ACSC Basketball Trip

Shawn Lim

            This past week, we, the varsity basketball boys, had the privilege to go to Hong Kong to compete in a basketball tournament. We played hard as a team, however basketball was not the only thing that we enjoyed.

We were blessed to have a group of parents follow us to Hong Kong. Without them we silly boys would have been eating McDonald’s all week long. But thanks to the parents we had feasts on feasts on feasts. One of the greatest meals we had were the ones with roasted duck in it. Hong Kong is known for their roasted duck, however, we didn’t know how good it was. Once the plate of duck came out from the kitchen and onto the table, mouths dropped, pupils dilated, and saliva dripped. The duck was covered in a shiny covering of juiciness and radiated with the smell of heaven. We thought nothing could get better than that until the Barbecue glazed pork came out, also known as Char Siew. It was brought on a plastic plate and it glowed in the reflecting light against the beautiful glazed oil. It melted in our mouths and not a piece was left on the plate. Calvin Thompson (12) said, “It was an orchestra of flavors going on in my mouth.”

Another favorite in Hong Kong was heading into Circle K and buying a truckload of ice cream after every night’s dinner. Twelve hungry boys walked up the stairs of Circle K and walked directly towards the ice cream container and grabbed as many as we wanted. Although the cashier didn’t speak English, she could see we were all incredibly happy. We were blessed to stay in a wonderful hotel. This was the first time where we were able to get plenty of sleep and in such a comfortable setting.

 One of the best experiences I had this ACSC trip was the Crossroads program. For our service project, we were put into the “metaphorical shoes” of the people in poverty. We were put into a group of seven people and placed on a small mat where we barely fit. Now we were family. We were quickly taught how to make paper bags with newspapers and flour-made glue. In ten minutes, we had to make as many paper bags as possible and try to sell it to the shop owner. As we were poor we had to be on our knees and beg to sell our newspapers. Sometimes it was successful and we were able to sell our paper bags. However, sometimes we weren’t and our paper bags were just ripped into pieces. We also had to pay rent with the money we earned, and the rent was always more than what we earned. Thus, we learned tricks to pay for rent, such as pretending to sell our organs, phones, shoes, clothes—or even ourselves into slavery—to pay for rent. This was one of the most memorable service projects ever, as I learned a lot about how hard it was to live in poverty. This will be my most memorable ACSC trip, and I couldn't have asked for better people to spend it with.