolchildren rehearse this every day, until everything becomes perfect.



I can't decide how I feel about it. On one hand, I am the sort of person who prefers choral and orchestral music to solos. I love the harmony that is created when individuals put aside their own glory to create something more beautiful together (and yes, that's what I think heaven will be like). One of the things that I bemoan is that these performances are growing more and more scarce, as a rising standard of life seems to put more and more emphasis on individuality. Certainly, no democratic country could pull off the same display. And this is visually stunning -- no argument about that!

On the other hand, watching this sent shivers up my spine -- and not good shivers at that. It freaked me out. It was like watching an ant hill, or The Return of the Clones (or whatever that Star Wars movie is called). There was something almost unnatural about it.

How does it make you feel?

(The video below is another excerpt from the same performance, except that this one is the children's section. Look at how young this children are. Then think about how superbly disciplined they must be.)

The world is not fair (enough)

The New York Times had an interesting article today about how children in a rural Wisconsin community commute to school. This community is on an island that doesn't have a bridge to the mainland, where the school is. The water around the island is frozen for part of the year. When it is not frozen, the children commute by ferry; when it is frozen and solid enough, the children commute by school bus across an ice road. However, the problem happens when the ice is only partially frozen -- too much ice for a ferry, but not enough for a boat.

The ingenious device that they came up with is called a windsled, and is essentially a hovercraft, redesigned to float across partially-frozen ice. It runs at about 19 miles an hour, and has interior heating and seats about 20 (Slide show here). It is a marvel of engineering -- in order to stay light enough to float on top of the ice and not break it to pieces, it uses some sort of forward-backward motion to disperse its weight evenly across the base.

The cost of running this, per year, tops USD20k. The article also gave the cost of running the ferry that replaces it when the water is relatively more ice-free, USD30k. The number of children who are served: 20.

Not to begrudge those children their education, but it's clear that the world doesn't lack in resources. The lack is in equitable distribution of resources. Simply put, the world is not fair enough.

But that shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose.

Pets and Children

I have been going in and out of the vet's office these couple of days (just in case this raises alarms, everything seems to be okay so far). Aside from worrying about my cat, it has been fascinating to watch other people with their pets.

It seems that keeping pets has become much more popular in Hong Kong in recent years. People are more well off and can afford luxuries, I suppose. And from my understanding, many couples are forgoing having children, but, still needing something to love, are turning to cats and dogs instead. Certainly the amount of money spent on some of these animals (pet MRI, anyone?) exceeds what is spent on some human children!

While some people don't understand this (it's just an animal, after all!), I think that I kind of do understand this mentality. When my kitten was diagnosed with a heart defect, it did not make any sense for me, then a struggling grad student on a meager stipend, to opt for expensive ECGs and ultrasounds to pinpoint the source of the problem, and later, for expensive medications that the cat would be taking for the rest of his life. It doesn't make any sense. But somehow, we are programmed to do such things.

When I was in Gansu, we worked with children who were orphans. Sometimes, it was really true that both their parents had passed away. Other times, however, one parent (or both) had just simply disappeared, leaving their children behind with grandparents or relatives. I recently spoke with a friend who works with asylum seekers; many of them, in their flight to safety, have left behind children whom they have not heard anything about for years.

I do not believe that those parents are any less caring than we are. I cannot imagine the level of hardship that they must have gone through to push them to this point.

Art and Beauty

A good friend and I went to see the Stuttgart Ballet perform "Swan Lake" tonight. It has been a while since I saw "Swan Lake" -- I know it's been performed several times by the Hong Kong Ballet, but unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) I missed all of them. So this was the first time in a long while since I had watched a classical ballet piece. And it didn't disappoint -- the choreography was inspired, the dancers were talented and the dancing was beautiful. It was amazing to watch how the same steps, by the same dancer, could convey two different characters with two completely different sets of intentions and emotions.

In a book that I have been reading recently, "The Case for a Creator", by Lee Strobel, and one of the pieces of evidences put forward is that of the human consciousness. One of the illustrations is this: supposing we could somehow characterize every action of a bat, and build the perfect model of how a bat behaves. Then we could make a computerized bat that would act exactly like a real bat. It might even fool real bats. However, there is no way that we could ever find out from this bat, what it's like to be a bat. How bats think and feel, in other words.

In the same way, I think that the fact that we can appreciate beauty and emotion has got to be a piece of evidence for the case of an intelligent Creator. How else could this be explained, but for the fact that somehow, we were programmed to love beauty, to recognize it, and to cherish it.

As Christians, we believe that we were made in the image of God. Therefore, what we love must be a shadow of what He loves as well. And since He created us, I suppose that He must have made us to be lovable by Him. And yes, the Bible tells us that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made".

Isn't that a lovely promise to have, especially as we face a new year, and wonder what's ahead of us? When the future seems pointless, as it does sometimes, and we wonder if we are simply human hamsters running on a treadmill, going nowhere with a life that's pointless? Surely, God, who made us to love, who made us beautiful in His eyes, wouldn't do that to us?

Globalization

It's been a whirlwind tour through 3 countries and 6 cities on the cruise, and I think the thing that has left the deepest impression for me on this cruise is the issue of globalization. The countries that we visited on the cruise were very different culturally from what I have been exposed to for most of my life. And yet, I was continually struck by how similar the shops were, the brands they had, even the fashions they were carrying. About the only concession that the shops were making to being in the Middle East were that the skirts carried in them tended to be long, but that was about it.

One of the most vivid illustrations of this growing globalization came to me while seated in a Starbucks in Abu Dhabi. Sitting across the aisle from us was this Arab man, dressed in full Arab headdress, wearing dark sunglasses, reading an English newspaper and sipping a latte. As if that wasn't enough of an illustration of how the world is intermingling and growing smaller, when we got up to leave, I found a coin on the couch that I had been sitting on. Expecting it to be either a HK coin that had somehow slipped out of my pocket, or an UAE coin that somebody else had dropped, I picked it up and was astonished to see... a 5p UK coin.

Now *that*'s globalization for you.

Dubai, close up

It's nearing the end of our cruise and again, we're back in Dubai, where we boarded the ship. We have a day and a half here, and then we fly back to Hong Kong tomorrow night.

Dubai is an amazing city -- you walk through the place and you are gripped by what seems to be an endless optimism and exuberance. It's certainly a very young city -- most of the population seems to be young people (certainly a high birth rate helps), and most of the construction is new, too. Actually, the city looks very American -- wide freeways, sprawling strip malls and carparks. But of course, being much more glitzy and glam than any American city could ever claim to be.

The architecture of Dubai is also amazing -- I couldn't take pictures from the taxi, but Google for some photos and take a look at the skyscrapers. Now just having skyscrapers wouldn't be that big a deal, but the amazing thing is the way that they're building these things. Unlike Hong Kong, where the game is just to throw these things up in as cookie-cutter a shape as you can make them, it seems here that the architects are trying to outdo each other as much as they can. Most of the buildings are built in a way so that the insides of the building shows, bringing light into the deep recesses of the building. I noticed that some of the skyscrapers also have transparent lift shafts in the center of the building, and since the innards of the building is visible from the street, a passenger in the lift can see the view as he shoots up the building. And of course there are also lights. All the buildings are lit up so beautifully that they are almost like pieces of art.

Seriously, I don't think that it would be hyperbole to say that in such a city, the iconic Burj al-Arab isn't all that big a deal. Sure, it looks different, but then, all of the skyscrapers do, so what's so special about it?

(To be honest, the feeling that I get here is one of spending and consumerism gone out of control. It's almost like a "spend-it-while-you-can" mentality, and I suppose, with the price of oil so high, why not spend what you have? It's almost frightening, though also infectious at the same time. I can see why so many expats are attracted to living here. And yes, it sure is a very international and cosmopolitan city.)

The malls here are amazingly huge. I suppose that they are planning for the 5 months of boiling hot summer, when the temperatures can shoot up to 50 degrees Celsius and nobody wants to be outside. Then you really have nowhere to go but into the malls (sort of like the reverse of the Canadian winter). The malls here, though, are like megamalls -- there are malls inside malls.

Of course we couldn't resist a visit to the gigantic Mall of the Emirates, with the Ski Dubai resort inside. And gosh -- this is a feat of engineering. They have ski slopes (even a black slope), ski lifts, a snow cave, tobaggan runs, everything -- all inside a mall. And just to make sure that mall goers see what they are missing, there are windows looking into the ski area, so you could be wearing a t-shirt, drinking a soft drink, and watching people go by on a ski lift about 200 meters away!

I once swore that I would never ski again -- my last experience with skiing wasn't all that great -- but I got talked into doing it today. And finally I managed to learn enough to be able to take a ski lift and come down a blue slope, though I did fall once and had to be helped up since I couldn't get back onto my feet on my own. But it was fun and worth it. Who ever thought that I would manage to finally learn how to ski -- in Dubai?

Oil Wells, Camels and a Tree

Greetings from the tiny little state of Bahrain, which is our stop today. I was going to post a picture of, yes, oil wells, camels and a tree, but I decided not to risk the computer going bonkers on me again. So the pic will have to wait for later.

Bahrain City is quite an interesting place. The old part of the city is much more run-down -- reminds me of some of the 2nd world countries that I have been to, actually -- and also, for the first time since we have been in the Gulf, we saw beggars on the street, which was a shocker. They were ladies, too -- or at least, they were wearing a full-length burka and veil. I suppose that Bahrain City (or Manama, the old part of town) isn't quite as completely planned as some of the other cities such as Abu Dhabi. The economy in pre-oil days was built upon pearling, and they had a natural resource in abundant potable water, which made it possible for a settlement of some kind, unlike the other cities, which I suppose didn't quite exist before the discovery of oil made it feasible to even have a settled area at all.

Outside Manama, however, you see a dramatically different state. New construction is everywhere, and there are multitudes of new and in-construction residential areas. And those houses are HUGE -- they're practically villas. Our maid in Hong Kong, who has a brother working in this area, told us that it's not uncommon for one family to hire a ton of help: one person for the baking, another for the laundry, another for driving one car, yet another for gardening, etc etc.

We passed by several interesting sites in Bahrain: the old fort, which is both a tourist attraction and an archaeological site. You could wander all over the place for free, but the weird thing is that there are no signposts, nothing to tell you what's what. There were some side rooms that I wandered into, and there were random displays in cases, but no signs whatsoever. Whether they really seriously intend for this to be a tourist site is debatable: they certainly keep it very well restored, but then, why not go the extra mile and put in some information for the tourists?

The second place that we went to were burial mounds. Apparently 5% of the entire island is covered with these mounds. The biggest of these are taller than a tall man and wider than they are tall. Again, it's an archaeological site, but you can wander freely around the mounds (and for some of them, which are opened, into them), which is weird. The weirder thing was that only about 100 feet away was a new residential building. The inhabitants would get the view of the mounds every time they walk out of their front door. Maybe they don't have the superstitions that the Chinese have, or maybe the mounds are so old that they don't count as graveyards anymore.

The last place is the one that gives the title to this post. In the middle of the Bahraini desert is a tree called the "Tree of Life". No, it's probably not the Tree of Life, but it's a spreading mesquite tree which must have survived for a while, in the middle of the desert, all on its own.

The Bahraini desert -- or at least the part that we went to -- is covered with oil wells and oil pipes. Apparently we're also coming up to a festival for the locals, so there are many tents in the desert where families were vacationing. And every now and then, you'd see this dune buggy go roaring past the sand dunes.

The coolest thing was running into a shepherd with his flock of -- not sheep or goats, but camels! The shepherd, whom we think is paid to look after the flock, had herded them close to the Tree of Life for tourists to take pictures, and I suppose, also earn a few extra dollars for himself. There were about 40 camels in the entire flock, and he had hobbled some of the tamer ones. It was really cool to be able to walk right into the midst of so many camels. That was the highlight of my trip :-).

Fujairah

I was trying to mailblog from the ship yesterday, but for some reason
the ship's computer didn't like my email and ate it up, together with
the photo that I was trying to post. So here's the re-post from free
Internet access.

Yesterday we spent in Fujairah, the smallest of the Emirates. It feels
more like what Dubai and Abu Dhabi would feel like without the oil
wealth (or if it were differently distributed.) It's pretty run down
and the buildings are old. And yet, because it is the only one of the
Emirates ringed by mountains, its climate is less harsh (it was
actually raining yesterday) and the scenery is stunning. I need to
post this picture of a little mosque we visited, which was surrounded
by some of the most stupendous scenery I have yet seen in the region.

I fell in love with the desert when I visited Jordan two years ago,
and this visit has only reinforced that infatuation. Think of powdery
sand, orange and rose colored, rippling on all directions. Magnify
that tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold. I could never get tired
of it.

The definition of opulence

Hello from the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This thing is AD's
answer to Dubai's Burj Al-Arab, and pretty much the definition of
opulence. Everything is gold, from the wall decorations to the tables
and chairs. Crystal chandeliers illuminate the hallways, Lalique glass
insets decorate the railings.

AD looks very much like what Manhattan or Hong Kong would look like of
we had the opportunity to tear everything down and plan and build
afresh. Wide avenues meet at right angles, parks at every corner. The
overwhelming sense is that of reconstruction and money in the air.

(Please excuse the spelling errors. This is a mailblog using my iPhone
in the restaurant in the hotel, which of course has free WLAN.)

What a difference $$$ makes

Greetings from Oman! Yesterday was the beginning of our cruise -- starting from Dubai, through Oman, Bahrain and some of the other Emirates. Yesterday we did a quick self-tour of Dubai -- went through the spice souk which is my own favorite -- and today we were in Muscat, Oman.

Having come from Gansu earlier this year (actually just 3 weeks ago), I couldn't help comparing the GS landscape with the Omani landscape. Both are arid deserts. Unlike GS, however, at least there are numerous thorn bushes and the occasional mesquite tree growing around here -- the rocks are never completely devoid of life (the sand dunes are another story).

But that's outside the city. Inside the city of Muscat, the highways are lined with verdant, manicured lawns and lovely, color-coordinated flower beds. It is as if no expense has been spared towards making the city lovely, despite the harsh climate. I even saw an artificial waterfall gracing one of the overpasses!

What a difference $$$ (or oil) makes, for sure!

The above picture was taken at a wadi, or a river bed, in the middle of the desert. This river happens to be flowing at this point, and there are waterways leading the water out for irrigation purposes. It was a lovely spot -- the water was greenish-blue, there were fishes in the water, and dragonflies buzzing about. Who could have thought such a lovely spot existed in the middle of the desert?

What matters in life?

Working in the environment that I am in, it's hard not to get caught
up in the insane slew of reports, proposals, student feedback/
complaints, etc etc that we have to deal with every day. Recently,
most of my colleagues have been very stressed out papers and research.
Apparently there is some movement afoot to raise the bar, so to speak.
And everybody is worried sick about it.

I got an email from a dear friend recently. This friend is married
with small children, with a considerate, God-fearing spouse and a well-
paying job. Everything would point to an idyllic life. However, my
friend struggles with a serious illness that not only severely affects
quality of life, but it also possibly life-threatening. And the
doctors do not seem to know the cause nor the cure for the illness.

Every time I get an email from this friend, first I start wondering why.

That question will have to stay unanswered until the day we see God.

The next question, is, inevitably, what are the things that matter in
life?

When I was in GS earlier this month, I was very impressed and touched
by the teachers there. They sacrificed a lot to obey God's calling and
go to care for some children whom nobody else cares about. Life is
dreadfully boring there, and there's not much in terms of material
goods, either. And yet, they were just like normal people, not the
holier-than-thou martyrs that you'd expect them to be.

Except that if I am to use one word to describe them, it would be
"content".

How many of us can really claim contentment with our daily lives? And
if we can't, why?

Service Learning: When's it worth it?

(This picture was taken at the New Years' dinner, which was coincidentally held during the last night of our project. I call it "Locusts descending upon Egypt".)

Invariably, whenever we do service learning projects, especially those that take lots of time and effort such as HB or GS, there comes up the question of whether it was worth it. I get asked this question lots of times, and I will admit also that I ask myself that question sometimes, too. And a couple of times (not too often, thankfully), I have actually wondered seriously whether or not to continue. 

God has been kind to me, though -- it has never been more than a couple of weeks before I get some pretty firm, positive sign that it was worth it and it is worth continuing. This time was no exception. I was going through our kids' post-trip reports today and it was heartening to see that they all appreciated this trip and most importantly, they felt that their hearts were touched in some way by the plight of the orphans and the dedication of their teachers. Here are some quotes from the reports:

• Before the trip, I thought that maybe I cannot handle those kids ... But I was really moved by those naughty but sensible kids once I saw them in Gansu. I became patient when with kids. I'm really enjoyed with them.
• I obtain many benefits from this trip. And I think it is a good experience for many people who live in Hong Kong. I realize that we are all very lucky. We can enjoy lots of sources in Hong Kong. So we need to cherish those we have.
• The interaction and communication between the kids in JCPS and us is really active. The kids are happy to learn IT from us and they did a good job. When I saw they can operate PC to create their own art work, I felt so happy and excited.
• I learnt how to help others, how to put heart into a meaningful activity, how to make myself more responsible and considerate... this trip is only a start of help and learning, I hope I can do more and really make a difference.
• I opened my heart, at the beginning, and suddenly I not only made good relationship with them, but also saw a never-seeing world hidden of my heart. That was the first time I knew I could spend so much just for making those kids happy, and I didn't expect I would devote my whole heart into them, laughing with their happiness and crying by their sorrow.
• I was very upset to know that some people are still living under such a poor condition. As all of us are living on the same Earth, we should try our best to help the needed ones if we are able to do so.
• During this trip, I grow up more than expect. I learn how to talk something in front of many people and how to present my idea clearly. Also, I learn how to communicate to others from my teammate. Obviously, l got some computer knowledge. More importantly, I had the chance to make friend with the children and playing game with them.
• I do believe what I got from the trip is more than that I gave. I used to be a very passive person. In this trip, I had tried to push myself to be less passive ... Also, I didn't have enough confidence to take up works which were new to me ... I have learnt to be more confident in facing challenges.

Each service learning project is different, and it would be unfair to compare HB with GS -- indeed, it would be unfair to compare HB 1 with HB 2. However, this was certainly one of the most rewarding projects that I have been on so far. Our kids excelled themselves in being hardworking, disciplined, caring and compassionate -- indeed, this is truly a team that we could be proud of. And I am sure that my colleagues felt the same way. On my part, I do have to say that I am truly grateful to Him for giving me this chance to blend my ministry with my career, and for giving me some wonderful colleagues and co-workers (and if you happen to be reading this, no, this is NOT a blatant attempt to suck up!)

(This is my first attempt at mailblogging. Let's see if it warps up the format.)

Northwest China

For some reason, I have always had a keen interest in Northwest China and Central Asia, and therefore, being able to do a service learning tour to Gansu province this winter was a dream come true. About two weeks ago, Stephen and I brought 7 of our students to Gansu, where we set up some computer infrastructure and taught some IT classes for a primary school that caters to destitute orphans. You can read more about the details in the community service blog.

Remembering the harsh landscape of the land there, it is only too obvious why this province is among the poorest in China. I have been to desert regions before, but somehow they have never seemed as desolate as this. The tenacity of the human spirit is amazing. The human ability to survive is no less so.

You can see some more pictures on my Flickr album. I will post more here when I have collected my thoughts.