Chapter 20

Monday, November 2nd

It’s NOVEMBER…and the countdown is on! In two months my teaching contract is up and them I’m off to backpack throughout Asia…I’m so stoked! ….but yes, I’m going to miss my kids so so so so so much, and this probably isn’t the last time you’ll hear that.

Oh my goodness…New Jimmy (the little one I frequently talk about) has started this new thing—eating teacher! He is so crazy, ha. He came up to me today and said, “Oh teacher, papaya…um, um, um”…and then he proceeded to bite my stomach, playfully of course. He’s also the boy who told me today, “Teacher, you are so COOL!” ….and I didn’t even have to bribe him to say it—he did it all on his own.

I’m so surprised how fast the children are picking up English. I love when I hear the children say something that I haven’t necessarily taught them, but it’s something that they’ve heard me continually say. For example, the kids are always jumping up and down, wanting to play this, or eat that. Someone always has to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, grab their coat, blow their nose….the list goes on and on. Usually I’m being pulled every which way, so I’m always saying, “Hold on,” or “Wait just a minute.” Well, we were getting ready to play in the gym today and Sarah blurted out, “Teacher, hold on…wait,” as she took off her socks. Just a few months ago, she couldn’t speak any English. I know this is such a small example to share, but I just love seeing the children improve—it makes me feel as though I’m doing something good.

Tuesday, November 3rd

Hanna, Tabbi, and I had our second official Lady Business Meeting tonight—the planning of our trip is coming along rather nicely! Our friend Manti came over to hang out for a little bit. We haven’t seen him forever; he got a new job and we’ve all gotten awfully busy. Anyhow, Manti brought us some black, goopy soup-like stuff that was filled with tapioca pearls, some beans, and other mystery junk. Man, my description of this not-so-tasty treat is horrible, but yes, it wasn’t that great! We tried not to make him feel bad, so we just kept eating and eating, but once he left, the spoons were down. YUCK!

After Lady Business, we watched My Sister’s Keeper. Man, talk about a tear jerker. Seeing how this was Hanna’s second time watching the movie, she wasn’t in as bad a shape as Sarah and I—we couldn’t stop blubbering, so sad!

Wednesday, November 4th

Once again, I can’t recall anything significant for today—must have been a blur. We did find out that one of our students will not be coming back to Maryland for awhile; New Andy. He was an SPE, so he was with all the younger kids. He had some emotional problems; frequently he would shut down or have fits in class. Some days he would start throwing things, or jerk his body this way and that crawling his way into a small corner and not coming out until the end of class. His mom doesn’t think he’s ready to learn—he just wants to play, and so discipline didn’t quite work for him. Poor kid, maybe he’ll be able to come back when he’s older.

Thursday, November 5th

Well, I made my first student cry today; as much as I didn’t want it to happen, I knew it was bound to happen sometime, and that time was today. We were in gym playing dodgeball. More often than not, the kids go wild and they start chucking the ball as hard as they can. Tim threw the ball across the gym at lightening speed, nearly taking off Flora’s head—my first reaction was to shout to him that he couldn’t throw the ball that hard, he might hurt someone. I wasn’t trying to hurt him or single him out, because all of the kids get playing and don’t realize how rough they’re getting. …Tim started crying (he’s been an emotional basket case these days)…I felt so bad. I went over to consol him and just as I did, I heard a gasp from Kerry. Sure enough, he decked Flora in the face with the ball. Ha, Tim was crying, Flora was crying, Kerry was scared, and Candy just sat there wandering what I, the teacher, was going to do. Oh the joy of being a ‘gym’ teacher. These events occur all too often.

Sarah and I headed to Taichung after work tonight. Sister Dowse had told me about this ‘Dan Jones’ Experience—it’s basically initiation for the new missionaries when they first arrive in Taiwan. I had never heard of Dan Jones before, but he was a great pioneer and missionary. He accompanied Joseph and Hyrum to Carthage Jail and fulfilled Joseph’s last prophesy that Jones would be a missionary in Wales. Sure enough, after Joseph and Hyrum were killed, Brigham Young called Jones to England to serve a mission, with little success, after one year, he was moved to Wales. When Jones arrived in Wales, there were just over 200 Ladder Day Saints. With Jones’ leadership, in just three years, 1845-1848, 3600 people had been baptized. By the time Jones left Wales, there were 4645 saints in Wales—can you say, amazing!

To help the missionaries get over there fear of preaching the gospel here in Taiwan, each new missionary gets to experience the spirit of Dan Jones. All the missionaries rally together in a busy street in downtown Taichung. The night markets are always happening so the streets are crowded with people and vendors. The missionaries gather around singing hymns, after which, they set out two small wooden stools that have the words, DAN JONES, printed across them. Each missionary takes a turn standing on a box, Book of Mormon in hand, preaching what they know to be true. It’s the sweetest thing ever. They all take turns, stepping up and down, shouting their favorite scriptures or bearing their testimonies. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it’s the coolest. After each newbie steps off a box, they pair up with a more experienced missionary and walk throughout the crowds talking to people—you should see their excitement.

As Sarah and I were watching the whole event, one sister stepped up to the box and started preaching, she looked scared and she was shaking. She began to cry as she was speaking, and within one second, she suddenly fell off the Dan Jones box and straight to the ground. The crowd all gasped—no one knew what had just happened, and no one knew what to do. President and Sister Hoer came running to her, seeing whether she was okay. Apparently she has heart problems and had a seizure. She blacked-out and was down for the count. I felt so bad, she hit the ground hard—it was the scariest thing ever. She got a couple skinned elbows, and knees, but she seemed to be fine. The new senior missionaries, who will be replacing the Dowse’s, also were at the Dan Jones experience; Elder and Sister Greene from Rexburg, ID. They seem like a sweet couple, and it’ll be fun to get to know them.

What is it like to be an islander? Well, you sure get used to natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes. I can officially say I’ve been in a typhoon and, as of today, a ‘real-deal’ earthquake. It was 5:30 p.m. and my kids were just coming back to our classroom from library….all of the sudden, I felt a little dizzy and then the ground started to shake beneath me. I stopped for a moment, we’re having an earthquake, the shaking was getting worse and worse….I quickly told my students to get under their desks (I wasn’t sure what to do, but that’s what I remember being taught in school years ago). Then, in the blink of an eye, it was over…the desks stopped rattling and the shaking had stopped.

All of my kids were a little shaken, but for the most part, they were fine…they’re used to this kind of thing. Actually, we had nearly 20 earthquakes today; another big one hit Changua around 7:30 p.m. but I didn’t feel a thing because Sarah and I were in Taichung. The biggest earthquake today was a 7 on the Richter scale; however, we just felt a 5 in Changhua (so I hear). The earthquake today has been the biggest since 921, which was the Jiji earthquake—recorded at a 7.6. Ten years ago, when it hit, it killed 2,416 people, leaving 11,000 seriously injured. Luckily, there was no severe damage from any of today’s quakes. However, pretty sure Tabbi was terrified. All day she kept checking the internet for new quake updates. To put her at ease, us girls made an evacuation plan: if anything happens, we’ve decided to run, run, run….we live in a tall, skinny apartment building (maybe 20 stories, maybe more), so we don’t want to be crushed seeing how we live on the first, second, and third floors. We’ve decided to use the buddy system, Hanna’s got Tabbi and I have Sarah; our meeting place, the fruit market. Tabbi got Sarah and I a little freaked out so we slept with a little extra water and money near our bed, just in case we had to grab-and-go in the night. Tabbi put her computer under her pillow, sandwiched between two pillows. Oh we are sooo dramatic! Better safe……

Friday, November 6th

I think I mentioned that Tabbi is teaching my Friday 2A class for November—she’s making up hours for her time in America….well, may I just say the break from class has been wonderful. I’ve been able to catch up on lots of work that’s needed to get done. Thank you Tabbi!

So, I was in the teachers area grading some homework when munchkin Scott propped his rear-end right through the entrance way. “Ha, what are you doing Scott?” I asked laughing. He didn’t say a word…but he didn’t have to; he just started waving his hand back and forth over his tush, and quickly left the area. The little ‘fart’ was totally crop dusting me. I couldn’t believe it. If they’re not crop-dusting, then their picking their noses….there’s always a story.

McDonald’s—every child’s dream; every other month we get to take the ‘super students’ to McDonald’s. We play games, eat some greasy food, and crawl around in the jungle gym. It’s always a good time. Tabbi and I were in charge of the little ones this trip. We played Uno and had a blast! When the food came to our table, everyone started chowing down, but for some reason, Scott totally shut down and wouldn’t eat for anyone—and just two seconds earlier, he was starving! Not being able to fully communicate with Scott, Tabbi and I started calling out for a Chinese speaker. Penny, our secretary, came over to help us out. After a few minutes, Scott came to and started eating his meal. I asked Penny what was wrong and she just commented that Scott’s grandma never eats at McDonald’s so he wasn’t allowed to eat there either. He was so hungry, but he wanted to be obedient to his grandmother also; what a good little boy!

Saturday, November 7th

Alishan Day Trip! With the time we have left in Taiwan, us roomies are trying to hit those last spots that everyone has told us are must-see’s and must-do’s around the island. Ali Mountain is one of those places, but because of the typhoon a couple months ago, the main road and train have been washed out. Well, we had just found out that the road was fixed so we decided to make a day of it: me, Hanna, Sarah, Tabbi, and of course, our friend and secretary, Emily.

The best part about going to Ali Mountain is watching the sunrise in the morning, smelling the fresh air, and looking out over the valley that is covered with fog below. Well, the only way to see the sunrise is to catch the train; unfortunately the train still isn’t working. The government has set up a free shuttle service to restore tourism to the area, so we took advantage of it, but we still weren’t able to see the sunrise.

We got to Chiayi around 9:00 am to catch the shuttle. Our trip to the top of the mountain probably took us a full hour—it was a long, windy road….weaving back and forth and back and forth. Our driver was a nice young man…but an insanely crazy driver, as most Taiwanese are. He was weaving in and out of traffic like no body’s business. He’d sneak up on someone’s rear bumper, then glide to the side of them, passing just near a corner—I think he got a couple of squeals out of me and Tabbi when we saw cars coming straight for us. We kept telling him he was crazy, but he just kept responding in his Chinglish, “No, me, professional!”

At the top of Ali Mountain, there’s a fun, little alley way that we walked our way through. It was full of shops and eateries—all the wonderful touristy things. We were just sampling anything we got our fingers on. I felt as though I was at Bryce Canyon or some National Park lodge with all the wooden carved guns and cowboy hats we came across. Along our path, we also found our way to many tea farms, train tracks, and the like. I couldn’t believe how foggy everything was—we could hardly see 30 feet in front of us. Overall, the day was very relaxing and tranquil, just what I needed.

I don’t know how we got on the subject, but on our train ride home we started talking about all the ‘first’ things we want to do upon arriving in America. I know it’s just November, but the weeks fly by here, and time is winding down. Well, I’m pretty sure Café Rio and Pizza Factory made the list, not to mention, a haircut, color, and style—I’m in dire need mom!

Sunday, November 8th

You know, going to a church branch that has less than 30 people who attend regularly is always an interesting experience. Today the Greene’s came to our branch; along with the mission president and his wife….I can only imagine what they were thinking. First of all, we get a lot of visitors who come to our branch just to learn English. A second-time visitor stopped by today. Now, I don’t think this young lady had any idea what was going on. In sacrament she just kept asking me, “How long until a break?” Then in Sunday school it was the same thing over—relief society, the same. I kept telling her, “Just ten minutes,” or “Not too long,” but I could tell she was antsy.

Then we got to relief society…oh the story gets better. There were probably 10 sisters all together. Arwyn was conducting and I was presiding and also leading the music…we usually sing acapella because Tabbi’s the only musician in the branch, but she serves in young women’s. Well, word got out that Sister Greene is a beautiful pianist, so we convinced her to play the piano for us. Little did Sister Greene know, our piano isn’t exactly a grand, it’s one of those types that you can plug into the wall. You know the kind....it has tons of little buttons so you can change the tune to saxophone or folk. Sister Greene started to play The Spirit of God (or something like it), and some drums started busting a beat in the background, a little symbol chiming in here and there. We didn’t know how to turn it off, so we just went with it. I was trying hard to keep my composure throughout the song, and just when I thought I had myself put together; our young visitor friend pulled out her camera and started taking pictures of me as I was leading the music. I couldn’t keep it together, my rhythm was all off. I just kept chuckling to myself, looking at the mission president’s wife hoping she thought the whole thing was as funny to her as it was to me.