Team Hong Kong Newsletter #9
The Couch
February 4, 2008
by Ben Herr

Chinese New Year is a time of getting rid of the old, and bringing in the new. Because of limited housing space, bringing in the new means taking the old to the dumpster. So Chinese New Year is a great time to get your furniture as well as other things. You can find nice stuff in the dump.

That was the advice we were given, that was the advice we took. So after the first couple dumpsters we walked past had shown nothing more exciting than a suitcase, we found what would be the last one before we went home. And there it sat. Being the unobservant dumpster diver that I am, I noticed that one of the dumpsters was about twice as tall as the rest and very oddly shaped. It took me a while to realize that it was a sofa sitting on top of a bin.

So after Josh and I performed the hauling job, the couch was sitting in front of the church. We wanted it on the roof. And it certainly wouldn't fit through the door that leads to the roof. Fortunately, there was a balcony conveniently located halfway up the building. With the help of a ladder, a makeshift rope job, and a little pushing and heaving, we got the couch to the balcony. That was the easy part.


From this point on, however, things got a lot more complicated. Using the ladder on the balcony was not ideal, because the balcony was narrow, and we didn't want someone standing on the ladder pushing up, because of the potential tip factor. There was also a ledge that stuck out about three feet from roof level that we would have to get it around. My brilliant idea to take it around the side of the building where there was only a small ledge was initially vetoed because we couldn't be on the tin roof below (snicker snicker) because we weren’t sure if it would hold us and we definitely didn't want to drop it there (cough cough) because one step down from that part of the roof was the neighbor's roof. After the situation was analyzed, however, the upside of my idea was realized and we decided to go around the side of the building.

Josh found some electrical wire to give some extra length to our short rope, so we tied up the couch--which, by the way, wasn't very heavy for a couch, but wasn't the lightest couch either--and Maria, Karen, and I pulled from the top, while Josh guided it off the balcony and around the corner.

We had it to lifting position, so we began to pull. We pulled about two inches before gravity won the battle. Our wire turned out not to be strong enough, it snapped, and the couch thumped down onto the roof (see the "cough cough" above). Fortunately, it stopped on our part of the roof and didn't go onto the neighbors. Unfortunately, the loud bang brought out the neighbor.

We interrupt this story for a brief history on our neighbor and what we knew about him. Our neighbor is a older man who has a dog or two (there's Lisa and occasionally there will be another one around) and has a nice garden of potted plants. We've heard him play some kind of instrument but we still haven't figured out what it is, and we have guessed from some evening smells that he is a very capable cook. We never found out his name, but one day saw him wearing a shirt that said "Andy" on the back, so it stuck. The most important thing to know about him right now is that he speaks zero English.

I can't imagine what he must have thought when he stepped outside his house to see the foreigners standing on the roof and balcony looking at a couch on the roof. Through a series of hand gestures, he correctly guessed that we were trying to get it on the roof. He disappeared into his house, came back out with a basket full of rope, climbed onto the tin roof (see the "snicker snicker" above) and walked right on up to where the couch had landed. By that time, Josh and I had gotten the couch back on the balcony. The next bit was very interesting to say the least. "Andy" went to work tying up the couch and trying to communicate with us mostly through pointing, gesturing (funny how none of the Cantonese we had learned translated to getting couches onto the roof), and after several tries at doing what he wanted (he chuckled when we misunderstood him) we were all set. He and Josh got the couch onto the roof, and from there, we pulled, pulled, stopped to get around the air conditioner, pulled some more, and finally had the couch on the roof. Josh went and invited him to come up to the roof with us (though I'm not sure how) and we all laughed and took pictures with him and the couch.


Despite not having much contact with him during our first two months, I had always assumed that at some spur-of-the-moment event, we'd do something with our neighbor. I just never guessed it would be such a bizarre spur-of-the-moment event. I was extremely surprised by his willingness to help us with the couch, and blessed by his cheerful personality. We got him a bag of pistachios as a thank you gift, and I hope this will have been the first of many interactions with him.

Praises:
-More outreach opportunities are being planned

Prayer Requests:
-Even though we are getting more outreach opportunities, we wish we be more involved with people from Hong Kong. Pray for wisdom to know how to do this despite the large language barrier.