Ken Wood part 1 of 2

One of the most difficult things about living in China has been being far from family and friends in their hour of need. When tragedy hits, our human instinct is to press into each other for support and to process tragedy together. That is hard to do from 10,000 miles away.

Thursday afternoon right after third period I saw Julie had sent me a short email, “News from home. Come see me as soon as possible.”

I knew it couldn’t be good.

I went down to the second floor health office where I had to wait for Julie to finish tending to a skinned knee and take the temperature of two other students. Done, she turned to me.

“Ken Wood was killed in a car accident this morning.”

I was dumbfounded.

Ken is Julie’s brother-in-law. He was married to Julie’s sister Kathy. Ken was 59 years old.

Ken had been driving his pickup truck near their home town of Iola Texas and had pulled over to retrieve something from the road side. He had just gotten back into the truck when it was broadsided by a large dual-axel pick-up truck with a trailer.

Julie’s brother Michael happened to be in Texas visiting Ken and Kathy and was in the truck with Ken. The truck rolled after it had been hit, but Michael was able to walk away with a few cuts and bruises.

Ken is survived by a daughter from his first marriage as well as Kathy's adult children Shannon and Shaun.

Ken was a gifted story teller, a licensed auctioneer, a tea-toller, an avid Dr. Pepper drinker, an ardent supporter of Texas independence, and a committed Christian husband and stepfather. In his younger days he worked on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. He only wore black t-shirts, never, ever wore shorts, always carried a Leatherman pocketknife on his belt, and never, ever smiled for pictures. Ken could fix, make, or build anything. One year, Ken made a park bench out of an old fire hose as a Christmas gift. It has to be seen to be believed.

Ken and Kathy had been married for over twenty years. Ken and Kathy didn’t like being apart from each other and were rarely separated. If Ken had to run into town to go to Walmart, Kathy almost invariably jumped in the truck with him. It’s really hard to imagine Kathy without Ken near her side.

Kathy’s love language is giving gifts. And Ken was always there to support her in her latest extravagant over-the-top endeavor. Right before we left for China, Julie’s family threw us quite the shindig. (Considering that Julie is one of eight children, it’s impossible for them to do anything on a small scale.) Ken and Kathy made -and then hauled all the way from Texas to Chicago- a full-scale Chinese dragon –like the ones used for Chinese dragon dances. They had made the huge head out of recycled electrical conduit, fabric, spray insulating foam, and two large Styrofoam balls. It was amazing. Honestly, it put to shame some of the dragons I have seen over here. Knowing that we couldn’t take it with us to China, several of the adult nieces who are teachers were arguing over who would get to “store” it for us in her classroom.

Obamao

I see these t-shirts in the open-air markets not only in Hong Kong, but pretty much everywhere I've been in Southeast Asia.

Because Obama is sporting the uniform of the Chinese revolutionary guard, I assume they originated in China. I think there is supposed to be a political statement embedded in here somewhere but I hesitate to even try to figure out what it might be. I can't tell if the makers are offering a critique of Obama or embracing him as one of their own.

Somebody must be buying them because I see them displayed everywhere, but I haven't actually seen anybody wearing one until I saw this guy at the border crossing between Cambodia and Thailand. I couldn't help but wonder if he was an American or not.

And no, I haven't bought myself one.

The Standard Charter Half

About two months ago Julie got on the computer to register for Hong Kong's excessively popular annual marathon -actually, she wanted to register for the half marathon. If you don't register in the first week or so, you won't get in. She was having a little trouble. She would get all the way to the end, enter her credit card number, and then it would boot her off the system. She was a little frustrated.

Well, she figured, later this Spring she could look for a couple of local 10k's she could sign up for.

We got back into town after Christmas break and there waiting for her in the mail was her registration packet. Unbeknownst to her, she had in fact registered herself for the Standard Charter Banks half marathon -which was now less than six weeks away.

In a panic, she went on line to find a training schedule. I think she googled the words "How to train in a hurry." She's been training ever since.

The run is today.

-Jack

picture: Julie putting in her last big practice run along the Shing Mun River.

Annika Birthday Trivia ANSWERS

1. Both Annika’s grandmothers are named

a. Joan Marie
b. Mary Jean
c. Betty Sue
d. Eleanor Joyce

2. Annika’s middle name is
a. Marie
b. Grace
c. Elizabeth
d. Hope

3. When Annika was five, she
a. flushed her father’s keys down the toilet
b. chopped off her bangs
c. melted a large plastic car in the microwave
d. wandered two miles from home

4. If Annika had been born a boy, her name would have been
a. Christopher
b. Cooper
c. Caldwell
d. Caedon

5. Because her parent both attended there, Annika can often be seen wearing a sweatshirt from
a. Wheaton
b. Taylor
c. Hope
d. Calvin

6. Which of these languages has Annika NOT studied in school?
a. French
b. Latin
c. Madarin
d. Spanish

7. As a little kid, Annika was each of these for Halloween EXCEPT for
a. a construction worker
b. a little Dutch girl
c. a clown
d. Madeline

8. Annika was born
a. five weeks early
b. in the same hospital as her mother
c. at almost exactly midnight
d. on the same day as one of her cousins

9. Which church does Annika and her family attend in Hong Kong?
a. Union
b. Island ECC
c. The Vine
d. International Christian Assembly

10. Which of the following is NOT true? Annika
a. is now taller than her mother
b. is left-handed
c. wears braces
d. wears the same size shoe as her eleven-year-old sister

A Request

Because I teach middle school, it’s not uncommon for my student’s parents to ask me for book recommendations.

But I am also a bit of a movie buff. Apparently, word has leaked out that I keep a data base listing every movie I have ever seen (843 and counting) listing the stars, the genre, giving each movie a letter grade, and a fifteen-word review.

I am such a nerd.

Last week, I bumped into Heinrich's mom at the middle school choir concert.

Heinrich is a voracious reader. He has read more in his fourteen years than I have in my forty-four. So, I would have been prepared for her to ask me some book recommendations.

But she caught me off guard, when she said “My son reads so much, but I can never get him to watch any movies. Can you recommend some movies that a fourteen-year-old boy might like?”

I promised to email her a half a dozen movies or so.

Wow, I was actually nervous. It was a tall order. With six or eight movies, I had a chance to hook a highly intelligent fourteen-year-old boy on the magic of cinema and the joys of celluloid story telling.

Which movies to choose? So many to pick from. Which ones to recommend? I spent half an hour scrolling through my database.

Finally, I emailed Heinrich’s mom my list that including The Count of Monte Cristo, Braveheart, The Sting, and The Truman Show.

Which movies did I overlook? Which movies would you have recommended for a fourteen-year-old boy living in Hong Kong attending an American school?

Black and White and Read All Over

My nightstand.

Apparently, I'm only allowed to read red books these days.

When we made our decision to return to The States, I was in the midst of reading a novel set in Greece and Turkey. Realizing that I only had a few months left to soak up as much of China as I can, I thought that was kind of silly.

I committed myself to only read books about or novels set in China until I leave.

That explains why all my books are red. Evidently, if you publish a book about China, the cover has to be red.

If I ever write a book about China, the cover is going to be fuscia and aquamarine.

The book on top of my stack is Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. I'm not really reading it. I picked it up from the freecycle table at work to keep as an artifact for my social studies classroom back in The States. It has been floating around our bedroom for the past few weeks. I read a few pages, but it is just really bad, dated propoganda. Denounce the imperialistic, capitalist reactionaries!

When I am back Stateside, I think that I might have to go on diet from all things China -including books. It will be refreshing to read a book with a green cover.

Annika Birthday Trivia -excerpts

1. Both Annika’s grandmothers are named
a. Joan Marie
b. Mary Jean
c. Betty Sue
d. Eleanor Joyce

2. Annika’s middle name is
a. Marie
b. Grace
c. Elizabeth
d. Hope

3. When Annika was five, she
a. flushed her father’s keys down the toilet
b. chopped off her bangs
c. melted a large plastic car in the microwave
d. wandered two miles from home

4. If Annika had been born a boy, her name would have been
a. Christopher
b. Cooper
c. Caldwell
d. Caedon

5. Because her parent both attended there, Annika can often be seen wearing a sweatshirt from
a. Wheaton
b. Taylor
c. Hope
d. Calvin

6. Which of these languages has Annika NOT studied in school?
a. French
b. Latin
c. Madarin
d. Spanish

7. As a little kid, Annika was each of these for Halloween EXCEPT for
a. a construction worker
b. a little Dutch girl
c. a clown
d. Madeline

8. Annika was born
a. five weeks early
b. in the same hospital as her mother
c. at almost exactly midnight
d. on the same day as one of her cousins

9. Which church does Annika and her family attend in Hong Kong?
a. Union
b. Island ECC
c. The Vine
d. International Christian Assembly

10. Which of the following is NOT true? Annika
a. is now taller than her mother
b. is left-handed
c. wears braces
d. wears the same size shoe as her eleven-year-old sister

Annika’s Birthday Party

Annika turned fifteen at the end of the January. I tried to convince her to let me take her to the Monkey King for her birthday present. “Dad,” she responded “I want to go to The Monkey King (kind of), but not for my birthday.”

Fair enough, Annika, fair enough.

What she didn’t know was that I was conspiring with three of her friends to put together a surprise birthday party for her. I secretly emailed them with the the idea, offered to pay for big chunks of it, and then let her three friends take it from there.

As instructed, I got our family over to the Belair bowling alley at 2:00 on Saturday. Twelve of her friends jumped out from behind a rack of neon-colored bowling balls and yelled “Surprise!”

She was.

After bowling, Julie, Elise, and I went back to the apartment while her friends took her to New Town Plaza mall to do a scavenger hunt they had put together. That was followed by icecream and lots of StickyPics in one of those little photo booth with the tiny curtain.

Finally, at about 7:45, they all came back to the apartment for pizza, cake, and a rousing round of Annika trivia.

Annika felt loved.

Thanks Maggie, Sarah, and Harry. You guys rock.

-Jack

I don’t know why moms are always complaining about having to plan kids’ birthday parties. All you have to do is send one email to three highly competent ninth-graders and then order the pizza.

Done.

Yuezi doozie

Few things expose cultural differences more than the practices surrounding child birth. Over the past few weeks we learned a lot about those cultural differences when Amber -our friend and neighbor across the hall- gave birth at the end of January.

In China –and to a lesser degree in Hong Kong- the majority of women still practice yuezi. By tradition, after childbirth, women in China do not leave the house for thirty to forty days. During that time they are encouraged to stay in bed as much as possible.

What’s more, they do not shower, wash their hair, or brush their teeth. For thirty days. They do not open any windows and do not turn on the air-con. They keep their heads covered the whole time. The idea is to avoid any activity that might invite “bad wind” into the body.

The practice of yuezi goes back hundreds of years before modern medicine was common practice. In a time when women might bathe at a communal bath and effective sanitation was not widespread, it made sense to sequester themselves. Today the practice is maintained for cultural reasons more than medical ones. Eighty percent of women in China still observe the practice. As recently as a generation ago, it would have been almost 100% percent.

Some women even go so far as to hire a yuesao -a nursemaid who specializes in taking care of the mother and the new-born child during this thirty-day period.

We had dinner at the home of a Chinese family recently and the topic of yuezi came up. (Okay, okay, I brought it up.) The husband is a successful doctor here in Hong Kong. When I asked him –as a medical professional- if he thought there were any practical benefits to yuezi, he acknowledged that there were none. And when I asked him if his wife observed the practice, he said that she had. His comment was, there is no harm in it, so why not?

There is a lot of culture pressure for women to observe yuezi -mostly from the older generation of women –in particular, their mothers.

Shortly after her son Malachi was born, our friend Amber had family visiting from The States. Amber most definitely did not observe yuezi when -less than a week after giving birth- she and baby Malachi escorted their visitors all the way down to the Island to traipse around the Botanical Gardens and to ride the tram up to The Peak.

So very unChinese-y of her.

But what do you expect from a girl from Pennsylvania –home of the American steel industry?

In the Lobby of the Monkey King