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Friday, 25 July 2008

last week ...

Today was our last day of class ... I am bad at keeping a blog. Actually, the Internet here has been somewhat sketch as well, there is only one computer in the church across the street from the school in which we teach. Yes, I am spoiled.
We are now in Fengyuan, which is a little bit outside of Taichung City. Our lodgings are pretty sweet. We are living in the home of one of the elders (where the elder is, we have no idea) but it's a four story house all to ourselves so we are in heaven.
We've been running English camp as usual this whole week. Since Kevin and Raymond left our team, Eva went back to the US, and Amber and Jema moved to Team C, we've been a little short on translators. So as a final resort, I was assigned my own class of fifth graders to teach, without a translator.
It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Some of the fifth graders who know more English are really helpful with moving class along, and I know enough (I think) Chinese that the learning of the English went okay. And what I've really enjoyed about having my own class without a translator is that now the kids actually have to pay attention to ME. They are so much quieter when they have to focus on what I'm saying and trying to figure it all out. It's also helped me get a lot closer to the kids, as well, because we both know that we're stuck with each other and have to make do with our poor language skills.
Plus, all the boys in my class like to play Big 2 (or, "da lao er") and I've been schooling them during our breaks. xP

Leaving for Taipei Sunday afternoon, spending less than a day in Taipei (shopping, duh), and then flying back home to the US on Monday!

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

let what we do in here fill the streets out there

It is now almost the end of our week here in Pinglin and I have to say we will all probably miss this place when we leave. It is a gorgeous area, right in the mountains. Although the only place in town with air conditioning is the 7-11 which is a good ten minute walk, it’s actually cooler up here so it hasn’t been too bad. And by “not bad” I mean we only need two showers a day instead of the normal three or four.

Our presence here has attracted a lot of attention here, not just because we are working with so many kids, but also because we demand it. In the afternoons we like to go down to the main town square and play worship songs at the top of our lungs. People looked at us like we were crazy the first day, but the second day they started asking when we would be back. I can’t imagine what they must be thinking about us crazy Americans. But it has opened a lot of doors in terms of meeting people; we have copies of our team leader’s testimony that we hand to everyone we meet.

There is also a woman who runs on the track by school every day, and she’s started talking to us. It turns out that she is one of the few Christians living in the area, and she has started to bring us breakfast every morning, to supplement the breakfast that the school already provides us. It has been amazing and we have been so blessed by the kindness of those who live here.

Leading the Music and Drama class has been a ton of fun, and I like being able to just focus on those activities and do them well for the day. A couple of boys in one of our classes asked one of our members Eva if I could teach them guitar, so I’ve been doing guitar sessions during their lunch period. It’s a lot of fun and they catch on quickly.

Friday is our big day where all of the classes have their presentations. I am currently trying to put those all together in each of our four classes. Both seventh grade classes are doing worship songs and the eighth grade classes are doing short skits, either about creation or about different Bible stories.

Pictures!

Me and my student Sara on the dodge ball court.

red gate at the church we were staying at in lucao, chia yi

gloria and i in taipei briefly before we left for pinglin

pinglin in the morning

view from the balcony of the school (our dorms are kind of near the buildings towards the right hand side)

school.

teapot at the main square ... pinglin is known for its tea.

Sunday, 13 July 2008

epic ...

we've arrived in Pingling, which is in the mountains outside of Taipei. We boarded a bus from Taipei and basically just kept climbing up the mountain on this crazy bus ride.
We're staying in a small dormitory at the corner of the junior high school in which we are teaching. And definitely ... this is missions. I feel like we were really spoiled in Chia Yi by the hospitality of the pastor and his family. Food and fresh fruit were constantly brought up for us, and everyone there was really intentional about spending time with us. Here, I'm not even sure if there's a church. Our main contact is a teacher here at the school that we don't know yet if she's Christian.
Pray for the well-being of our team. Our dorms consist of wooden bunk beds, no bedding pretty much. I didn't sleep at all last night, but surprisingly feel pretty good this morning. We'll see about tonight. One of the girls on our team, Amber, just arrived in Taiwan and has a cold, so pray for her health as well.
This week we decided to switch up our strategy, so we have four instructors who are teaching separate classes. I'll be doing music and drama, which should be ... interesting. We also have English Conversation, Sports and Games (character building, haha), and Life in America.

Our team this week is:
Pastor James Yu (PJ)
Jacob Yu
Jema Lin (team mom)
Amber Lin
Raymond Wang
Gloria Sun
Jon Liu
Kevin Chen
Eva Lee
and then Sharon Ma and Logan Shu should be arriving later today or tomorrow, i think.
Luckily there is an admin office that we can use sometimes in the school, so updates should be a little more consistent. I posted pictures of the first week on facebook, but I'll try to get some more up on this blog when I get internet back on my own laptop.

I miss you (all) incredibly and I hope life is good in the US (or wherever else you are).

love.
there are bugs everywhere!

Hey everyone!

Well, this blog is pretty much a bust since Internet over here is really spotty. We actually ended up being in a really rural place that didn’t have Internet, except for one corner of the community center that would come and go occasionally.

Our first week in Chia Yi is over, and we are currently on the bullet train to Taipei County. It was quite the experience. We had about 50 kids, ages preschool to 15. My class was composed of fourth and fifth graders, who were so adorable. I feel like they were probably the best behaved and the most fun, and we were all envied by the other classes and teachers, haha. My TA’s, John and Frances, were super helpful and I don’t think I could have run class without them.

It’s definitely weird dealing with this huge language barrier between the kids, but I love how they don’t really care if you don’t speak their language. They just love the fact that you spend time with them, and that you try to communicate. I can actually understand a little bit of what they say, and they’re very patient in trying to help me out. They were fascinated with my laptop, and one day during our breaks I ended up showing them my collection of videos on my computer. So, lots of basketball videos, like Loren and Ivann’s team (also, for some reason I have all these videos of Andrew and Jeremy playing against each other) and then lots of videos of Steve putting large amounts of food in his mouth.

They were also fascinated by my camera, and the last day I let one of the girls take it around and take pictures. It was so funny watching them try to capture each other on camera, and their true personalities really came out when they all started posing and stuff.

Getting ready for another week in another city with a slightly different team. Have come to love the people on my team. We lost most of our younger TA’s: John, Frances, and Hillary, as well as our resident mom, Grace Ah Yi. But most of the college kids are still here: Jon, Raymond, Kevin, as well as Gloria. And we will be gaining two more college kids, Logan and Sharon next week.

Until my next internet connection,

Wednesday, 02 July 2008

in taipei

Thanks for all the comments and prayers, guys!
Travel over here went VERY well ... I got through security, immigration, you name it, a lot faster than I thought I ever would. I met up with some people at LAX, and it was pretty cool; once we sat down at our gate and started talking about where we were from, other couples around us started popping their heads up and sharing about how they were Christian, too.

I had the most interesting flight over. I had the good fortune to be seated in a row where there was only two of us, me and this other 24-year old Taiwanese guy. As soon as I sat down the guy introduced himself to me as Andy and asked if he could just start talking to me. I quickly found out (through my superb detective skills, and also because he told me) that he was pretty much drunk and had been that way for the past week. It was incredible sitting there listening to him pour out his woes about his past 8 years in the United States and why his (somewhat tyrannical) father was jerking him back to Taiwan.
I spent the night in Shipai, a district of Taipei, and soon this morning we will be headed out to Taichung City. It's pretty hot and humid here, but not as hot and humid as I thought it would be. I remember last time I was here I had felt like I was swimming, but this time ... maybe i've just grown into it.
I've been stealing internet wherever I can, so ... until next time!