Hong Kong

This is our first official post while being in China. We are writing from Hong Kong. The flights can only be described as too long, too tiring, and too noisy. We didn't sleep as well as we had hoped, plus we lost a whole day. We look like zombies. Bryan has what I'm calling "perpetual red eyes" plus, David and I have the old steady glassy-eyed look. We're worn out and will hopefully drop from exhaustion to sleep the night out. We met up with many of our group mates from CCAI in Los Angeles (we are group 838) while waiting for the 3rd of 4 planes. The group mates are a great bunch of people. They have been with us from the beginning pursuing their own little sweethearts just as we pursue ours.

When we reached Hong Kong, we were greeted by our guides Matthew and Joanna. I have to tell you how wonderful the whole CCAI team is with getting folks like us to where we need to be in our adoption process. Matthew is very charismatic and informative. He took us to our hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La. This hotel is located in the Tsimshatsui East Commercial and shopping area. Some of the nearby attractions include the Star ferry, Hover ferry, Cross Harbor Tunnel and the Kowloon Canton Railway and Mass Transit System. Its remarkable just how much of the Hong Kong countryside reminds me of parts of Virginia and Florida.

Hong Kong is very smoggy and at times the air quality is quite difficult to breath. The buildings are in various states of repair or disarray, but no different than other countries we have seen. The people find us to be a curiosity which is ok since staring and pointing don't bother us. We have seen things here that we don't see back home. What an amazing place and an amazing reason which brings us to such a beautiful country.

Tonight Matthew arranged a tour of Hong Kong and dim sum dinner for us. Bryan didn't eat as much of the food looked other world to him. I tried a little of everything and used my chop sticks the whole time, even while eating little bits of rice. I thought the food tasted great. David tried many items only to have stomach upset for the rest of the evening and through the night.

Matthew told us all about Hong Kong and took us to the fish market harbor where the boat people live as shown in the photographs. There are whole families living and working on these boats which are sometimes just a tiny little boat. Their whole life takes place on the water. We took a boat ride around the harbor to see how they live. The boat ride was fantastic and I highly recommend it if you get to visit Hong Kong. Matthew told us that families live in apartments which consist of about 250 to 500 square feet. These apartments are extremely expensive even by our standards. There are often the husband, wife, child and in-laws all living in this tiny one room home. And Mamaw Potter's favorite star Jackie Chan lives in an apartment of about 2000 square feet up in the hills referred to as the view. Later in the tour, we visited a jade factory and the Stanley market. Items may be bought for a bargain, but you have to bargain which is something I dislike doing. Thus far we have had a nice time in Hong Kong. Tomorrow we leave on another plane for Changsha. We have come to dislike airplanes tremendously. We miss everyone and hope that you are well. Pray for our safe journey to Karen.

Love, Jenny