Taitung

It is not down in any map; true places never are. -Herman Melville

The train ride from Taipei to Taitung was about 5 or 6 hours, but the scenery was beautiful. We rode between two mountain ranges and then along the ocean, passing small towns in the mountains, and islands on the coast. I loved looking at the mountains. Covered with trees and rising up from the foundations of the earth, they looked ancient but welcoming. The ocean was breathtaking. I have not had too many sights of the ocean, only from an airplane, and once from a car in Vancouver I believe, so I was really excited to see the immense expanse of water.

On an unrelated, but still interesting note, before I left that morning, I did everything I could to find an ATM that would give me money. It was 5:30 on a Sunday morning, every bank was closed and I went to 10 ATMs and not a single one would give me service. So I left for Taitung with 300 NTD (about 9 dollars). I was a little concerned about that, but I have since corrected that issue. I was borrowing against Mrs. Kao for a while but I have found an ATM that works. I can’t believe I found an ATM in a small city in Southern Taiwan when I couldn’t find one in its capital. But I digress.

So I eventually got to Taitung train station and was picked up by Cash, whom I would later learn is one of the coolest women on the planet. But at this point, I knew nothing about her, only that she spoke a little bit of English and asked often if things were OK. She drove us to the house where we are staying where met the owner. She had a pretty good story. The owner of the place went to the School where we are volunteering when she was a child and it had such an impact on her that she wanted us to stay here free of charge. It was really very nice of her. But I didn’t know this at first, so it was a little intimidating to begin with. She spoke very little English, my room was small, and my mattress was little more than a bamboo mat with a sheet. At least there was air conditioning though.
We were supposed to have internet, but the wireless doesn’t work with our American computers for some reason. My bathroom and shower though, now that is a sight. My shower is a hose that connects to my sink about 2 feet away from the toilet in a 3x3 room. So as you can imagine, showering is a bit of a challenge, however, it inspires me to take quick showers. We also didn’t have towels the first couple of days, so we had to improvise a little. We have since rectified that. There is the bug issue though. There are enough bugs here that we need to put on bug spray before we go to sleep, but unfortunately we also found flea eggs on the sheets on the beds. Fortunately I have brought my own sheet and so I’m not using the sheets or blankets provided, but that leaves me with little to sleep with at night, so I don’t sleep too much really. Celeste has also been getting mysterious bug bites every night and we can’t figure out where they are coming from. I recently got a couple myself but I’m not too concerned. We are managing as best we can; after all, these are better accommodations than some of the places around here.

I started teaching at the school the next day. The school is actually pretty nice with a large air-conditioned classroom with desks, AV equipment and the like. The kids speak very little English but there are some really good students who are miles ahead of everyone else. All of the students at the school are from single parent families, whether it is because of the death of a parent, or one is in prison, or abandonment, or several other stories. Also about 50% of the kids are aboriginals and the other 50% are either native Taiwanese or Han Chinese each with their own social worker. Cash in fact works as a social worker for the TFCF, but I don’t know if she works with any of my kids.

I work from 9:00 am until 12:00pm teaching the kids English, using Free Rice to give them random vocabulary and help them donate rice to other needy children, and then we do several projects, or read stories and such. Usually we throw in a movie too since it lets them hear English in a more entertaining way. In the afternoons, I go out with the mobile library to the surrounding towns. It’s an amazing trip to get there we. We usually drive along the coast up the mountains until we get to a town.

On my first day out with the library I met two inspiring people, both of whom are aboriginals who help run the project. All of the villages we have visited have been aboriginal villages. Apparently the library can only make it out to each village once a month since they don’t have too much funding, but they make do with what they have. They pack books and tables and chairs into an ingeniously designed truck. Anyway, the two guys who do a lot of the work have really interesting stories too. The first one was in the military but left to become a social worker for aboriginal kids, taking a 50% pay cut. He has a great personality and an infectious laugh. The other guy is the son of the Chief of one of the tribes (the Paiwan tribe) and he teaches the kids traditional weavings. He showed Celeste and I on the first day, and we did our best to weave with him. It was cool, but extremely difficult.

The next day was fairly eventful. I met the director of the TFCF who is a really goofy guy, but cares deeply about his work and the kids. We talked about plans to raise money for future endeavors and projects that they are looking into. More memorable that day, and more influential on our subsequent days was Celeste’s accident. She tripped on a step outside of a Starbucks and hurt her ankle pretty badly, so she has been unable to walk well for much of the past week. Her leg is steadily getting better though after a few days rest and a trip to the local Eastern Medicine doctor’s office. That was really…different. There were posters on the walls explaining Chi flow as a cause of health issues in different parts of the body. The doctor put a salve of some sort on Celeste’s leg (which she described as the ultimate icy hot) and then bound it carefully. It was a fascinating place.

I also went to visit our landlord’s shop in town. It has everything you can imagine, though I don’t think any of it was made in Taiwan. It has merchandise from the US, India, France, Mongolia, Nepal, you name it, but I’ve yet to see any special Taiwanese merchandise. But the owners, our landlords, are incredibly nice. The husband, Sonny, was really excited to meet me, and actually spoke decent English. He was really into Jazz so we bonded over that, and he lent me a bunch of great CDs to load onto my computer.

I’m constantly busy, so I’m really appreciating this down time, despite the hundred-degree heat. I have done so much in such a short amount of time it makes me wonder why I waste so much time at home or at school. I like the work and keeping busy. It makes me appreciate relaxation far more.