Posted on 05/28/2009 6:23:16 PM PDT by PGR88
When the American minesweepers USS Patriot and USS Guardian docked in Hong Kong on Monday, Wan Chai's bars and clubs heaved with off-duty sailors who hadn't been allowed booze for weeks. But many American servicemen find alternative ways to spend their shore leave here. Although scores of their colleagues spill into the tawdry traps of Lockhart Road, petty officer first class Jason Davis and some of his shipmates from the guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee prefer home cooking with mainly compatriot host families in Hong Kong. "Carousing and staying up all night ... that's not me any more. It's too crazy and tiring," says Davis, a 32-year-old fire-control technician from Texas. "I have wound down since I got married eight years ago. I found this combination of food and companionship very rewarding and pleasant. I have been able to relax."
After weeks at sea on a diet of fried chicken and pizza, Davis and his 12 shipmates are tucking into a Cajun dinner, prepared in Sheung Wan by expatriate Lori Granito, a professional caterer from New Orleans. They are among thousands of US servicemen who have benefited from the American Women Association's Meals in the Home programme. Previously known as Hospitality Dinners, and run by almost 300 mainly American volunteers, Meals in the Home has operated in various guises since the early 1970s, when members offered meals at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"It's always been meant to give [the servicemen] a different perspective on the local experience," says the programme's chairwoman, Susan Brock, from New Jersey.
"As the wife of a Navy officer, I'd hope that when my husband visits places, people would open their doors to him," she says. Meals in the Home can be busy. Every year about 35 to 40 US Navy vessels visit Hong Kong and over the past 12 months local volunteers have sent out more than 930 invitations to crew who enrolled on the programme before the vessels arrive.
The sailors usually snap up their hosts' invitations, Brock says.
"The average American sailor is much more professional onshore now than they used to be decades ago," says the Garden Road-based housewife. "They come looking for culture and new experiences, and opportunities to learn from locals. It makes their trips around the world much richer."
Lawrence Gonzales, the Chafee's executive officer, says: "Now some sailors like Hong Kong not because of the bars in Wan Chai but because they're afforded the opportunity to go to Victoria Peak and visit the Big Buddha and meet generous residents."
The programme's hosts are keen to cater for the servicemen, Brock says. "We just communicate by e-mail and there are many I haven't met in person, but they are very eager," she says.
Granito, who has been a volunteer for a year and has lived in Hong Kong for 17 years, says she accommodated more guests when she heard there was a waiting list.
"It's such a good programme that we can show our appreciation and learn more about what they do," says the 43-year-old mother of one. "I do it not because I am patriotic, but because they are doing a hard but interesting job."
Another of her dinner guests is chief petty officer Douglas Anderson, a 35-year-old air controller from Louisiana. He relishes Granito's pecan pie, but he says there is more to the programme than just a taste of home.
"I signed up for the programme because I wanted to meet normal people who live in Hong Kong," Anderson says.
"When you go to foreign countries, you only get to see what is advertised to you. A lot of young sailors go to the first thing they see when arriving in a port - usually it's only bars and clubs. It helps me unwind because the environment of meals at home are [with] people [who don't] just want your money. I feel that this is the best programme I have encountered, and I have been to over 15 countries," he says.
The meals are also a much-needed distraction from their hectic schedule aboard ship.
"The job in the navy is not easy," says Anderson, a 16-year naval veteran. It can get stressful at times. You live with 250 people in a small area for six months at a time. The opportunity to go to a nice dinner and know that someone is doing it because they appreciate what you do is very fulfilling."
The navy subculture is fascinating, says mother-of-two Genevieve Hilton, who usually serves the servicemen macaroni and cheese and string beans at her Tin Hau flat.
"The sailors almost always call me `ma'am', which is very unusual outside the southern region of the US," says the public-relations manager from Pennsylvania, who has lived in Hong Kong for seven years.
"They also call each other only by their last names, even the women. Often they don't even know each other's first names even though they have spent six months working on the same ship together."
Non-Americans help out too. "In Canadian culture, the military doesn't seem to figure as prominently as in the US, so we have very little understanding of how the military works," says Vancouver native Elisa Baniassad.
"It was an eye-opening experience. I hadn't appreciated how difficult it really was to work in the military," says the assistant professor at the Chinese University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
She is also intrigued by her guest's insights into life at sea.
"The most interesting thing was how excited the men were to see fresh vegetables," Baniassad says. "It brought home how isolating an experience it must be, even though the ship has so many people on it."
Host Sarah White has perfected a visitor itinerary of a dim sum lunch in Tsim Sha Tsui followed by a tour of the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok.
"They [servicemen] want something that's affordable," says the Hong Kong-raised senior rate analyst who married an American a decade ago and last June returned to the SAR from Pittsburgh. "Some just stay for two or three days [and] are usually dying to get souvenirs for their loved ones."
"My father-in-law is a retired navy officer, and my niece is also in the navy, so I just want to help out," she says. "I can speak the language and I want to show them how friendly local people are. It's also Hong Kong culture that you don't invite your guests to go to your place, but meet for dim sum.
Other off-duty American sailors volunteer to work their shore leave with local charities as part of the navy's community relations programme. The crew of Chafee, for example, has performed such work in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, says ensign Christopher Post, the ship's public-affairs officer.
"[The programme] is just part of our deployment experience," he says. "Sailors might already be exhausted, but programmes like this and Meals in the Home give us a chance to submerge ourselves in the culture when we pull into foreign ports. A rewarding and fulfilling experience abroad is important for every sailor, as it maintains a high level of morale during deployment."
Any crew's voluntary work in Hong Kong usually involves physically demanding jobs such as landscaping, painting and building repairs, often for charities such as the Salvation Army, Po Leung Kuk, the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre, and Hong Chi Pinehill Village.
"[The sailors] are so friendly and helpful that they never say no to these sweaty jobs, even in hot and rainy weather. Their efficiency at work and good team spirit impresses us very much. Sometimes they give musical performances for our children and trainees with intellectual disabilities," says Hong Chi Pinehill Village superintendent Nora Wong Pui-ha.
Anderson has often devoted his shore leave to Hong Kong charities, performing jobs ranging from unclogging sewage pipes to picking up snakes. Being in the navy, he says, is about helping out the less fortunate as well as defending his country.
"It fills you up with goodness," he says. "I've been to many places in the world [and] discovered that a little attention or help goes a long way. There are many people [who] have no sense of what it is like to help out someone a thousand miles away. I like to meet new people and leave a good impression of the US Navy. I relieve [the] stress of everyday life in the navy by meeting new people and helping someone in need."
The community programmes are also designed to discourage drinking, Gonzales says. "We promote [the programmes] as different alternatives to alcohol and we actively deglamorise alcohol," he says.
"The navy takes alcohol abuse very seriously. Alcohol and the effects of alcohol kill more sailors than actual war."
AHHH Hong Kong my adopted overseas hometown! I LOVE HK!
My favorite liberty port was Singapore. That was the cleanest city I have ever been.
It seems to lack the old sleeziness. I think the real estate got too expensive or there was too much pressure from the new government. I used to meet sailors at the Purple Onion (one of the few places that didn’t card me) on the Kowloon side.
You’re right, though, that it can feel like home with all the ex-pats there. I got to use the American Club a couple of times (my private club has reciprocity with them) but preferred the food stalls at night (hooray for cheap eats!).
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