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.
