Hello Hong Kong
I have finally arrived in Honk Kong after almost 24 hours of travel. My flight was long but alright. I did meet some really cool people during the flight that I hope I will run into here in HK.

Hong Kong is close to South East Asia so it has a semi tropical weather and it is currently 85 degrees with about 92% humidity @ 9 pm at night!

After I exchanged some money, I decided to go have a 'look see'. Woaw...the stuff that there is to see! In the picture I included in this post you see the ridiculously could Harbor City in the background (Oh yeah, I did get some Starbucks cause my body keeps wanting to sleep like its 2am and I have places to see and people to meet yet tonight! yeah, I a 13 hours in the future...) I am hoping to walk the length of that harbor by the end of the week.

So far Hong Kong-ites are really neat people. The young people are friendly and cool and most people speak English. People drive on the right side of the car which makes everyone seem like they are driving the wrong way...to me, at least.

I also went out looking for food so I ended up in a typical HK street eatery. These are really narrow and small family owned 'restaurants' (can't really call them that cause they are the size of most people's bedrooms back at home) and only the locals eat there. I stuck out like a sore thumb in there but...that is just the way I like it. I had only some fried rice cause I really wasn't hungry, I just wanted to go out and do the Hong Kong thang! The fried rice looked nothing like the stuff we see @ home and it tasted 19.5 times better.

My Hat, My Laptop and My Bag On Route Again

I love the buzz of a new trip. I love the magic of getting into a plane on one end and ending up on a huge adventure on the other.
I am always so curious about the other travelers...where are they going? what is their story? are they too expecting an adventure on the other end? who knows? Are they getting creeped out by some weird black chick staring intently at them? probably..tsk dang...I really should learn to use my powers for good.

Goodbye Lansing, Goodbye Michigan, See ya later USA....

Sister Mary Eucharist says.....Happy Halloween and Pleez be nice to my sub while I am gone or else you will be forever blamed and punished for the death and crucifixion of Christ!

Ridonculous birds eye view of Hong Kong!

HONG KONG AWAITS!!!
Ok, you have now heard me rant about going to Hong Kong at nauseum for the past week. I will be going there to present CareerForward, a course that I worked on for Microsoft Partners in Learning program. The course was created to help students like yourself begin to think your career goals in today's global economy.

Click on this link and follow the directions there to watch the course trailer. If you would like to become a better consumer of your high school career, you can take this course for free Michigan Virtual University.

I am super excited to go and I know that it will be amazing. I will try to blog everyday so that you can travel with me to Hong Kong through the internet. Come and visit often!

Africa on my mind...forever!

Antilope and Fries...Yum!


Time to go home...

BACK TO LANSING

It is difficult to leave this beautiful, peaceful and leisurely island. I will go back to the routine, the alarm clock, the long commute, the daily grind....my other world. Africa gets under the skin and becomes like an addiction that is difficult to ignore. It is the disease of most displaced Africans. When I am away from Her, I hear the distant drums and feel the pull no matter how much I integrate into American society.

Even though it is so very hard to live here, life here is a daily reminder that it is meant to be experienced to its fullest. Work is important but not all consuming, laughter is king, displays of affection are exuberantly shared, time is hardly acknowledged, family is first and personal accomplishments, dreams, ambitions, are just that...personal.

Bonko characters represent old trees which sway and dance in the wind.

Yankue is the name of the scariest bonko character because he represents evil. He is tethered by a chain to keep him "at bay". He also lights his head on fire and runs after the little kids...frightening! he is like the boogie man for many equatoguinean children.

These drummers play for hours. I think they themselves become hypnotized by the strong rhythms.

My mom (right) and auntie with their Onekind.

Many outfits, one fabric, Onekind

Bonko is a traditional dance of the Creoles in Equatorial Guinea. Around Christmas time they dance in the streets and make their rounds from house to house. They dance and sing about the local stories and gossip. The gossip is always very funny when it is about family members and neighbors but it is seldom funny when they dare to air one's dirty laundry!!

Kids get really scared of them because of the many scary legends about the Bonko (which represent live trees). The legends where used to keep small children from venturing into the dangerous jungle.. The dances include raw African drum rhythms with truly hypnotic cadences. The singing is done by the women who dress in traditional clothing of the same fabric which the call "Onekind". For every special celebration (weddings, new years, bonko, etc) the host picks a fabric in advance and all the guest buy this fabric and have outfits made from it. Actually, the women find any excuse to wear Onekind...visits from the president, graduations, etc.

Mom and I decked out for the dinner at the US Embassy


Dancers at the church

The infamous Christmas Tree

See the flowers? see them? see them?

CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR

On new year's eve, we were lucky enough to be invited to the American embassy to eat dinner with a few big wigs including the American and French ambassadors. It was pretty cool.

The new year found us in my dad's Methodist church!. The service started in 2006 and ended in 2007. In the last minutes of 2006, people came up to the altar to share the successes of 2006. The we began to sing in a steady crescendo to African drums and clapping. Needles to say, there was much dancing as well. By the end of the count down there was much shouting, kissing, hugging and crying.

It was a very different new years celebration but a very interesting on.

You have to get a load of my mom's Christmas tree. She has used the same tree for about 20 years. Every Xmas, she yanks it out of the ground, she spray paints it (this year it was red) and decorates it. At the end of the season, she plants it back in the ground in her garden WHERE IT KEEPS GROWING only to be yanked out again the next Christmas! It even began to flower just before I left, NO JOKE!!!

No, those are not coconuts, they are bats the size of plump chickens. Like yeah!

Yikes!

CRITTERS!!
I am no National Geographic photographer so it was very hard to take pictures of wild animals. Plus, when in the Jungle, most critters flea from man...I do not have the patience to sit in wait to get a good shot so I took pictures of more willing participants. Plus most critters made me want to pick up my skirts and run the other way...not pick up my camera

Mufasa? no, just a kitty cat that meowed in the local tribal dialect. African cats say "Meow, meow, meow...astonishing!!!!