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Akole, Rhys, Enfys and I were privileged to go to Hong Kong in January and attend the enthronement of the Bishop of Hong Kong Island, the Rt. Revd. Paul Kwong in the St John’s Cathedral. Akole started thinking about packing just after Christmas and would put this or that on one side in preparation for the journey. I investigated the best way to get to Heathrow, and in the end decided that with the children and luggage the best way was to go by car. There was a bewildering array of possible car parks to choose from and eventually I picked a relatively cheap one with a shuttle bus to the various airport terminals.
In this electronic age we checked in on line at home before starting for Heathrow. That meant that when we arrived there was hardly anyone in the queue in front of us and we got through check in about 10 minutes. Then things got more difficult. It was easy to see why they now recommend arriving 3 hours before the flight. The queue for security was horrendous. It must have taken us at least an hour to go through. This wasn’t a picnic with a six year old and a toddler. Fortunately we had decided to take the pushchair with us and Enfys was strapped in for a lot of the wait. The London bombings and other security alerts had had their effect. By the time we were through there was only about 20 minutes before we had to start walking to the departure gates.
In-flight entertainment had improved even in the two years since we went to India. There was a wide range of films, TV programmes and even some games of the screen on the back of the chair in front of us. It hardly seems any time ago that there was just one film projected onto a screen in the aircraft cabin – take it or leave it. The entertainment was good for us because it kept Rhys amused for a 12 hour journey. The only problem was that he didn’t really want to stop watching and go to sleep and it was already way past his bedtime when the plane took off. The food, I’m afraid, hadn’t improved.
Arriving in Hong Kong airport was a definite contrast from the make do feel of Heathrow. In London it is very difficult to get around with children and luggage. The underground and train stations have escalators but not obvious lifts, even in Heathrow. If there are two adults you still have to leave some of the luggage while you take the children up or down the escalator and then go back for the rest. Sometimes, if you are really lucky, someone will give you a hand. Everything looks grubby and is not obviously child or disabled friendly. Hong Kong airport was shiny and new. It was not crowded and it was easy to get around. A subway train took us from the terminal to immigration. The train side of the subway was all glass with automatic doors to prevent people jumping onto the track. Another thing I noticed were infra red cameras to scan passengers to see if they had a temperature. The dangers of bird flu are taken extremely seriously in Hong Kong.
Fr Desmond from Australia, one of the chaplains at the cathedral, was
at the airport to meet us. We had set out at 9pm on Monday, but due to
the flight and time difference it was now 8pm Tuesday. For us our body
clock was telling us that we should be wide-awake, but we were also
very tired. We got our first view of Hong Kong at night as we travelled
to the YWCA on Hong Kong Island. Possibly Hong Kong is at its most
spectacular at night with all the high-rise buildings lit up. We went
across the Tsing Ma bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world
again all lit up with bulbs. Fr Desmond and the other cathedral clergy
were very busy as many visitors were arriving for the enthronement of
bishop Paul. Once we were installed in the hotel he left us to recover,
but I think he had other duties. We went to the restaurant for our
first taste of real Cantonese food. It was similar to the food in
Chinese restaurants in the UK but different on many ways. It was
certainly much less salty and not a bean sprout in sight (I think we
only had bean sprouts twice in our whole stay). Nor was it as sweet as
many western style Chinese restaurants.
We were of course worn out and washed and went to bed as soon as possible. Rhys slept well but Enfys was defiantly on UK time. She was wide awake at 2am (6pm in the UK) and for that matter Akole and I were also wide awake. It was interesting to look out of the hotel room at the empty streets and across to the park over the road.
Wed Jan 10th
We got little sleep that night, the problem is that our bodies were just getting ready to sleep when everyone else was waking up. Though I am normally adventurous about food and I’m quite happy with curry for breakfast in India, I didn’t really fancy noodles for some reason. We all had a western breakfast and took our first look at Hong Kong in the daytime.
We didn’t know it then but you could just see the cathedral tower peeping up about the trees. There was also a massive computer display on the top of the AIG building which was quite fascinating to watch during breakfast.
At 9 the Dean of St John’s, Andrew Chan came to meet us. He took us by car to the cathedral, it is actually only 10 minutes walk but on the first day he thought it would be easier to use the car. Sharon, another of the chaplains, looked after Akole Rhys and Enfys while Andrew gave me a tour of the Cathedral. The Cathedral might not be as ancient as some of ours but it was still an impressive building. One place in it that struck me was the St Michael’s Chapel. This in now a place of private prayer but was in the place of the original organ case. During World War 2 the Japanese officers had used the cathedral as a club and stripped out the old organ. After the war they decided not to rebuild the pipe organ and they turned the St Michael’s chapel. During the war the spiritual life of the cathedral was kept alive. In the internment camp for the military personnel at Shamshuipo the chaplains of the armed forces conducted regular services in an ad hoc chapel. The wooden reredos they made in the camp is kept in St Michael's chapel is a memento of these times.
In
the afternoon I had the chance to see some of the outreach work of the
cathedral. The cathedral runs five projects, they are varied ways of
reaching out and helping the community.
First Fr. Matthew (one of the chaplains) took me to see the counselling service. This is run in offices a little way from the cathedral so that those visiting have more privacy. The St John’s Counselling Service has a small suite of offices and counselling rooms where it can offer western counselling. They offer professional help for people with a wide range of emotional difficulties such as grief, trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, communication difficulties, sexual difficulties, relationship issues, life goal planning, alcohol and/or substance abuse and child behaviour issues. The fees for the service vary so that the better off help those who can’t afford to pay as much. If you want to read more about the service is on the website at www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/counselling.html .
Next Fr. Desmond took me to the HIV education centre. This is the first (and so far only) faith based organization to undertake a faith based AIDS ministry in Hong Kong. In truth, it is a world leader in faith based HIV/AIDS ministry and has assisted in both faith and secular organizations that work in the field around the world. It is unfortunate that Christian and other faith communities often marginalize HIV positive people and part of the work of the St John’s centre is to counter this. They work closely with other faiths, when I was there they were translating educational material for the large migrant Indonesian (mainly Muslim) community in Hong Kong The centre has projects for Women, youth and migrant workers. Visit www.sjhivctr.com/index.htm for more information about the project.
My next port of call was with the Helpers for Domestic Helpers (HDH). There are well over 100,000 domestic helpers in Hong Kong, many from the Philippines but a growing number from Indonesia but there are also workers from Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. Akole and I have friends from Nepal that have worked in Hong Kong although Nepalese are no longer able to get visas to work there. We heard of one woman who was qualified as a teacher at home but could earn more money as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. HDH mainly provide legal advice and assistance for domestic helpers. A lot of their work is to persuading the Immigration Department to allow a terminated helper to take up new employment where permission to do so has been initially refused. They may get involved because a domestic worker wants to leave their employer because of mistreatment and then the employer accuses them of theft. The police are not on the side of domestic workers in these cases. While I was there the police came looking for one woman who was being helped by HDH. There is more information on the website www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/domestic.html .
I called
at the Mission for Migrant Workers (MFMW) next. This is related to the
HDH in that they both deal with workers from abroad. migrant workers
keep it clean. The MFMW is concerned with "migrant in crisis" through
human rights violations, physical and sexual abuse, and unfair labour
laws and practices but also by the vulnerability and potential distress
that comes with the very nature of being a migrant worker. Migrant
workers have had to leave their families because of unemployment and
poverty at home and many of them are employed in 3D (difficult, dirty
and dangerous) jobs. Hong Kong is extremely clean but that is because
of an army of migrant workers.
The MFMW provides help for those in difficult situations but it has a longer term aim of helping migrant workers help themselves. I met Fr. Dwight at the MFMW,, he is a priest from the Philippines who has an extensive ministry with the Filipino community.
The MFMW also run a hostel for migrant and domestic workers who need somewhere to stay while the legal processes are being gone through. More information on www.migrants.net/_index.htm .
My final visit of the day was to the bookstore. This isn’t
just about selling books it is ‘to provide "welcome, education and
nurture" to all who pass through our door’. As well as books they are
also active in promoting fair-trade items. The Bookstore has the widest
range of religious books in Hong Kong and they can also order books.
They are also a port of call for anyone wanting information about the
cathedral times of services, opening hours and general information.
www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/bookstore.html
.
Thanks to the Cathedral for allowing me to use some photos from their website.