Long Valley Rice Harvesting Workcamp (5) - Free days

Just before the typhoon Vicente came on Sunday, it was the free days for all the campers.  I invited the six of them to have a holiday in my house on Cheung Chau island.  It was already typhoon signal number 3 in the afternoon, but as the wind was not so strong, the weather was still not bad with only little rainfall, so we went straight away to have fun on the beach. 

Holiday!

A cloudy day was really a good day on the beach, we didn’t even need to use sun block cream.  After we rented a volleyball from the shop, we started to play the once popular game when I was in secondary school—the number ball game.  Though this game was really simple, it bought us so much joy and laughter.  The best time was watching the shows of those who lost the game, starting from dancing performance from Russia, Korea and France, and last but not least, the Hong Kong sexy dance.  Finally, as Get from France who had lost so many rounds, she even needed to use Cantonese to ask a Hong Kong guy his name in front of his girlfriend, as well as to borrow the cap from a Hong Kong guy who was watching our game all the time.

Punishment!  Get became a mermaid!

Punishment again!  Get was asked to borrow the cap from a local guy.

When we were buying souvenirs on the way to the ferry pier the following day, the staff of CA, Jin Pan called me that typhoon signal number eight would be hoisted in the evening, so instead of going up to the peak to see the skyline of Hong Kong, we went for a hike on Cheung Chau under the rain.  As you know, we were all wild beasts, so the most important thing for us to do in these two days was eating!  I brought them to local tea restaurant, outdoor food stall, Shanghai restaurant, Chiuchow noodles and the most local sweet soup shop.  We even visited the same sweet shop three times in two days, even the young staff in the shop was amazed by our frequencies of eating sweet soup.

Though my house is small, it could still fit 7 of us.

In fact, because we taught the Korean volunteer, Tree to say ‘Leng zai’ (means handsome guy) to please the staff there, it also became the highlight of their days.  They even took a peek in her iphone to see her Facebook’s username.

Tree loved the local Hong Kong sweet soup very much.

In fact, because we taught the Korean volunteer, Tree to say ‘Leng zai’ (means handsome guy) to please the staff there, it also became the highlight of their days.  They even took a peek in her iphone to see her Facebook’s username.

Many friends who had visited my place, often asked the same question when they were standing on the balcony, looking at the 180 degree seaview, ‘How would that be if it would be typhoon signal number eight?’  The fact is that we didn’t even know that it was signal number 10 as it was too quiet outside!  Why was it so?  Since my house was facing north west, and the typhoon was coming from north east this time, and there was a hill behind protecting us from the wind, so even though the wind speed had reached 200KM per hour on that night, we were sleeping like pigs!  Only until the next day, then we knew it was typhoon signal number 10!

When we walked out of the house, we finally saw the destructions of this super typhoon that there was a railing on the rooftop of a house was bent because of a falling tree, a canvas rooftop was blown on the pedestrian way and many trees were uprooted.  I was feeling so grateful when I heard that the canvas rooftop on our little house in Long Valley was blown off, leading to water leakage in the house.  We were so lucky that we could stay in a safe place during this typhoon.

The destruction after the typhoon signal no. 10.

The destruction after the typhoon signal no. 10.

As a result, we again stayed in Cheung Chau for an extra night.  Since we were trapped indoor by the rainy weather, this group of volunteers was so hard-working that they turned this workcamp into a language exchange camp, from Indonesian, Russian, Korean, French to even Cantonese.  Hearing them bla bla bla for the whole day just like parrots, thanks for them, I know if I would be cast away in Indonesia one day, I would still know how to show my love and even propose to an Indonesian man!

When it was raining after the typhoon had gone, we visited the local farmer, Mr Lam and his wife, we cooked and had lunch with them.  Although they were already over 80 years old and owned a big family with four generations, they were still so strong and healthy.  Whenever we saw them bending their waist and working under the hot sun, and  we looked at ourselves—half-lying under the tent, almost dying after the work, we were always feeling a profound respect to them.  I think the quote from Dima’s grandmother best described the situation, ‘We started working in the field when we were very young and we are still very healthy today, we can walk and we can even run.  But look at the young people nowadays, why are they feeling pain everywhere in their bodies?’

We were like the grand children of Mr Lam!