8-7-12 Tuesday part 1

Tuesday morning we pulled ourselves out of bed, fed and caffeinated our bodies and headed onto a big bus with the rest of tour group A103. In the lobby of the hotel there were about 100 people milling around, mostly from other tour groups who were leaving around the same time.

Our group had about 40 people in it, all from the US. Our tour guides were James Lam and his wife Wood Lam*, Cindy, Carmie and Wendy. (*Funny tidbit: Lam means Forest in Chinese.) They were from the Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung congregations.
First stop? Bethel! On the way, we were given some tips about surviving in Hong Kong:

1. Water
2. Fan
3. Umbrella
4. Handkerchief

Notice a pattern? Yes. It was extremely hot and humid the entire time, even at night. Our lovely guides passed out fans for us and we made really good use of them.

Bethel in Hong Kong is split up into two locations about 30 minutes from each other. In one location is the offices, in the other is the residences. I have to admit, I don't remember much about the facts and figures we learned on the tour. But I will never be able to forget the love of the Bethelites and their excitement in having so many visitors. Many of the departments had prepared a souvenir for us to take. There were bookmarks, fans, teabags and even a rock from the gardening department.

After the residence portion of the tour, we had some cookies and water bottles and were able to meet and chat with some long time full-time servants, some who had been doing so for 40 years. 

From Bethel we boarded the bus and headed to Kowloon Walled City Park. 

To be continued in part 2...