Craig Rayner

Hong Kong, Weather and Ice Cream

July is summer in Hong Kong. The heat and humidity of Hong Kong´s summer is only offset but the breeze of the air conditioner. The result is the Hong Kong summer cold. Temperature outside in the low 30´s with a high humidity level making it feel like the low 40´s and shops and buses with air conditioning set below 20 degrees results in many people, including Debbie and myself, both coming down with a summer head cold.

The marketing people also have a field day in the Hong Kong summer. Dairy products are not a popular item on the Cantonese shopping list, so milk and cheese are hard to come by, and a little expensive when you do find them. Local ice cream manufacturers create some interesting flavours to try and tempt the locals into a purchase. The award nominations for this year are: McDonalds: Green Tea and Red Bean Sundae; McDonalds: Black Sesame Sundae; Wellcome: Milk Tea and Red Bean Ice Block; Wellcome: Green Tea and Tofu Ice Block.

Intern Program

Summer is also the busiest time of the year for Crossroads. Many of the high schools and colleges require there students to complete an internship over the summer holidays. Crossroads runs an intern program during the summer months. As you can see, even the youth get tired and weary in the heat and humidity. The students commit to a program of about 140 hours of work each. Each was interviewed and placed in a department. Some have been packing boxes, translating documents, researching news stories and many more tasks that Crossroads performs each day or occasionally.

Debbie and Craig

The final week of work with Crossroads is about to begin as I write this letter. Debbie has been wrapping up, including training of Gillian Kenworthy, who will be stepping into the role that Debbie is leaving. I have been working in the I.T. department, trying to work out how to build packages to install software on all the machines in the Crossroads network.

We have not progressed much further with planning of the wedding day, preferring to leave that task for when we have finished working. We have been talking over our future plans with people at Crossroads and at our club. We have been accepted by the club we attend here in Hong Kong to be sent out with their support. This is a great encouragement to Debbie and my-self.

Moving On

Last month I promised to take you a little bit further on in our plans and reasons of what we are hoping to do in the future. My heart is to serve families, with particular emphasis on the role of men in their families. I am not sure how this is to happen and this is a long term goal. I am sure that it will involve a lot of affirmation and imparting of skills to allow men to regain respect.

In the short term Debbie and I will be heading into Kazakhstan for about 3 months. During this time we will be working at an international school, teaching and supporting the staff and students as directed by the principal. As the students are English speaking, we will not have any language difficulties on the job. Some of this time will be devoted to lessons in Russian or Kazakh for Debbie and my-self.

We will be spending Christmas with my family (Craig’s) in Australia, taking up to a year to meet family and friend in Australia, England and Canada before heading back to Kazakhstan for a longer term. Should we need to do any additional training, we will do this before heading back into Kazakhstan.

And…

I don’t know if I will get the opportunity to write another newsletter before the wedding in September. The month ahead is looking packed with organising details of the day and preparation for leaving Hong Kong. We both look forward to seeing those of you who are travelling to Hong Kong for the day. Should you not be coming, keep an eye on these newsletters, as we may be passing near your town in 2009, and would love to catch up in person if it can be arranged. Till next month, or later…

Photos

• Interns at Lunch
• Volunteer office interns, with Debbie (back centre) and Gillian (back left.)