1/28/1956 - The Epilogue of Huaxu Village

 January 28th

The Epilogue of Huaxu Village

The village located on the top and side of the earthen hill next to Kowloon Tong Railway is called Huaxu Village. I came here for the first time in the winter of 1950. It was Guocai Li, Lin Yang, Di Yi and me, who first built houses with wood and thatches near the brow of the hill. As the days passed, more and more houses were built in the village. There were 2 major fires within the last year, but none of them spread to the hill. Thus, more and more small houses appeared on the hill. Guocai Li's small house in Huaxu Village was halfway up the hill, and its door plate set by the government was No. 21.

The wooden houses in Kowloon, Hong Kong, were mostly burnt, and until today, only few of them still remain. Before noon, I reached there, and it’s all changed. Houses down the hill were all burned out, and those along the hill path are being torn down today. Only Guocai Li's house is left! All the other houses on the hill are gone, only his house stands there, but of course, his house is also just waiting to be torn down.  This makes me recall that the first house five years ago was Guocai Li’s, and the last one standing today is still his. I went there by accident today, and what I saw reminded me about what I wrote above.

I was looking through my old photo album and found this newsletter from my short term missions trip to Shanghai in 1995.

Tales of a Ninth Grade Nothing

Because Jacob  is very small and skinny for his age, but full of talent and enthusiasm (biased mom writing here), he has a knack for getting into gripping dramas that only happen to him, particularly in P.E.

Yesterday, they were starting a new session of basketball in P.E.  The teacher divided the kids into two groups.  Teachers never spell out that one group is advanced while the other group is for the beginners, but the kids always know.  As always, Jacob gets put in the group with the "band kids" (the ones that, at his school, are allowed to and want to opt-out of 1 semester of P.E a year), and the other small kids.  Meanwhile, the basketball team members, the football players, the tall boys, and the boys who are well-built but have never picked up a basketball in their lives, ie. the swimmers, are in the advanced group.  Jacob is miffed about his placement, but accepts it as normal that he always gets placed in the "beginners group".

The teacher announces that they are going to do a dribbling drill.  He demonstrates a drill where the kids dribble the balls between their staggered legs, dribbling the ball side-to-side as their legs switch places between dribbles.  This is something that Jacob could do with his eyes closed.  The challenge is to see how many dribbles they can get in 30 seconds.  The teacher mentions that in the earlier period, someone, probably from the "advanced" group, got 41.  Meanwhile, the band kids are getting 5, the swimmer in the advanced group gets 10.  The tall basketball forward gets about 20. The numbers are low because a lot of kids spend their time chasing the balls that fly out of their hands and roll into the rest of the gym.  In fact, in the beginners group, there are particularly many balls that are rolling around the gym floor.

However, Jacob gets into a great tempo.  He exceeds 60 dribbles in a minute, and is glowing with pride. Suddenly a ball from one of the beginner boys comes flying out of nowhere and knocks the ball out of his hands. He stops at 61 but knows he could have hit 70 otherwise.  Still he sets a class record and is extremely proud to show the teacher that size doesn't mean anything.

Object Permanence and Fun Childhood Memory

When I was growing up, I was really slow in understanding the concept of "object permanence", which led to some really bad littering, like even at the age of 6, I loved to throw trash out the bus window because "it just disappeared". But it also led to a very fond memory.

I remember this awesome game of hide and seek I had with my brothers when I was 6. I decided to hide in a wonderful spot behind the bundled up curtains of the shower, surely with my feet sticking out of the bottom. My brothers came into the bathroom and I heard them whispering to each other . The next thing I know, they were both saying,"Where's Elaine? How did she just disappear?" and reaching around the shower curtains, always missing me. Meanwhile, I was screeching loudly with delight with each of their questions and movements. This game lasted for 5 minutes until finally they left the bathroom in despair of not finding me, and I re-emerged happily to tell them where I was. They both acted so surprised and I was very happy to believe them. Even now, I like to believe that they never found me. However, as an adult I still try to hide behind curtains when I play hide and seek with my family, but unfortunately, James and my kids have made it clear that this hiding spot just isn't as magical as it used to be.

Forcing my son to solve a Rubik's Cube

In 1981, when I was 9 years old, in 4th grade, the Rubik's Cube was very popular.  My brothers, who were 5 and 6 years older than me, bought a book called, How To Solve a Rubik's Cube, or something like that.   I decided to read that book and was able to solve Rubik's Cubes in about 1 minute.

At my elementary school, for some strange reason, no one else knew how to solve it.  I told them it was as simple as  reading a book and that they, too, could have a solved Rubik's cube without having to break apart and resnap the pieces together, or peel the stickers off and restick them on.  However, instead of reading the book, they all decided it would be easier for them to just give their cubes to me, and then I would just solve it for them.

Of course, everyone at school thought I was super smart, but I really didn't think that was the case.  All it involved was remembering the steps, recognizing the patterns, and applying the formulas.  How I wish that I were smart enough to solve an entire Rubik's cube without being shown the formula!

Come 2008, Jacob is in the 3rd grade now, and I thought it would be a good time to teach him to solve the Rubik's cube.  I showed him over and over and over how to just make 1 face, but he couldn't do it.  He had no interest, or it just didn't click.  I was really worried because getting 1 face is very intuitive.

Perhaps 3rd grade was too early to introduce it to him?  Perhaps he just had no interest and I can't force him to learn anything?

I couldn't remember the name of the book that helped me, but in this age of information, I did the most natural thing which was Google the answer.  Sure enough, we found a good website that I was able to use to step through and solve a Rubik's cube.  However, Jacob was still confused. 

So I gave up.

Then when my daughter was in 3rd grade, I tried again with her.  I also tried again with my son who by then was in the 6th grade.  My daughter was able to get a face now.  So was my son.  But neither of them were interested in learning how to solve the entire Rubik's cube even though there were so many solutions online.

So I gave up again.

Then suddenly, last week, Jacob, who is now in the 8th grade, had a sudden fascination with the Rubik's cube.  I'm not sure what website he went on.  It might even have been YouTube since he seems to learn everything on YouTube.  He solved the Rubik's cube, and his goal was to solve it in record time.  Then he started researching all the different ways to solve a Rubik's cube to learn the fastest algorithm.  1 minute was way too slow for him.

He started researching different types of Rubik's cubes.  He discovered 4x4x4's and 2x2x2's.  He begged for a new Rubik's cube.  One called a "speed cube", and I was able to bribe him to do some extra chores before I ordered it for him.

Last night, he also found instructions online about how to make a 2x2x2 Rubik's cube.  He spent a couple hours of his free time working with duct tape, paper, and strings.  And voila! A beautiful, workable Rubik's cube.  I was quite impressed.

And of course, the first thing he said was, "I can't wait to show my friends this at school tomorrow!" (But that's a different story)

Anyway, I just thought it was interesting to see how much more kids can accomplish when the interest and motivation comes from within themselves.  I'm curious to see what Jacob and Joanna are interested in next.

Chocolate Milk is Back!

I can't believe it! Yesterday, Jacob told me that there was a big sign posted outside of the cafeteria that said that chocolate milk would be back on Fridays. Woo hoo!!!

Preparing the kids for an emergency

Me: If something happened to me and I was unconscious, what would you do?
Joanna: Call 9-1-1
Me: If I weren't home and there was a fire, what would you do?
Joanna: Do we have a fire extinguisher?
Me: Wrong answer.
Joanna: Stop-drop-and roll to the phone and call 9-1-1
Me:Wrong. Just stop-drop-and-roll out of the house and call 9-1-1 at a neighbor's.... If there were a burglar in the house what would you do?
Joanna: I'd kick him and punch him and tell Jacob to call 9-1-1
Me: Wrong.
Jacob: I'd hit him with a bat and tell Joanna to call 9-1-1
Me: You guys. There are FIVE exits in our house. Just get out of the house and run for help.

Jacob: And let him take all our stuff?

Me: Yes!  And let him take all our stuf.

..... Anyway,at least they got the 9-1-1 part down.