Crossroads Hong Kong Trip 2018

The annual Hong Kong trip of the community service group Crossroads just occurred last weekend. Crossroads is a global foundation that connects  a variety of unwanted resources and impoverished populations with a motto of “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

Crossroads was founded in 1995 and has developed 4 departments that are prominent to the distribution of resources on a global scale: Global Distribution, Global X-perience, Global Hand, Global Handicrafts. Global Distribution ensures the collection, packaging, and transportation of resources worldwide; Global X-perience allows the more fortunate population to experience the lives of those who experience all kinds of hardships including disabilities, poverty, war, etc.; Global Hand is a website that connects enterprises or individuals which have excessive resources with the impoverished and unfortunate populations in need of those resources; Global Handicrafts collects craftwork from the impoverished population and sells it to assist them with their economy. Our annual trip mainly involves activities with the Global X-perience and Global Distribution. The AISG Crossroads students participated in 2 simulations in the Global X-perience department and helped with packaging in the Global Distribution department.

The group met up with enthusiasm and excitement at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, October 26, and departed to Hong Kong in delight. Unlike the past trips, the coordinators have decided to change some parts of the trip this year. In previous trips, the group has lived in Crossroads’ dorms, but this year, to ensure a better experience, we spent the night in a hotel. Some say that this change makes the trip loses its essence—the purpose of the trip is to facilitate with services and not to enjoy. But if greater enjoyment can be ensured as well as the same amount of workforce, why not try something new?

On the first day of our arrival, we were immediately split into groups that were in charge of different tasks including sorting out toys, recording incoming packages, packing clothes, etc. I was assigned with toys categorization along with Gino, Stanley, and Agnes. During the afternoon, we checked Legos piece by piece to avoid pieces involving violence because those toys were to be distributed to children in countries after war, who had been traumatized by the violence they had experienced—our goal was to help avoid evoking anger or unwanted memories. We also put together puzzles to make sure there weren’t inappropriate content or missing pieces. The supervisor was also a volunteer and we were charmed by her kindness, enthusiasm, and consideration. The group ended its night with a fun night at Mongkok.

On the second day, we started the morning with more physical work—packing, weighing, categorizing, and recording information about the resources as well as cleaning the sheds. I was in charge of cleaning and weighing, recording, and also labeling the resources so it will be easier for shipment. The resources were all huge items such as furniture, and we struggled to weigh every one of them. However, disregarding all the sweating and harsh labor, we felt a great sense of gratification and accomplishment when we were done with our work. “We did something that can greatly benefit a great population,” said Stanley W., a member of Crossroads and participant of the trip, “It felt like we were changing the world bits by bits.”

In the afternoon, we participated in 2 simulations: blindness and AIDS. For the blindness simulation, we were each given a stick and were left in a complete dark room for an hour. We had to discover pathways and where different objects were placed. “It truly allowed me to understand the hardships and difficulties of the blind,” said Agnes, one of our coordinators, “but it also allowed me to understand the abilities of other senses and the capability of those who are blind.” For AIDS simulations, we were guided through the lives of different people who got aids from different causes. They were really touching yet very sad. The experiences genuinely allowed us to understand the importance of love and sympathy towards those who are unfortunate. The only way we can better help them is to put ourselves into their shoes.

The trip was a fantastic experience for all of the members who participated. We not only contributed greatly with distributing resources, but we also concluded with a genuine experience of the lives of the less fortunate and better understood their difficulties.