Unexpected gifts and smiles

'Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely'...

On the tube the other day, I was feeling down. Exam revision was clogging up my brain and I was exhausted. At the second stop, two Chinese ladies, a small child and a pushchair got on and I moved to let them sit down. The next thing I knew an apple was thrust in my direction- with a thankful smile. I was so surprised by this act of kindness on a London tube! The other passengers around watched to see how I would react- would I dare to eat the unsanitised, unknown, unexpected fruit?

On the walk home from the tube, I passed the launderette where a little Indian lady always sits and waves at me when I pass by the window. I don't know who she is, she doesn't know me either but we have got into the habit of smiling and waving whenever we see each other. I don't even know if she speaks English but I know she has an open heart towards people.

Both these encounters made me think about how anonymity often gives us the excuse to walk around the city as if we didn't share it with anyone else. The pardox of millions of people living in such close quarters that they need to carve out their own space within the mass. The thing we all have in common is that we weave our own paths. But in the apple and the wave, I saw a glimpse of people who bring joy to others by making them feel they are noticed, not just part of the endless flow of faces. Their kindnesses, however small they might have been, changed my mood and in doing so gave me hope.

Light show

Last night we went into Hong Kong to see the lights of the incredible skyline. At 8pm there is a 'son et lumiere' with flashing lights dancing to 'techno-chinese funk' over the harbour. Man-made beauty at its best.

A rainy Saturday, the in-between time

I realise I have already been here a week and haven't added anything to my blog, so here we go...



This week was a short working week so there isn't so much to report on that front. I spent some of my time researching Bottom of the Pyramid business approaches to development (see http://www.bop-protocol.org/) Basically it's a movement, mostly within the multinational business community, to find ways of using business to help alleviate poverty. Cynics say it's about bringing poor people into new exploitation by big business. Enthusiasts see it as the strategy which can suceed where governments and philanthropy have failed. It's win-win because business will gain profits and those at the 'bottom of the pyramid', on less than $1-2 a day, will be able to have access to products which they can afford and which improve their lives. So far it seems to me that while it's not a 'silver bullet', it might just be another way of trying to improve the lives of millions of people who live in conditions so removed from our own comfotable existence. So the reading goes on...



I also got to help out with the school kids here. The team has people from all over the world, different ages and different talents. Over the last few years, several families have joined and so there is now a school for them! I got to help with some Easter related activities with them on Thursday which was great fun.



We have a long weekend for Easter which is wonderful. Time to rest and to be with friends and family. I hope that you have time this weekend to think about life a year on from last Easter time- what has changed, what has stayed the same...Much of my life seems to have changed since last Easter in Kazakhstan. But for all that change, most of the important people in my life remain the same. For that I am very grateful.

Off to Hong Kong

As some of you may know, I am off to Hong Kong tomorrow.I'll be visiting my parents and lots of friends who currently work at a charity called 'Crossroads'. Check out www.crossroads.org.hk
to see what they do. If you want to see what I'm up to then watch this space over the next 3 weeks...Alice in a new land...

you get an extra day- use it well

Starting on the 29th February seemed appropriate because opportunities like this don't come up very often!

if you're sitting comfortably....

then I'll begin. My name is a constant in my life- it has followed me across continents, across languages, across the years. 'Alice' I say. 'Like Alice in Wonderland?' comes the seemingly inevitable reply. Everywhere people have heard of this Lewis Caroll story and I used to get quite annoyed at this stock response. I guess if your name is Mickey or Minnie, you might get the same treatment...

But last year, I had a thought which changed the way I see this alliance between my name and the girl who falls down a rabbit hole. Wonder. She walks around in this sometimes scary, often strange, always fascinating world which she has fallen into and her eyes can't take it all in. But she observes and reflects on what surrounds her and tries to pick her way through it.

Carroll describes her like this: "Loving, first, loving and gentle: loving as a dog (forgive the prosaic smile, but I know no earthy love so pure and perfect), and gentle as a fawn; then courteous - courteous to all, high or low, grand or grotesque, King or Caterpillar, even as though she were herself a King’s daughter, and her clothing of wrought gold: then trustful, ready to accept the wildest impossibilities with all that utter trust that only dreamers know; and lastly, curious – wildly curious, and with the eager enjoyment of Life that comes only in the happy hours of childhood, when all is new and fair, and when Sin and Sorrow are but names – empty words signifying nothing!"

Now it would be strange to describe myself as being just like this fictional seven year old and considering Caroll's complimentary description- arrogant and untrue as well! Yet curiosity about the world is something I have always had and in this blog I hope to have a space to put down some of the observations I see on 'paper', to share a little of the wonder with you. Sin and sorrow do have meaning in our world but when you are the daughter of a King, you can keep that childlike trust and love and 'eager enjoyment of life' even when earthly childhood is over.