Exercise Plus

     Monday morning Mr. Lee, the esteemed health and longevity movement expert, brought a treat to share before we started our morning exercises.  When I arrived there were 2 trays set out on a table, containing a light lavender/mauve-colored gelatin with bits of white suspended in it.  Several people invited me to pick up a toothpick and try one of the small squares of this mystery food.  I did, and thought it was quite good.  I was prepared for an unfamiliar flavor, maybe something fishy or beany.  But it had a mild fruity taste, slightly sweet, and the white bits tasted similar to macadamia nuts.  Ellen told me that Mr. Lee's wife had made it from lotus, a special treat for Chinese New Year.  I looked around on the internet after I got home and then wondered if the white "nuts" were lotus seeds.  Ellen was effusive about Mr. Lee's wife's talents:  in addition to being a good cook, she's a t'ai chi master.  I'd like to meet her someday.

     This morning the woman who first invited me to join this exercise group, Grace, had brought a jump rope to class.  Here she is demonstrating her skill before class started.  She handed the rope to me and asked me to try it.  I managed to jump for a half-minute or so without embarrassing myself (I was channeling all those expert rope-jumpers at the Grace Lock-In).  This brought big smiles to the faces of some of the elderly women and a few gave a thumbs-up and clapped.  A couple other middle-aged women took turns jumping, and that brought more smiles and claps.  I think Grace was doing jump rope show-and-tell today to educate about its exercise benefits.  "It's good for the heart," she said.  I commented that it's good for the bones, too.  I've read that high-impact jumping like this is just about the best exercise there is for helping prevent osteoporosis.
     After class I talked with Elizabeth and Shiva for a few minutes.  Elizabeth is the one who lived in Calgary for many years and has the best English of anyone I've met in the class.  Shiva is the restaurant owner.  I asked them if they drank Hong Kong water out of their tap at home, or if they bought bottled water.  They don't trust either, they said.  They use water filters in their homes and said you can buy them in many places here.  Hong Kong gets most of its drinking water from a river in Guangdong province in southern China.  This area of the Pearl River Delta is heavily industrialized, and water/air pollution are huge problems.  Much of the food sold in Hong Kong is grown in this area of China, as well.
     Both of them asked me if I've been to the store nearby on Belcher St. that sells organic produce.  Terry and I have seen this store, but wondered if the term "organic" is being used rather loosely for its goods.  Shiva assured me that he's familiar with the local organization which verifies that the farm here in Hong Kong supplying the produce to this store is using organic farming practices.  Although I'm still somewhat skeptical (as I am about some goods labeled "organic" in the U.S., too), I stopped by this store today and bought a few small sweet potatoes and some broad green beans.  I paid HK$26 for them ($3.35), which I thought was reasonable.  They made a very tasty curry for our supper.
    Today is the second time that Elizabeth has reflected aloud to me about the tendency of humans to destroy themselves.  She was very critical of China's poor environmental practices.  "How can they do this to their children?" she said.  Our insistence on cheap manufactured goods is a big part of the problem.