And the Winner is . . .

This Sunday, Annika and I are going on a one-week missions trip to China with other students and staff from our school. We have been looking for ways to raise money to bring supplies to the school that we will be serving. Due to all the other groups that are also trying to raise money for their trips, our school is a little saturated with bake sales at the moment.

Earlier this month Annika and I were brainstorming and trying to figure out what is it that we have that is unique, and that other students want to have or want to see. As newly arrived Americans, there must be something that we have or know that the kids around here would be willing to pay for.

Because we are first year teachers, we live on the seventh floor of our school building. The seventh floor is the one place that students are absolutely, positively forbidden to go. A rumor persists among the students that there are actually teachers who live in the building. But no one has been able to confirm that myth.

That was it. We had our idea. We would sell lottery tickets –oops, sorry; Christian School- make that lucky draw tickets and the winner would win a tour of the seventh floor. We sold tickets for HK$5 each (about 65 cents). We didn’t sell too many among the eighth graders in part because Annika has been sneaking a steady stream of her friends up to our apartment for the last couple of months. But tickets sold like hotcakes among the sixth and seventh graders.

Wednesday, we had our lucky draw and the winner was sixth-grader Bokhin Chan. Thursday, he and three of his friends were invited upstairs for a tour and ice cream sundaes.

They could not have been more excited. They were standing outside of my classroom door at 3:15 sharp. I told them I had to finish up with a couple of my student for a few minutes. They kept popping their heads in to check on my progress.

As a bonus, they got to ride the lift (also a big student no-no). As the elevator doors prepared to open, I could sense their excitement. Before we came to our apartment, there is walkway with glass walls that allows you to look down on the two art rooms. “Mr. VanNoord can we knock on the glass and wave at our friends.” Yeah, go ahead. Question: What’s better than being on the forbidden seventh floor? Answer: Having a bunch of your sixth-grade buddies see you on the forbidden seventh floor.

When we walked in, they were impressed. “So naiiice!” “So big.” “So pro!” (“So pro” Is that a Hong Kong thing or is that a eleven-year-old thing?) They were very gracious guests and thoroughly excited to be there. After the tour –which took all of eight minutes- we had ice cream sundaes. None of them had had Hersey’s chocolate syrup before. A couple of the boys had equal parts ice cream and chocolate. We each had two of Julie's peanut butter cookies. Some of us crumbled them onto our sundaes. Some of us ate our cookies straight. Some of us did one of each.

As I escorted the boys back downstairs, I overheard Bokhin say to his buddies “That was the best $20 I ever spent.

That’s about US$2.50.

-Jack