Time; Relationship; Waste; Privilege

Author: NG Hoi Man

As the sun shines through the window, my eyes gradually open wide. Stepping onto the ground of an unfamiliar house, everything feels so surreal. 

In this place, the concept of time is re-construed. Generally, time in its objective sense can be quantified into units like seconds, minutes, hours; however in its subjective sense, people could have their own psychological accounting of time. In the context of Hong Kong, it would be a day of 9-5 work, dinner, maybe a workout, then a short sleep. Time gaps are rarely allowed – there is always work to fill in, if not our own frustration or disappointment of how one would ever allow such time gap. The accounting system is nevertheless given a rest here – there is no constant debit and credit of time. While time is broken down strictly in Hong Kong, with every unit followed with a schedule – time being scattered and event-oriented, concept of time is different here.          

Time is fluid and open to possibilities here. I used to get scheduled, but now I schedule the

time. There is no calendar to follow – rise as the sun rises, as the youngest child in the host family cries and screams, as the rain falls from the sky; enjoy meals as the urge of nature calls. Want to know someone? Just find them and have a chat without concern for time. Feel the urge to go into the woods? Text Avalanche for a motorcycle ride into the woods. Feel the boredom? Open the Google Map and look for fun places to go. Time is no longer linked to “constraint” or “bound”, but a complement that flows with the present and natural desires, thus no correlation to “waste” or “gap”.

Maybe it is not the place, but how one manifests the concept through a change of perspective. 

Relationship

On the first day, I bumped into my business partner – we had a decision to familiarize ourselves with the location of the business, Tableya Processing – plainly, we made a both good and bad decision looking back. Bad for having us baked with the long stroll to the alleged location claimed on Google Map. Good for connecting us with a generous local, Germaine.

At the time, we were lost, uncertain of the directions for the business. We made a bold decision to knock on a random local’s house and was surprised to find them responding. We were hoping for a point of direction and instead what we got was a drive to the center.    

Our contact did not stop after the day. We had two outings ever since – once a visit to her house for a feast of cakes, once a visit to the waterfall and her rest house. None of it was expected. 

Back in Hong Kong, this is considered rare, if not impossible – rumour has it Philippines is dangerous for various reasons. This, however, had me realized relationship is not built on anything, but a genuine desire to get to know each other and to harvest the happiness from common experience.

Waste

The second day here, after enjoying the beach – we came with a spontaneous plan for volleyball in a basketball court near the highway. While we were running and sweating, smoke arose from all the nearby houses and fused in noses – choking me hardly indeed. Another mystery for me would be how people herein handle the waste, especially upon finishing the delicacy prepared by the host family, I wondered how they handle the leftovers – both were great mysteries for me – as an amateur detective, I have it figured out few days later. 

The truth was that the line between waste and life is blurred herein. While there is an established and comprehensive waste system in Hong Kong – the distance between the waste and the daily life is distant, split once the waste entered the rubbish bin and being thrown outside the household, they “disappeared” – out of sight, out of mind. Without such a system, people here handle waste in two main ways, ignoring the uncertainty if it is handled in a way that is better than Hong Kong. For food waste, they are fed to the stray/ wild animals or digested into soil – how? Enter into the back garden, and an easy dump. The other way would be more visible, combusting the waste. It gets me wondering, if such practice were to be done in Hong Kong, if the distance between waste and how I experience the process of handling it, would I have ever easily created waste without even a contemplation – obtaining plastic bag for convenience, opting for much more packaging for vulnerable goods, and not sorting rubbish according to their categories. 

Privilege

Even with a humble background, as a local in Hong Kong, I rarely felt uncomfortable of the environment. People spoke in the language I am familiar to, act in ways I am culturally adapted to, exchange opinions (even sometimes in opposite stances) with information I am exposed to. For usual vacation holiday, I acknowledge and recognize myself as a foreigner and a tourist to the country, even if there is something I am not used to – that is considered fine for me for this is conforming with the identity I identified within the place and for I am, still, accompanied.

Now, I am here, living with the host family and working with a local business, not surrounded with the people I am familiar, not my family, not my friend, not one that I am much personally acquainted to. Being deeply immersed in the culture, for once, I know how it feels to be an “outsider”. The privilege that comes from being an “insider” who is appropriated to the place, who is comfortable with being unfamiliar with the place disappears – and now I truly know that is a privilege. 

But is such a privilege ever necessary?

Not only I opposed it for being necessary, if one were to broaden its horizons to the greatest extent, one should intentionally abandon it – talk to people, learn the language, taste the unusual – experience the unusual before rejecting it. 

It is for this that we found an interesting way to praise something extraordinary while we

were cutting the coconuts, like the Chinese one – “newbie”. We climbed the waterfall and the coconut tree with bare hands and foot (of cause also our strong muscles). My business partner and I tried the unsweetened chocolate drink made from tableya – sikwate, and the traditional molding of tableya with a wooden plate and metal knife. My roommate and I joined our neighbour’s birthday party at 4am – singing (actually trying to sing) the hymns in their language, handing flowers to the birthday ladies (they are twins!) and sharing the delicacies (of cause, again with the sikwate) with their friends and family. This would not have happened if we were not to step out of the comfort zone, abandon the privilege, and be truly open to the new culture. 

So, I guess, I should say a “sau la mai” for the experience here.