Ah! Cooler weather!

The weather is cooling off! The last week it has been so much better with only about 57% humidity instead of 90% :). Perspective! We have been here for four months now, which is crazy. In some ways it doesn't feel like it's been that long and in others feels longer.

September was crazy busy. Too much going on but things are getting manageable. There are so many needs and places we can put our time and energy. Sometimes it's hard to know where that should be, but we are getting it figured out.

October 1st was the Self Reliance symposium here in Hong Kong and I was the keynote speaker. There were about 220 people in attendance and the majority were Philipino domestic workers who are women. I've shared about them before, but most have college degrees and can make more money being a live-in maid for a family in Hong Kong than working in their own country. A huge part of their culture is the expectation that the daughter of the family leave and make a living for the parents, siblings, children etc. Some get married and have kids, and then support everyone until their own daughter can do it for them.

Part of the issue is very carefully helping them understand what self reliance means. That they need to help themselves and their family members by not enabling the belief that if they have money they are expected to give it to the family. Some of these women have husbands who have girlfriends and babies back in the Phillipines that they are also supporting (eek).... This is a real issue here in Asia and not an easy solution. Years of culture telling them that THEY are completely responsible for the financial wellbeing of the family no matter the personal cost to themselves. They end up taking out loans to pay their families bills which keeps them stuck here for years.

My talk was about remembering who you are and sharing some tools that transcend culture, race, or situations. Tools that help us figure out what our next steps are and how to find peace in the process. There were also three workshops that day and Joe gave one of them. His was: Presenting yourself with Confidence. He did a great job. The other two were on financial management, and managing family relationships with boundaries. In other words, learning to say no and encouraging their family members to get jobs and support themselves. The good news is, we are seeing some shifting in their thought process and there are some great stories from a few ladies about how they have helped their brothers find jobs, or other family members start a business, or only pay for the essentials like medical or insurance.  At least the pendulum is swinging the right direction.

Funny story... The Stake we serve in, (several congregations or wards make a stake) was having a musical talent show, as as you could imagine lots of incredible piano playing, and violins/string type of instruments that were fantastic. How it was explained to me from a native Hong Kong Cantonese speaker, is that in general they don't sing. The language is spoken from the back of the throat so they have to work really hard to learn to make certain sounds. SO, imagine 5 ladies singing on stage and all the sudden they break into rapping.... in Cantonese. Now, on a good day I do not understand rapping in English so I guess in the scheme of things it was the same? I don't know, but it was entertaining for sure.

General Conference! Wow! I'm so grateful to be a part of a "living church" with modern day revelation. I'm excited about the huge changes and can see how it will support and encourage us personally and as families in our continued conversion to Christ's church. In Asia, because we are a day and a half ahead of the USA, they watch conference the following weekend. We didn't want to wait so we watched part of it already before our Sunday meetings on the 7th. You can find all the sessions of General Conference on LDS.org.

Quote from Elder Bednar from conference that I loved. "In our Savior we find joy... and in Him we find assurance of peace in this world and in the eternal life to come."

There is a lot of uncertainty in this world and in most of our lives. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have and the peace that it gives me.

Love you all!
Sister Kwan

Famous holiday called, "Mid Autumn Festival".  Where you eat moon cakes (not my favorite) and look at the moon.  They also have dragon dances in different parts of the city and this one, Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance is the largest.  Joe sweet talked a security guard in a building and they let us up to watch it from the balcony.

Part of the festival decorations all over the city.

This is the fire dragon dance... It is over 200 feet long 
and it was all lit incense (very smoky).  Pretty amazing to watch.

CHICKENS... Notice the live chickens in the cage on the left, 
and the plucked ones in the case on the right. 
You even have the half naked man working in the back. :)

Speaking

Presenting yourself with confidence.

Workshop

At the event with a few of the ladies.

Justin and Sharie Childs visited us from 
Taiwan where they are teaching English. 

200 pound tuna fish! It had just been caught that day
 and this restaurant will use it for the next couple days.

After the typhoon, we now have a full 
harbor view from our apartment. (eek)