I chose the road to...curry

I am such a little MacGyver :) I made my own ice bucket by cutting up an old water bottle. I only bought one single ice tray (because that's the way they sold them, individually) and decided I needed an ice bucket and voila!! My Daddy would be so proud :)

On Monday night I had dinner with two new friends Jeanette and Wade. They are both educators from the US and have been living in HK for almost a year. Jeanette is actually the Dean of a Nursing School back in the states and has been teaching for a program here in Central. She was given my email address about a month before I arrived here by a woman I met in Birmingham while I was fundraising at a church there. We have been corresponding ever since and it was so nice to finally meet her. She and her husband Wade took me to have the best Thai food I’ve ever had in my life. It was divine.

The mixed vegetables with curry were my absolute favorite and if I can find it again, I will be going back soon!! Jeanette and Wade were able to give me some great suggestions on how to survive as an American in HK and where to shop and eat. I am so grateful to have met them and look forward to seeing them again soon.

So this is my blog. So far the topics have been light-hearted and funny. For the most part, a foreigner’s account of learning the basics in a new culture. I have had the luxury of writing pretty frequently and I know once I start working I won’t be able to write as often. I will begin my orientation at MFMW tomorrow and my paralegal training the following day. Then the “real” work begins Sunday I would assume. I can imagine that the tone of my blog is bound to change somewhat. This is going to be a challenging and heart-wrenching experiencing, and honestly in some ways it already has. Just meeting some of these girls that I am here to work with tugs at my heart, knowing that they have endured all types of abuse.
First, I want to give you some background on MFMW. It is a program that deals with personal and legal cases involving migrant workers by means of “crisis intervention”. It also focuses on empowering migrants through education and training workshops advocating women’s rights, by providing counseling services, liaising with NGO’s, and networking with union organizations as well as campaigning programs to make the general public aware of worker’s rights and concerns. The Mission’s services are for the more than 220,000 plus foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong. Of this number 98% are women who come from poor and underdeveloped countries of Asia. (Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal).They are women who are brought to Hong Kong to be domestic workers and are underpaid, overworked, trapped in the vicious cycle of debt, and discriminated against because they are foreign. They are migrant workers whose labor rights are violated. They are women who are victimized by physical and sexual abuse. They are mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters who suffer from the mental, emotional, and social cost of forced migration.

So why am I here, you might ask?

I know my contract says I’ll be a case worker/paralegal/counselor of sorts and I’ll find out more of the specifics in orientation tomorrow, but I can tell you why God says I’m here. I’m here because I love these women already. As I type this, my eyes fill with tears for the first time since I’ve been here, and it’s not because I’m home sick. It’s because these girls are packed like sardines into a safe house called the Bethune House, on the third story of the Mission. They welcomed me on the very first day in so many ways I can’t even remember them all.

They have been so patient with me and so incredibly helpful. They cook the most amazing food and love to watch me eat. I see God in ALL of their faces and they are all almost always smiling even though they have lived through horrible tragedies. I have so much to learn from them. This is why I’m here.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen