Our eldest daughter C took me to La Jolla at San Diego to see the tidal pools. It really is a lot of fun. First things that greet us are the pelicans. Some are in the air, and a lot more are on the rocky shelves above the water. Waiting for something, presumably.
The sea anemones are pretty. If you touch them with your finger, their tentacles would grab your finger and try to pull you into its centrally positioned mouth to eat. You’d better pull your finger back before they can digest it. Just like the way they eat crabs, mussels and other small animals.
Some of them camouflage themselves by grabbing and covering themselves with small pieces of shells, rocks, etc. Rather effectively.
There are many tiny hermit crabs in small shells. When they retreat into the shell, all you can see is a tiny claw that blocks the entrance. in reality, it is actual its big claw.
Some of them are bold enough to come out swinging their big claw. One pinches my finger with its big claw. Fortunately, for me, it is not big enough to cause much damage.
There are many other interesting sights, such as crabs, fishes, mussels, goose barnacles, … Plenty enough to explore.
We arrive in mid-afternoon, just about low tide. Soon the tide comes back, gently at first.
The Asia-Pacific Community of Practice of IARSLCE (International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement) met in person for the first time at the IARSLCE conference which has just concluded. The IARSLCE conference itself is the first in-person conference held since 2019, before Covid hit.
The APCoP was formed during covid, in order to bring the region closer together, to share information, to encourage collaboration, to link up better with the international community, and ultimately, to address the issues more specific to the Asia-Pacific.
Since in genesis in 2021, we have been organising webinars offered from different parts of the region: Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Mainland China, etc., with a good reception. We have mainly been seeing each other online.
At New Orleans, we met each other face to face, many for the first time. We also meet some new faces. There seems to be a genuine interest in getting together to promote the scholarship and research in service-learning, and to address issues specific to the ethnic, cultural, language, political and other contexts specific to the region and specific countries.
We are now planning to organise an international/regional conference together in 2024.
This is the main reason why I decided to participate in the Board of Directors of IARSLCE - to make the name more worthy of the “international” in the name. I am so glad that we are moving in that direction.
On Chung Yeung 重陽節 (Double Nine 重九) Festival, it is customary to hike up the mountains to “sweep the grave” of ancestors. So we do. At Aberdeen Chinese Cemetery.
The first challenge is to hike up 100 scary steps. It is scary because the steps are very short, much shorter than my shoes. For the elderly, it is a huge challenge. And there only gets you to the entrance. For some, there are many more steps to climb.
For Fung Shui purpose, Chinese people like to place their graves up the side of a big mountain, facing outwards - like you are sitting securely with strong support at the back. There should be smaller mountains on either side - where one can place one’s arms securely while one sits. The grave should have an open view in front, preferably towards open water.
That is why the Aberdeen Chinese Cemetery was placed here. Imagine an Aberdeen 100 years ago, without any building more than two storeys tall. That would be good Fung Shui.
However, Aberdeen has developed into a modern town. A large part of the cemetery is now looking out towards a wall of tall buildings.
Chinese people imagine that those who passed away from this world inhabit another where they have similar needs. Hence many necessities, clothings, food, luxuries, gold, and paper money are sent to the deceased, by burning them.
Hence the many fierce fires.
Incenses, candles, …
Some people are well remembered, many many years after they passed away, by people who have never even met them.
When I opened the refrigerator in the pantry shared by the 3 offices on our floor to deposit my apples, I was impressed by the number of lunch boxes already there. There were 17 of them, essentially filling up the whole refrigerator.
There are probably ~40 people working on our floor. 17/40 is a very high percentage, isn’t it? The office provides a microwave oven. There are also a couple of steamers, put there by some of the staff, I believe. Presumably because they feel it is better to heat up the food by steaming, rather than microwave.
Apparently there are a variety of reasons why people want to bring their own lunch. The canteens and eateries on campus are very crowded during lunch time. The quality of the food that are less expensive may not be so good, while the better food can cost a lot - and seats are equally difficult to find anyway. One can also eat healthier, or cheaper, or both, bringing your own food.
It is good management to provide facilities to the staff to keep them healthy, and happy.
In any case, the stack of lunch boxes is very impressive.
It has been more than 70 years since the end of the Second World War in 1945. During these 70+ years there has not been a conflagration at the scale of the World Wars. But that does not mean that the world has been at peace. Far from it.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is still going on, with no end in sight.
Suddenly, the conflict between Israel and Palestine flares up. Not only does it take the attention away from the suffering in Ukraine, the war is threatening to scale up the suffering in Gaza into a gigantic scale.
In the mean time, the civil war in Sudan is getting less attention. But that does not mean it has stopped. Likewise the civil wars in Mali, Ethiopia and Somalia.
There is also Yemen, Syria, Nagorno-Karabakh (between Azerbaijan and Armenia), and the western part of Pakistan.
Even in Europe, there is still the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia.
Closer to home, there is Myanmar. For a period of time, it has been opening up and hope were high. Our teams had actually served there for several years. Then the oppression and conflicts returned.
In North Korea, there is, presumably no fighting. But it remains a big prison for most people.
In many many other parts of the world, people are fleeing their own countries (or regions) because of poverty, oppression (political, gender, ethnic, religious and otherwise), threats of war, and other reasons.
The world is certainly not at peace, for many many people.
In the face of all these, it is not easy to keep believing in an all-powerful, loving God. Of course, plenty of reasons have been given to explain why God is allowing these sufferings to keep happening. Many reasons have also been given to explain why we shouldn’t even try to rectify the situation, or at least not to make it a priority. One of the primary reasons given being that without faith in God, there is no effective solution. That may well be true. But doing nothing in the face of such tremendous depths of suffering and evil makes it very hard for many to believe that there is really an all-powerful, just, loving God.
Earlier this year, a media agency offered to make a documentary on the solar panel project in Rwanda. Apparently, they heard of the project serendipitously and were quite interested. After some exploratory discussions, both sides were comfortable with the idea and we agreed to go ahead.
They sent a team to interview some of the key members on campus. Then a four member team came with the project team to Rwanda in July. They followed the project team around from morning till evening, through the preparation, training, actual field work, the last minute arrival of the shipment of batteries, the community celebration, … They interviewed some of the teachers and students, the house owners, our community partners, Rwandan government official, the Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda, and a lot more.
The result is a 30 minute documentary on the project, which is now available through a number of channels. It provides an excellent picture of the impact on the community, the actual work itself, how we organise the whole thing, the vision behind the project, how the students feel, what the village people think of the project, how our president think of the project, … There are textual write-up, and likely to be other shorter pieces, as well. We are very happy with the result. It is certainly of a much better quality than anything that we have tried before.
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