Ken

Tonight I met one of the most interesting men I have ever talked to.

I was eating at Tommy's (not it's real name, but you have to call it something), our local hole-in-the-wall, leave-your-sanitation-standards-at-the-door restaurant down the street. I normally eat alone there in the evenings with a book. Just a really good time to read and reflect.

Not tonight. As I walked up to the restaurant, a white face (you don't see those in our neck of Hong Kong) motioned me over to his table. He said, "Care to join me?"

Why the heck not? Not every night can I mix and mingle with a random Westerner.

His name is Ken. He's about 60, and he teaches English two hours a day at a few of the local high schools around the city.

Ken told me that he grew up in Surrey, England (the same place where Kate Winslet lives in the movie The Holiday, I think) and studied to be an ornithologist (a glorified bird watcher).

He lived in the English countryside for the first 15 years of his adult life. He wrote articles about birds for various magazines. Then National Geographic called.

"Ken, we've got a deal for you. How about you sell all your belongings, buy a backpack and a pup tent, and spend about five years traveling the world and taking pictures of birds?"

So he did.

Ken said he spent five years all over the world. He never shaved. He never cut his hair. He said he looked like Moses, except for his safari hat. He lived out of his backpack and under a tent.

Five years later, Ken was in Hong Kong taking pictures of Hong Kong birds. He was in a random restaurant and saw a white guy. The white guy randomly started talking to him and realized he was English.

He told Ken that he was a principal of a private Christian school and needed a substitute English teacher for his sixth graders because the current teacher had a family emergency and had to quit unexpectedly the day before.

Ken said, "I don't have any clothes, a razor, or a decent haircut. Or a place to live." The guy gave Ken some clothes, a razor, and brought him to a barber. After a night in a hotel, Ken showed up and taught sixth-grade English grammar to a group of Cantonese students.

At the end of the day the principal said, "Good job. Want this job permanently?"

Ken took the job on the spot. Said he was tired of birds and wanted people for friends. He has lived in Hong Kong for 19 years now. And he's the coolest neighbor I've ever met.

I'm excited that I know Ken. Hong Kong gets more and more interesting each day.