Thursday 6th - We survive PP Alex’s survival course, Hari Kima's 46 years of 100% attendance

Thursday 5th March

I can’t believe we’re so close to the end of our trip. It’s been almost a month but it has shot by at a rate of knots!

Today’s Rotary lunch meeting was at the RC of Kowloon. It is the 2nd oldest club in Hong Kong after the RC of Hong Kong. The meeting was held at the magnificent, grand Peninsula Hotel. It is a grand hotel in the Colonial Style a-la-Mount Nelson in Cape Town, only much bigger and a lot grander.

We met in the Garden Terrace Room – this because the normal meeting place of the Club was being used for something else. This room is a private dining room for the absolute elite and goes out onto a large covered balcony with strip balu flooring. The view over HK Bay is spectacular. After lunch while we were admiring the view a storm rolled in before our eyes and it was amazing to see how quickly HK can be covered in really torrential rain.

Lunch itself was wonderful. We only got a chance to introduce ourselves because two guest speakers had been scheduled. The first was by a lady named Isabelle Pastor who told us about Kuruna-Schechen, an organisation that carries out humanitarian projects in the Himalayan region.
Isobelle Pastor's presentation

These projects include education, health and social services. They do a great job and are supported by the RC of Kowloon and many others and it was great to hear about their work which includes a very moving palliative care hospice that is very close to Isabelle’s heart. It reminded me so much of the genesis hospice.

The next speaker was a gentleman named Raymund Ho who is the 3rd Fung Shui expert we have listened to on our trip. He spoke in English and was the most entertaining Fung Shui speaker by far. There was, as usual, a lot of laughter at question time when he answered questions about timing for investments, romance etc.

After lunch I had the privilege of meeting PP Hari Kima, a Rotarian with 46 years of 100% attendance. That has to be some kind of Rotary world record. A humble and kind man.

Hari and Jonathan

Then it was time to leave the lunch meeting and be collected by PP Alex Leung. You’ll remember that PP Alex is the outbound GSE Team Leader who is bringing a team to our District 9270 in South Africa in April.

Alex's canoe collection

Alex had planned a trip in canoes on the sea estuary at a place called Sai Kung where he lives. It is a beautiful place – sort of a mixture of Hout Bay (the mountains) and Knysna (the lagoon leading out to the sea. We were all kitted out with wetsuits and lifejackets and got into some pretty rickety old canoes that Alex keeps moored outside his home for Youth Adventure trips. Off down the lagoon we went, Nivs and I in a double and Santosh and Brendan each in singles. Seriously stable boats fortunately.

Well we did about a 20 minute canoe trip across the lagoon to a Centre that was established for the Boy Scouts by a donation of HK$500,000.00 by the Rotary Club of Kowloon East. That is a serious donation and it was made from their club funds!

The team at the Rotary-sponsored Boy Scout's facility

The centre is beautiful. It is on the beach and includes an adventure climbing section, a large hall with marble floors, a place for outside functions as well as a place to barbeque. It was originally the temple for some religious sect which fell into disuse and was taken over by Government and donated to the Boy Scouts Association. It is great for these city-dwelling kids to be able to get out into the countryside for some team-building and personal development courses.

Nivs's Dusi training - note the weight distribution

Brendan ready to roll (or paddle)....

From there, we paddled to another beach where Alex and I had a swim.

Santosh leading the pack...Then it was back to Alex’s place.

Yes! It's over We got changed into dry clothes and eventually Alex got us all to the evening meeting at the RC of Peninsula Sunrise. This is Alex Leung’s club (GSE Team Leader) and they meet at the Police Officer’s Club in Causeway Bay. The outbound GSE team were there and after dinner and our presentation we got another chance to talk to them – Joseph, Lesley and Man. The other GSE team member is Peggy but she lives in Macau and so couldn’t join us.

The President of Peninsula Sunrise is a lady by the name of Joann Chun. A very pleasant evening and once again lots of questions about South Africa and lots of re-assuring the outgoing GSE team about how safe it is in South Africa and telling them what a wonderful time they are going to be having.

Chat again tomorrow.