A blog from and for Joseph Lawrence Hai- Sung Chow. His life was full, but way too short.
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Friday, February 12, 2010
Feb 12, 2009
When Joseph was 7 and Daniel 5 I signed them up for the Greenburgh Swim Team. It was only $25/summer for the family; and the swim lessons I had signed them up for were not really teaching them how to swim. I thought they could have some fun, meet some kids and become adequate swimmers. I had no idea that our town pool had a huge team that started practices at 7am weekday mornings, had meets three times a week during the summer and all the older kids on the team were either very athletic, and/or swam year around, some for the most elite programs in the country. Some of them were trying out for the Olympic team that summer.
The first morning of swim practice Ray and I had a big fight because he did not think it would be worth it for the kids to get up at 7am to get to practice - after all they could not even really swim. The first meet two weeks later was a little crazy because they really could not swim, but somehow they managed to do the 25 yard race, and finish without drowning! They improved rapidly, and by the end of the summer both of them were in the core group for their age groups. At the end of the summer, Ted, the coach came up to me and asked if the boys were going to swim during the winter. My first reaction was no way, that was not the crazy life style I wanted for our family. He convinced me to show up at the Fairview Community Center and let them swim with FAST. For the next 6 years all three boys swam for FAST (Fairview Association Swim team), and during the summer they swam or coached at Greenburgh until last summer (I don't think Kyle will go back this summer, but one never knows). Sixteen years with the Greenburgh Swim Team! Those kids and parents and coaches, and later coaches like Bob, Dom and Ilan and their teams are all part of Joe's life. He learned how to swim, how to be friends with a diverse group of kids, and how to teach others his love for the sport from all of his swimming experience.
This morning I went to do my laps at Fairview (now TDYCC), and I saw Ted for the first time since the wake. Today the swim team leaves for their annual Martin Luther King Meet in Washington DC (we actually never went to the meet because it was our ski week with family). Ted gave me a big hug, and brought me into his office, he had a gift for me. The team had had an invitational meet in November to kick off the season, and they had had an event for Joseph, and an award plaque was given in his name. The plaque had been paid for by donations from the team, and one of the parents of Joe's students designed the plaque. Replicas were made for Ray, me, Kyle and Dan. Ted is hoping that Kyle can make it to the meet this weekend and maybe we can make it to the banquet at the end of the year. Kyle and Dan can visit the team and help coach. Ted remembers Joseph as a little kid and as a young man; he knew Joseph and loved him and was waiting for great things from him. And he is so impressed with the reach that he had, and still has, in the community.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
May 30 2009
After Joseph and I went to the shopping area we walked back to the European side of the street. There literally is a European side of the street and an African side of the street in Ndanda. The main road goes straight up off the main highway (where the shopping center is), and on the right side is where the Europeans live, and there is a beautiful church and there is a farm and electricity, and a hospital. Things run relatively well on that side of the street. On the other side of the street is Africa.
Joseph wanted to do some shopping for bread coffee, eggs and milk so the German nuns have a little shop where you go to a door, and knock and the nun comes to the door and you make your order. We tried to order a cake for the next day (Joseph must not have been in great favor because the nun did not make the cake for us the next day - thanks). But they did have good bread, and coffee and eggs. Things that were not so easily come by on the other side of the road.
That evening we went down to an Indian "restaurant" in the village, Joseph said the owner was his friend. Joe and I had stopped by earlier while we were shopping to let the owner know that we would like a dinner that evening. Joseph spoke to him in English. While we were waiting we watched a Jackie Chan movie that had been dubbed into spanish and had english subtitles - not too many locals hanging out in that bar looking for entertainment. The food was okay, fried chicken and masali rice. Did I tell you I lost ten pounds in Africa. Joseph was about 120 pounds when we saw him, very skinny. The food is certainly not something to write home about!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Saturday May 30 2009
We went to the Benedictine guest house to drop off our stuff. The guest house had a gate which was opened by a security guard. The security guards stayed in the little outdoor porch listening to radios and generally doing nothing, but I guess there must be a need for them because every guest house we visited had one. The guest house was very clean, and bare. We were happy for the place to stay because from there we walked to Joseph's house. Joseph's house was fairly large, it had three bedrooms, a living room, dining area, kitchen and living room. It was filthy! I held my tongue. I was less then impressed with the cleanliness, but I said nothing (that day).
Joseph and I walked down to the shopping area to look for a ktanga (a cloth to wrap around me as a skirt) for me and some food for the meals we would eat there. The shopping area was old fashioned, and the individual stalls very small. It was while we were shopping that I realized just how excellent Joseph's swahili was. Everyone knew him there, and tried to get him to stop to buy stuff from them. "Mr. Joseph, Mr. Joseph, come look here". Some approached him shyly, wanting to be introduced to his mother. At one of the ktanga stalls the young woman was giggling and Joseph had a long conversation with her. She was laughing because Joseph asked how she knew his name and she responded that she saw him running through the streets leading a hundred young men behind him.
The headmaster had been very impressed with Joseph's physical conditioning and had asked him to be the PE teacher for the school. So Joseph had put a notice on the wall telling the students who wanted to run to meet at a certain spot at a certain time to run. About a hundred students showed up, and Joseph was famous for being very sweaty (and small) and leading all these kids on long runs (Joseph said they routinely ran 10 to 16 kilometers). He never really mentioned that to me before, and I found it hard to believe, but all the neighbors knew it!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Saturday May 30th 2009
Joseph had arranged for the jeep from his schools "sister school" to pick us up and take us to Ndanda, (for a price of course!). One reason that Mr. Lulokila had invited us out the night before was he wanted a ride back to the school in the jeep. It took us 2 1/2 hours on very bad roads to get to ndanda. During the trip, my back was bothering me, so I tried to lay prone - the roads were not very good. The boys talked about movies, tv shows popular culture - what boys talk about when they are together
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Saturday May 30, 2009
Woke up to find Joseph and Ray outside, getting breakfast ready. They had walked over early to the fish market and bought about 2 lbs of little tiny shrimp. Joseph had not had much seafood in the two years he had been away, and he loved the shrimp. He was disappointed that the shrimp were so small, but he was determined to have some! It was a mess peeling all the shrimp, and breakfast was going to be some time off. So, Kyle, Ray, Daniel and I went swimming in the Indian Ocean. Finally Ray could not stand it anymore, and he went to help Joe peel the shrimp. We ate shrimp and rice for breakfast and then the jeep arrived for our trip to Ndanda.
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