A Little Impressed

You know, being in the field of work I'm in, it's not a common thing to get to splurge.  First, it can be wasteful.  Second, I don't make much money anyway, so it's hard to splurge.  Third, in this kind of work, you can't help but feel a little guilty when you spend your money on yourself.  Still, I'm just a person, and yesterday I wanted to splurge a little.  So what did I do?  I bought an Apple iPhone 3G.

My previous phone was beginning to give me troubles - keys not working well, text messages not received, sending text messages in triplicate without my permission...I admit, I got a little frustrated with the phone.  So, far my only complaint with the iPhone is that what people have said about the battery life is true - it don't got muchuvit.  Oi.  But that's not why I'm writing tonight.  I'm writing because I was a little impressed with this overpriced piece of machinery (note:  I say it's overpriced because I bought an international version of the phone, which means it's legally unlocked for all networks, but you pay full price for the phone - no discounts or anything).

So, what did the phone do for me?  It got me back home!  I'm currently staying with a friend in Hong Kong (yea for long holidays for teachers!).  My friend is still working at this time, even though it's so close to Chinese New Year.  So, a decent amount of my time here is spent by myself, just roaming the city.  Not bad, really, but I'm only decently familiar with HK.

Well, tonight I was off wandering the streets of Mong Kok on the Kowloon side, and I decided it was time for me to start heading back home.  Except, I didn't exactly know where I was or how I had gotten there.  Ha.  I'm not the best with directions either.  Many of you can testify to this.  So, what did I do?  I pulled out my new gadget and said, "iPhone, get me home!"  It then responded with a, "Please wait while I find your location...Okay, here you are, and this is where you want to go."  I followed the iPhone's commands, and now I'm safely back home in my friend's home.  Amazing.

Now, I know technology will keep improving, and some day this will look old school.  But today is does not, and today I am a little impressed with my gadget.  Thanks iPhone, for possibly being worth the investment.  Apple, please don't make a new iPhone too soon again and make me feel like all my splurging today has quickly been invalidated and outdated.  Ha.

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!  It's the year of the bull/ox.  Cow in Mandarin is pronounced "niu."  This sounds a bit like "nyoo."  So the trendy and oh so unfortunate thing to say is "Happy Niu Year."  Oi.

Work, Toil, or Something Worse?

The other night we had one of our Western Dinners with our students. During this time, we take them to a nice restaurant here and treat them to a steak dinner. It's a great thing to share with them, and watching them attempt to use a fork and knife for the first time is just funny. It's almost always a joy to see these young men and women get dressed up, learn a little western culture, and enjoy an experience that most of them have never had before. But as Rick and I were coming home from the dinner, we saw something that made our hearts kind of sink.

We got back from the dinner a little after 10pm. And as we were walking to our apartments, we saw a group of about 6-8 Chinese men, who were probably in their 40s and 50s mostly. They looked a little tired and a good bit beaten up by life. We smiled and said a polite "Ni hao," to them as we passed by. We didn't think much about it at first, but shortly afterwards, we realized that these men had been working on track and field area on our campus. "Ouch," we thought.

They work all day long, by the sunlight in the day and just by the moonlight at night. Most of them don't look clothed enough to stay warm. Most of them look like they haven't seen a good, warm meal in a long time. Yet, we pass by them wearing nice suits and ties, carrying back our leftover wine from the meal, and something just didn't set right with us. Yeah, okay, I know finances have a lot to do with the scene we saw, but I think I felt sad for a much deeper reason.

I know the ground has been cursed. I know work in this world is not fully redeemed. I know toil is something we face in this world, but I felt like what we saw was worse than that. It looked like toil, burdened by societal abuse and hopelessness, slightly warmed over by an ignorant contentment. What we saw looked much worse than just toil. It looked like hell. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Also, I talked with a student tonight who told me about how his parents have shown their love to him by providing much for him, working long hours even at the expense of their own health, and sacrificing their own needs to care for his needs. How amazing their commitment is! Still, he knows there is more to love than just this. He'd love to have a hug, a word of encouragement, or even the chance to simply feel comfortable showing love to his parents. He really hopes he can, in time, understand what love is supposed to look like, yet he doesn't really want to share his understanding with his parents because he thinks it will only make them angry and discontent. They are happy enough with their lives now - why should that balance be upset? Whispers of death filled our coffee cups and turned them cold with lies.

China, my heart breaks for you! You could teach us in America a lot about the recklessness of our self-centered nature, and I hope I never force my culture on yours, but I hope and pray that someday you can come to understand that life and love have so much more to offer than what you have seen of it so far. God willing, maybe I will have a chance to show you.