PalmArt: New Moons

What can one do with a bunch of new moons cut from a palm leaf?

Plenty, it turns out. 

They can be moon gates in Chinese gardens.

They can pretend to be the rib cage of a dinosaur. 

They can stack up to make different shapes.

Upside down.

Right side up. 

Up and down. 

Down and up. 

Ad infinitum. 

#SChanPalmArt

Marathon Day

Today is the annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.  I have run all the distances: 10K, half, and full marathon.  I have not been able to run since 2019 for various reasons: injury, out of HK, …  This year my excuse was injury.  

But our eldest daughter got into the half marathon, from overseas.  So my wife and I went to the races to watch.  I even went to the starting line to se her off, and to relive the atmosphere.  Indeed it was invigorating.  The anticipation, the tension, the camaraderie.  One cannot help but want to be part of it.  

I crossed the harbour on the Star Ferry, and ran along the waterfront towards Victoria Park, without having to cross a road.  I then join my wife and daughter at the finish line, and saw the relief, the joy. Not just that of the runners, but also their families, their friends, everyone.  

We walked back along the final two kilometres of the route through Causeway Bay and Wanchai.  We saw the sweat, the tiredness, the suffering, the determination.  

The marathon is, of course, about running.  But it is also a microcosm of life.  Condensed into 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours. Before the actual event, there is the much much longer preparation, training, suffering, injury, recovery, training again.  After the event, there is the reflection, the determination to do better next time, …  It has the power to concentrate your mind, test you, and improve you.  Not just for running, but for the rest of one’s life as well. 

I do not want to stop running, ever.  

Fashion as Service in Rwanda

In Rwanda, as in many African countries, many people wear bold colours and patterns.  Sewing is an important part of the local economy.  Many women buy pieces of cloth and ask the local seamstress to make clothing for them.  Some search for styles on the Internet and then ask the seamstress to make clothes for them.  An attractive dress can be made this way for 20 US dollars, including material and sewing.  It seems that in many villages, this is how many of the women obtain their dresses.  Many local men and women make their living this way.  Many are learning sewing from the vocational schools. 

A feet-powered, mechanical sewing machine, such as the one my mother used half a century ago, made in China, costs around 100 USD.  It is not cheap but a good investment.  

We brought with us this time a professor who have been teaching service-learning through fashion design, in Hong Kong and Vietnam.  We have been going around speaking with various people, and are now putting together the potential partners/participants in a first project for this summer: Seamstresses and potential seamstresses in the villages.  Women who engage the seamstresses to make their dresses.  The community workers who work with the villages.  Sewing students in the vocational school.  Women who cannot afford to buy their dresses.  

Our students will work with seamstresses and potential seamstresses to design and make clothing for those in the villages, many of whom are old, handicapped, or just poor, perhaps victims of war, or disasters such as flooding.  They will be assisted by sewing students from the vocational schools.  What they contribute are local wisdom on clothing styles, use of colours, and the cultural meanings of clothing.  What they learn from us are modern techniques, design concepts, and the use of cloths and patterns.  We have already identified the villages, the parties to work together, a potential venue at a local school to place the sewing machines, …  Many details are yet to be worked out.  But everyone is excited about the prospects of working together.  It will be a challenging and fulfilling summer. 

Drone delivery of medicine in Rwanda

Rwanda remains a poor country, where many people continue to live without electricity nor clean running water, despite fast growth and much effort in recent years.  Yet the country delivers much needed medicine to remote corners by drones.

The government contracts a company, Zipline, to do that.  We visited the Muhanga site yesterday, to understand their operations.  It is actually not too difficult to understand the main ideas behind the operation.  But their achievement is still very impressive.  Not too many countries, even much richer ones, have done this. 

T=A catapult shoots the drone into the sky.  

The drone flies automatically to the destination, along a described route. At the destination, the cargo hold opens.  The package is dropped from the drone, and floats down to the ground, buffered by a simple but effective parachute. 

The drone flies back to the launch site, and is snagged from the sky on a wire.  

The drone is taken to the operation room, where it is filled with another package, and re-launched. 

Rwanda is a relatively small country.  Yet it is still 27 times the size of Hong Kong.  It takes several hours to drive critical medicine, such as blood for transfusion, to medical centres at remote places, where the roads may be difficult.  From a launch site at Muhanga in the west or Kayonza in the east, Medicine can be flown to any site in an hour. 

There are lots of technical, logistical, operational and financial problems to solve.  The battery the power the drone weights 9 kilograms.  The drones have to be piloted automatically.  The drone has to be light but robust.  The drone has to be snagged from the air with great precision, and safely.  How does a small company and a small achieve that?

That is partly what we want our students to learn.  How does a small, poor, developing country facing enormous challenges use and develop technology?  What are the lessons to the country, other similar countries, and ourselves?  We are going to take our students here, to see for themselves, to ask their own questions, to seek their own answers.  

That is part of the challenge, and joy, of service-learning.