Photos from Keegan

Here I am at my teacher's house watching one of the rugby matches.

Here I am at Bible study.

Here I am with Michael at the club.

This is my friend Jakob at his Star Wars birthday party.

Here I am with my sisters.

Here I am with my class, 2A. My teacher is named Mrs Whenuaroa, and she is from New Zealand. She doesn't shout at us. My friends are Hannah, Martin, Joseph and Matthias. Second grade is hard because we have a lot of homework. Right now we are learning about the different countries in Asia.

Here I am!

Jemilla's book blurbs

I want to be an editor when I grow up, so Mum thinks it will be good practice for me to write summaries on four of the books I read recently.

This book is full of drama, risks for life, and adventure. Two children find an enchanted world which can be entered through puddles. They must find a stone to undo the spell on dying unicorns. I would recommend this book to children who like reading about spies, adventure, and bravery. 4.5 out of 5 stars

A morning in Hawaii changed the life of Bethany Hamilton forever. When the young surfer gets attacked by a tiger shark, she must trust in God to help her fight to get back on her board. Even the loss of an arm will not stop her. 5 out of 5 stars

Stanley Yelnats has a curse on him, a curse which always puts him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now he is at camp Green Lake. The warden there is looking for something...but what? She forces bad boys to dig holes, so that she can find what she is looking for. 4.5 out of 5 stars

Four children who have special abilities risk their own lives to stop the world from becoming gloomy. A machine, The Whisperer, is supposed to put calm thoughts into a person's head but makes the person sad instead. Will the children succeed...or not? 4 out of 5 stars

Rugby World Cup semi-final 2011

Well, we lost the game , but we had fun watching it!

Colourful Hong Kong

Have you ever seen...?

...a KFC delivery man on a train?

KIBC family camp

Last weekend we attended Church Family Camp with others from Kowloon International Baptist Church.

We boarded the bus at 8:30 on Saturday morning.

The camp was in an area called Yuen Long.

First there were a few games for everyone to participate in.

Then we were free to explore the campsite and do our own thing for the rest of the morning. Keegan and Craig chose to play soccer on a court that brought back memories of Petit Porteau in Africa.

Jemilla took the opportunity to jump on a trampoline, her first since house-sitting for the Eyres in July.

Tirzah was happy just jumping on the mats.

We then found a few playgrounds, including this long, bendy balance beam...

swings...

rope course...

and sand!

Then it was lunch time. This is the barbecue area where we were told to meet for lunch, given a bag of charcoal and matches, handed another bag of semi-defrosted meats, and left to fend for ourselves.

The sad fact is that neither Craig nor I would last very long on Survivor because we spent a great deal of time arguing over how to get the fire started and only managed to produce a few wisps of smoke.

First, this man tried to offer some suggestions.

Then, a bbq-savvy toddler also got in on the action.

But it wasn't until this couple took over that we finally saw some flames...ninety minutes and several grumpy Harveys later. What would I have given for an Aussie electric barbecue!

Anyway, we stood/sat over the sweltering charcoal fire holding our prongs of sausages, chicken wings and several unidentifiable meats over the flames. It's only by God's grace that we didn't get sick because we ate much of the food before it had been cooked through simply because we were so hungry at that point.

We avoided the sun for the rest of the afternoon by doing indoor activities. I was so proud of Jemilla who climbed this rock wall three times.

Keegan and I giggled our way through a game of badminton.

And Tirzah was very content to play on the equipment in the air conditioned playroom.

At the end of the day I felt disappointed that we did not really get to know any other church families. It seemed that everyone we encountered spoke only Chinese, and we were noticeably the only whites around. I was also keen to wash the barbecue smell out of my clothes and hair! The children, however, saw only the fun in it all...happy to have had an excursion as a family and explored somewhere new.

Tirzah did ask why it was called "camp" if we didn't get to sleep overnight in a tent like Peppa Pig's camping adventure. Maybe next time...

Bush walk

Today was Chung Yeung Festival, a public holiday when many Chinese people go up into the mountains to clean graves and burn offerings for their dead ancestors . The kids and Craig took a little hike of their own, but purely to get some exercise! Manou, you will no doubt recognise this track behind Forest Hill.

 

You know you've been in Hong Kong a long time when...

...the unusual has become the ordinary and you struggle to know what to write about on your blog! I'll disguise my writer's block with a few recent but random photos.

This was a service day our school spent at Crossroads. My group was responsible to unpack pallets of donations and sort them into their correct categories for shipping to needy families in other countries.

Some friends returned briefly to Hong Kong from the Philippines en route to Africa, so we had a hello-goodbye pot luck dinner with them. Can you spot five Harveys in this crowd?

I love this photo! This is the Elementary Bridges team this year...myself, Amy Turner and Rachel Bradford.