So now that you know a little bit about me and about why I'm doing what I'm doing, I'll let you know about my first experiences in Taiwan so far.
If you have never travelled to Asia let me know just give you a little taste of it because it's 24-7 exposure to non-stop humour, and yet they aren't even trying to be funny! You will pretty much be confronted with many things that just don't make sense to much of the world but somehow makes sense to Asians. Take this for example:
Now to most people, a logical place to look for the telephone in hotel room would be on the desk, on a table or perhaps on the bedside table. So being the Canadian that I am, that's where I looked first when I arrived at my hotel in Tokyo. Little did I know that somehow making phone calls while you're on the toilet, brushing your teeth, or else taking a shower would be the best time and place when you're in Japan!
Other than the laugh that I got out of that, my trip to Taiwan was pleasant (I had serious favour with people wherever I went!) yet uneventful. I met up with Juanita, the director of Ray of Hope (ROH) at the airport in Taipei and we then took the high speed rail train to Taichung, where the annual Taiwan Missionary Fellowship conference was being held. This is a yearly event where all of the foreign missionaries get together to meet each other and share what we are all doing. We attended the evening service and since it was so late, some of the local Taichung missionaries boarded us for the night so we could attend the sessions the next day as well. Thank God because I was pretty tired after 2 days of travel! We stayed with Gloria and Clive (Gloria is an American whose parents were missionaries in Taiwan so she's lived here since she was 7. She is seriously my hero because she speaks fluent Mandarin!) Her husband Clive is an American born Taiwanese - they have 3 really cute kids and another one on the way. It was so nice to meet other missionaries and this couple were such great hosts.
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| Clive and Gloria, fellow missionaries in Taiwan and my lovely hosts in Taichung who treated me to my first of many lovely Taiwanese teas (this one is passionfruit)! |
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| Juanita, the director of Ray of Hope and Gloria |
I also got my first taste of Taiwanese food, Danbing, which is a type of omelette filled with your choice of ham, cheese, and veggies. Yum! This was a delicious start to my food journey in Taiwan but since then there has been a lot of other crazy food (see below!).
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| Danbing - The Taiwanese version of an omelette, and peanut butter toast! |
The conference was also where I got to meet little 6-week old Yuen, the baby in the picture in my last post. Her precious life was saved through Ray of Hope so meeting her was the most incredible way to start my missions work here!
From there we took the train south to Tainan, which is where ROH is located. For now I am staying on the 3rd floor of the ROH's Bedwell Mama's home. The 3rd floor has 6 individual bedrooms and then shared bathroom and showers, living room, and kitchen. It's a brand new building so it is really nice and it was totally the goodness of God that it was given to ROH. Essentially a man was so touched to hear about what the organization was doing to help women in need and so he decided to donate the building free of charge to ROH for 10 years - what a HUGE blessing!
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| I got the "Pink" room |
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| Our living room, which has the most comfy couch in the world! |
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| Our kitchen |
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| Our dining room |
My roommates here are two moms (post-delivery and post-adoption - for obvious reasons I won't be posting info or pictures of them but they are wonderful), one seminary intern named Isuz who is here until January, and two Bible college students Lupi and Yahan who are here for another two weeks. It has been so wonderful to get to know all of them and despite my limited Mandarin, it has been a fun, never-ending game of charades/pictionary/taboo! Since I never had sisters growing up, this has been a really fun experience and I feel like I have gained not just new friends, but new Mei-Meis ("little sisters" in Mandarin).
Other than that I've had tons of fun hanging out with the girls and meeting lots of new people including my roommates, the rest of the staff at ROH, other missionaries, and people from my new church. I'm getting to be a pro at riding on the back of a scooter as we navigate our way through the busy streets and am starting to familiarize myself with my surroundings. I spent a night teaching the interns how to bake and another night checking out one of the local night markets to try their local fare. The more I travel, the more courageous I get in trying new food. I can't say it's all good but I also can admit that some of it is actually good. So far my diet has included pig intestines, stinky tofu (the smell is absolutely horrendous but to my surprise it actually doesn't taste that bad), 1000 year old eggs, and chicken feet. Yes, chicken feet. I think I'm turning Taiwanese, I think I'm turning Taiwanese I really think so!
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| A lesson in baking cookies |
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| Isuz, strumming along as she sings one her native tribal songs with her beautiful voice! |
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| Delving into a plate of stinky tofu |
So far I am liking Taiwan other than the fact that it is REALLY hot!!! I checked The Weather Network today and it said that it was 36 degrees but that it "feels like" 47 degrees. Are you kidding me? All I can say is thank God for air conditioning because as much as I love sitting in a pool of my own sweat, I would rather not! If you ever wish that you had warmer weather in Canada, you can check out the weather in Taiwan here
Culturally, Taiwan hasn't been too much of an adjustment from China, Korea, or Japan in that no matter where I go, I will always still encounter multitudes of Hello Kitty! This was just a little welcoming gift from one of the staff at ROH - a Hello Kitty towel and face cloth :)
Getting settled into my environment and the new culture is only the first part of my adjustment - the next part is learning all about the work that I will be doing here for the next three months. Check out the next post and I'll share a bit more about Ray of Hope and the difference it is making in Taiwan.
Love you all and miss you!!
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