Ni hao from Hong Kong

Ni hao! That’s how we say "hello" in Hong Kong. It sounds like "knee how." Many people speak English because Hong Kong was an English colony just like the United States. In 1997 it became part of China, again. Hong Kong is a city of skyscrapers and can be expensive but there are many free things to do. One free place to visit is the Law Uk Folk Museum, which is a 200-year-old house. It gave us an idea what life was like in Hong Kong before it became one of the most modern cities in the world. The original owner, whose last name was Law, moved to the area and built the house in the 1700s when the area was farmland. They would be surprised to see all the tall buildings surrounding their house today. We thought it was interesting that they had some things similar to what we have today like a walker with wheels for toddlers and a cradle hanging from the ceiling that they could swing gently to rock the baby to sleep. There must have been a lot of mosquitoes because they had mosquito netting around the bed. Even though the city is one of tall buildings they have some very nice parks. One of our favorites is Hong Kong Park, which has an aviary, a lily pond, and several waterfalls.

To learn more about life in Hong Kong we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History. On Wednesdays most of the museums are free. We were surprised to learn that before Columbus sailed to America, a Chinese captain, Zheng He, led seven voyages that made it all the way to the Red Sea near Egypt. His ships were much bigger than any other ship at that time. They were called Treasure Ships because they brought back many interesting items. The amazing Treasure Ships were over 400 feet long and 165 feet wide. Zheng’s voyage consisted of 62 vessels and 27,800 sailors. Columbus sailed with three small ships, the largest, the Santa Maria was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide and his entire crew numbered 90. I wonder how the world would be different if the Chinese had "discovered" America. For several reasons after the death of Zheng He the Chinese stopped exploring. The museum had many interesting things to see and learn about Chinese culture. Next to the History Museum is the Science Museum where there were many children enjoying the hands on exhibits. We could have been in any science museum in the United States.

One day we took a free tour called Cantonese Opera Appreciation Class. Cantonese opera is unique Chinese art form that started more than 700 years ago. We learned that the voices are so high pitched because it made it easier for people to hear them in the time before microphones. We love the artistic face makeup on the actors and learned that it made it possible for people in the back of the crowds to see facial expressions. The opera groups would travel by boat from village to village. Thousands of people would come to see their performances.

We love Chinese food, especially dim sum, which means "little hearts." They come in such small portions so we can try many different kinds. Chef Wah at the Peninsula Hotel taught us how to make dim sum. We found making the neat little packages of dim sum more difficult than it looks. Like everything else it takes practice. Chef Wah makes 400 a day and has been doing it for many years. Hong Kong is a amazing with many skyscrapers but it is still possible to experience the heritage of the the people.

Kum de buc from Bali

Kum de buc is how people say hello in Bali, Indonesia. However, we visited a school for children who can not hear so we said "hello" in sign language. The sign for "Hello" is the same in many languages. We don’t know a lot signs, however we found it easier to communicate by signing than we did in schools where we did not know the local language and the students did not know English. We carry a map of the world and the United States so we can show people where we live. The students were impressed that we traveled so far to see them.

In one of the classes the children were learning how to sew articles that they can sell. In another class they were learning to repair machines. The younger children were attending regular classes. The classes were very small. We arrived as the elementary school was getting out.

Bali is an island in the country of Indonesia. Most of the people in Bali are Hindu. The Balinese Hindu people have an interesting way of naming their children. The first child is called Wayan, the second Made (pronounced Ma-day), the third is Nyoman, and the fourth child is called Ketut. If there are more children then it starts all over again. So we met many "Wayans!" They also have a second name but they don’t have a last name like we do in America. So if we were Balinese Hindu we would be Wayan Annie and Wayan Blue, but our friends would just call us Wayan.

Our hotel offered classes to help visitors learn about Balinese arts. We went to a Balinese dance class. Here we are learning to dance Balinese-style with Mathilde. One night we went to a dance show that told a very old Hindu story called Ramayama. We saw some of the dance movements we learned in our lesson. Ramayama is a love story but also a story of good conquering evil. The music is very cool! The orchestra is made of gong-style instruments of various sizes and xylophone-type instruments called a gamelan.

We also attended a Balinese flower-arranging lesson. We made a little basket of woven coconut palm fronds and then arranged flowers in it. Even though the Balinese people are Hindu, it is practiced a little different that in other Hindu areas. The temples here are not as colorful as in other countries and they don’t have all the statues. But they make offerings to their God everyday in the form of the little baskets we made. We saw the baskets everywhere including in front of stores, under trees, and even on the dash of our taxi. Each morning the offering is put out to keep the bad spirits out and the let the good spirits in. Usually the basket contains flowers, incense, and water.

Bali is a popular tourist destination so there are many hotels with beautiful beaches and plenty of "fun-in-the-sun" things to do. It was very, very hot and humid.

Greetings from the Bahamas

We are in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. Find Florida on the map and just to the east you will see the Bahamas. There are about 700 islands in the Bahamas. Just like the United States the Bahamas were once part of England so they speak English. They got their independence in 1973. Many Americans visit the Bahamas. The Caribbean Sea around the Bahamas is very beautiful with many different shades of blue, green and turquoise.

There are three old forts on the island that were built nearly 300 years ago to protect them during wartime and from pirates. Forts were the Homeland Security of the 1700s!



The ancestors of many Bahamians came to the Bahamas to work as slaves on the plantations. Slavery was abolished 1834. Before the slaves were freed they were allowed three days off and it became a celebration of their African heritage called Junkanoo.

They still celebrate Junkanoo on December 26 and January 1 with a huge parade through the streets. Groups compete for prizes so they spend months creating brilliant costumes out of cardboard decorated with colorful strips of crepe paper, glitter and beads. The music is a vibrant mix of drums, brass instruments, and cowbells. We could feel the beat and had to dance with the music. Junkanoo is colorful and exciting. They also have Junkanoo in June so tourists can experience the exciting festival.

The people of the Bahamas want visitors to learn about their culture so they have a People to People program. They match tourists with local volunteers with similar interests. We signed up for the free program and told them we wanted to meet children in a school.

We visited the Carmichael Primary School and spent the morning with Miss William’s third grade. They use the same textbooks as the students in the United States. Their classrooms had many of the same decorations and posters. In fact, they knew a lot about the United States. Many of the students have relatives in the U.S. and they fly to Miami to shop. The island is small so they have to import most things. The students thought we were cute and wanted to know all the places we had visited. They were really interested in Alaska because it is cold and has snow. It is always hot in the Bahamas and they all wanted to see and feel snow!

When class was over some of the students brought their lunch back to the classroom. Most of them had chicken with rice and peas (which look more like reddish beans). It is a traditional Bahamian dish served with most meals. It is delicious. Bahamians love conch, which lives in a huge shell - the kind that people can blow into like a horn. Johnny Cake is a favorite dessert. It was also a favorite with American Indians and early settlers because it was easy to make and lasted a long time. It was originally called Journey Cake because they took it along when they went on a journey. The American version is made with corn but they make theirs with wheat.

Native Americans in Arizona

Arizona has a very large Native American population. We wanted to learn more about some of the Native Americans who lived in this desert state before the Europeans arrived so we visited Pueblo Grande just outside the city of Phoenix. Pueblo Grande is the ruins of a Hohokam Indian village that is more than one thousand years old. All that is left of a village that was home to hundreds of people are the crumbled walls of some of the buildings. The museum director, Mr. Lidman said, "Archeologists dug up the site so they could learn about the Hohokam. When they had learned all they could they buried most of the village to prevent more damage to the buildings from the wind and rain."

We could see the outlines of some of the buildings, the platform mound that was the center of the village, and the ball court. The Hohokam were expert farmers even though they lived in the barren desert because they built hundreds of miles of irrigation canals. They were able to grow corn, beans, squash, and cotton. We climbed the ruins the platform mound, which archeologist think was used for ceremonies. It was very hot and there was one else around so we tried to imagine what the village was like with children playing and people working in the fields. The archeologists built full-scale reproductions of prehistoric Hohokam homes so we tired to picture the women grinding grain or weaving and little girls learning by watching the women work.

The Hohokam abandoned their villages more than 600 years ago. Scientists are not sure why. What do you think would make people leave their village? Maybe there was not enough rain for the crops or maybe they didn’t feel safe any more. When Spanish explorers arrived in the sixteenth century, they found the Hohokam villages in ruins.

About 100 miles north of Phoenix, we visited the remains of another Native American group, the Sinagua, which means "without water." One of the places they lived is call Montezuma’s Castle but it is not a castle and Montezuma, the Aztec leader, was never there. Early settlers were so impressed with the Sinagua cliff dwellings that they thought it had to be part of the great Aztec Empire of Mexico, but it was not. It is thought that in the Sinagua may have been Hohokam people who moved north and then developed their own culture.

Montezuma’s Castle is a five-story, 20-room cliff dwelling that was like a "high-rise apartment building." It is well preserved because of its protected place in the cliff. Other Sinagua dwellings are not so well preserved. Ranger Larson told us that there were many Sinagua dwellings in the area. He said, "They are all about three miles apart located on high hills or in the side of a cliff. They were all in sight of one another. If there was a problem they could send a signal from one village to another using mica mirrors." We thought that was very cool.

We think it would be very difficult to live so high on the cliff because they would have to lug everything up to their homes. They used wooden ladders to get to their houses. If they didn’t want people to get into their village they would just pull up the ladders. They must have felt very safe. The "castle" is locate above a small river so building on the cliff left the fertile land along the river free for farming. It was cooler in the "cave" houses and they had a beautiful view. The Sinagua lived in there villages for about 250 years and then something happened because they abandoned the village just like the Hohokam did. It is thought that the Hohokam and the Sinagua may have moved in with other Native American groups but they don’t know why the villages were abandoned. Maybe they no longer felt safe, or they died of disease, or maybe their crops failed.

Today Arizona has 250,000 Native Americans who belong to 21 recognized tribes. So much of the Native American history has been forgotten that today people are trying to preserve what they do know about the first people to live in Arizona by talking to the old people and sharing what they learn with others.

Hola y Abujevete from Argentina

Argentina is a Spanish-speaking country but they also have aboriginal people, the Guarani, and "Abujevete" is the way they greet each other. "Hola" is "hello" in Spanish.

It is amazing that we can stay in the luxurious Grand Hotel and drive for 30 minutes to a place where people still live much like they have for years. Our Guarani guide, Carai, said, "Our people don’t speak much and we don’t have a word for ‘no.’ If a man asks a women to marry him and she doesn’t want to, she says nothing. Saying nothing means no."
Carai is a hunter. He showed us some very clever ways to catch animals. When he wants some fish he takes a two-foot section of a thick woody vine and puts it in water like a post. It attracts the fish but something in the wood puts the fish to sleep and then he picks the fish out of the water.

He explained, "Now it is difficult to be a hunter because we do not have much land. When I was a young boy we lived in union with nature, there were no country borders, we were free, and lived to be very old. Now we know about money, we buy things to eat, and our bodies are not use to it. We buy medicines instead of using the natural ones. We are not as healthy."

Carai told us many interesting things about his way of life. He pointed to a plant and said, "When it flowers we know it is the beginning of a new year." Their houses are made out of wood, mud and reeds. They only cut the wood for their houses during the full moon. Wood that is cut during the full moon is stronger and protected from termites." When we were ready to leave the children sang some Guarnai songs. They giggled when they saw us! I think they thought we were cute!

The Guarani live very near one of the world’s most incredible waterfalls – Iguazu Falls, which is on the Brazil-Argentina border. It is about the same height as Niagara Falls but has more than 250 separate falls spread out for nearly two miles in the rainforest. On the way to see Iguazu Falls we met Oriana Rios. She is studying to be an English teacher. We complimented her on her command of English. Oriana said,

"Learning English is very difficult because there are many sounds for the same letter." We think learning Spanish is difficult.

The food in Argentina is very good. They are famous for their excellent beef. The food is similar to the food in America but they have some different items that we really love. One is empanadas, which are like turnovers filled with meat, chicken, cheese, or dulce de leche. We love dulce de leche, which means "milk candy." It is a bit like caramel. They spread on toast and use it as a filling in pastries. It is also a flavor of ice cream. Yummy! The one thing we find difficult is the time people eat their dinner in Argentina. Most people eat around ten PM so most restaurants do not open until 8 PM. But there are places like McDonald’s that are open all day and sell empanadas for about 40 cents each.

We like Argentina. The people are friendly and they have many interesting things to see and do. To get to Bariloche, Argentina we traveled over the Andes Mountains from Puerto Montt, Chile by a route they call "Sail the Andes." The trip included four bus rides and three boat rides. It was very beautiful and we saw several snow-covered volcanoes. The world is very interesting.