We experienced our first typhoon last week. It was frankly very uneventful. Lots of rain and wind, leaves and palm branches everywhere, but nothing stopped. We still had scouts. We still had bus service. We still had electricity and Internet. It was pretty nice!!
Lizzy and I had a Beaver scout outing on Saturday to the scout headquarters in Kowloon. Kowloon is the largest area on the peninsula attached to mainland China but still part of Hong Kong. It is a fairly short MTR ride away from here. First, we took a bus to Sunny Bay then got on the MTR and rode about 12 minutes to get the Austin stop, then walked about a block to the place. As with everything in HK, the scout headquarters is part of a large building that houses lots of other businesses or services, too. Scout HQ is floors 8-11 of a building in which 1-7 is a hotel and a restaurant. Other businesses have offices on floors 12 to 21. It takes a little getting used to...everything is vertical!
Inside the HQ is office space for each of the scout executives who run a district of scouts in HK. Ours is the 29th and he is English speaking. Several others are also English speaking, but the majority speak Mandarin or Cantonese depending on their district. There is also a large scout shop and a scouting museum.
Scout museum entrance
HK scouting through the years of uniforms
Lizzys Beaver scout group. All scouts here in HK is co-ed.
The scout shop
I was able to purchase uniforms for Paul and Sam while I was here. I wa dreading this purchase, since U.S. Boy Scout uniforms are so expensive. I thought for sure HK uniforms would be way more... Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find my end cost for two shorts, 1 pair long pants, two shirts, two pairs socks, two belts, and two berets...$75. Seriously, I paid $45 for one pair of scout pants before we left the U.S.! AND they make long thin pants tailor made for Paul. I almost got back in line to buy more!
Lizzy and I made it home in the rain, but we actually only walked in a little sprinkle twice the whole time we were gone. Covered bus stops, covered walkways, underground walking streets are everywhere, so we only walked outside for a block and that was covered. I was relieved to make it home, though and Steve and I sat up late that night enjoying the rain and quiet.
About 10:30pm, Paul came rushing downstairs and said,"I don't want to panic anyone, but my room and John's is flooding." We rushed upstairs to find about an inch of water flowing in their rooms and into the hallway. The terrace that runs along the front of all the 2nd floor bedrooms is long and thin and has a small drain in one corner....which was stopped up by leaves and debris. Steve opened the door to the terrace, water rushed inside. He stepped out onto the terrace and was standing in about a foot of water. For a minute or two I couldn't think of how to even begin on this much water...with more flowing in every second. Then I grabbed Paul's curtains off the floor and saw his back terrace. I yelled for them to grab brooms, opened the back terrace door and we began sweeping water out the other door. It was insane really. Water was about 3-4 inches deep, flowing over our feet as we swept. Steve was bailing it off the front terrace as fast as he could, but rain was pouring in. Finally he could see the problem, fixed it and the terrace began draining. As water stopped flowing in, we were able to sweep most of it out, then mop up the rest with towels, mops and everything else we could find. Took till about midnight to get things dried up enough to go to bed....I did six loads do laundry the next day. And John and Paul spent the day drying out the things that were still in boxes in their rooms during the flood.
Way at the end is the tiny corner drain...there's a pipe going into it draining something somewhere inside. What a horrible design for a rainy tropical apartment terrace!!! No other drain holes anywhere. So now we know....when typhoons come...clean the drains!
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