Hong Kong

The team and I have been in Hong Kong for two days, and I have become very impressed with this highly cosmopolitan city.

The streets are relatively clean and service is fast and efficient. Locals and foreigners seem to interact comfortably and seamlessly. Luxury goods and fashions from East and West sit side by side on the streets of Kowloon. European sports cars drive down lanes lines by Chinese shopping stalls. And whether arriving by plane, looking out your hotel window, or appreciating the view from Peak Tower, the Hong Kong city skyline is magnificent, bustling with skyscrapers and high-rises, home to both financial institutions and public housing, an interesting image representative of the gap here between rich and poor.

The team's experience also reflects the diversity of experiences that this city offers. We took a 3 mile cable car ride to see this towering, 90 foot statue of the Buddha. We saw a random Chinese celebration involving a dragon and fireworks in the small fishing village of Tai O. And we traveled all the way up the highest mountain in Hong Kong to see this magnificent view of the city.

But the most meaningful experience for me, so far, occurred as we were walking through the Central Square of the city. On our way to the highest mountain in the city, we found ourselves in a sea of Filipino women, thousands of them just sitting around on cardboard boxes, chatting and playing cars. Some members of my team thought they were waiting for a bus. Others thought they were homeless. But no--they were OFWs, overseas foreign workers from the Philippines working in Hong Kong as housemaids and domestic helpers.

I'm Filipino, and I speak a little Tagalog, so my teammates prodded me to ask one of them why they were here. So I approached one group and asked them in my broken Tagalog. To my chagrin, they completely ignored me. I then remembered my experience in the Philippines last Summer, where a straight-on approach sometimes comes off as too aggressive. This group did not see me as a fellow Filipino; they saw me as a foreigner invading their space.

I tried again with a different group. This time, I used a technique I saw on VH1's "The Pickup Artist." With my back turned to this group of Filipinas, I turned 90 degrees and asked, "Excuse me po, pero bakit maraming ng Pilipino na dito?" (Excuse me ma'am, but why are there so many Filipinos here?") This technique, called the "over-the-shoulder," is supposed to be less intrusive than a direct approach.

And apparently, it worked. This set responded positively. They responded in a rapid stream of Tagalog that I mostly could not understand, but eventually, I figured out why they were all chilling here. Sunday is a day off--for all of them. So they all come to the centralmost part of the city and meet up with friends and relatives.

The experience was bizarre yet somehow reassuring. It was weird to see all of these people just sitting around on the ground. It was also slightly disconcerting; the biggest export of the Philippine is its own people, and I learned last Summer that the dream of many young Filipinos, typically educated, is to leave their own country and work abroad. But seeing all of these people still gave me a sense of hope, in that, despite being abroad and away from the homeland, they still find time to meet loved ones and bond as a community--even if it means chilling on cardboard boxes in a random part of town. It's a very Filipino value, the bayanihan spirit.

So I started with Hong Kong and ended with the Philippines. I'm looking forward to Beijing!