Aboriginal people of Taiwan

There are the beginnings of some sense of routine here; not everything is new and startling. we were driving home the other day, not thinking about where we were and turned on the radio. They were speaking Chinese on all the stations! Oh, we're not in Kansas anymore?

McKinley's school is in a village of about 800 on the outskirts of Taitung. One day each week a special teacher comes to the school to teach the local aboriginal language which is only spoken in this village and one other small village in the mountains. It's a beautiful language that sounds more Polynesian than Chinese. This aboriginal teacher took us for a walk through the village after school one day. There is a wonderful mix of some very nicely cared for houses and beautiful aboriginal crafts, and then mostly very poor shacks and trash in the street. Everyone is in the street and so friendly.

Well, it turns out we can't be married in Taiwan, since we are already married in the US. We'd have to get divorced first and we don't want to do that. But we've almost solved the problem. Thanks to Colleen Haag at the Shelburne Town Office, we're getting McKinley's birth certificate reissued with the correct name on it and the county records will reissue our marriage license with the correct name on it. Hopefully then, the Taiwanese government will be happy that all is in order.

It was "Teacher's Day" in Taiwan last Wednesday; not a school holiday, but there was a dinner party for teachers. It was a wonderful Chinese buffet and lots of alcohol. McKinley and Alison were invited, so we could excuse ourself before people got to drunk.

Moon Festival

This weekend was "Moon Festival" It's the second biggest holiday of the year after Chinese New Year. The main event seems to be gathering with family and friends to watch the moon rise and eating moon cakes. We got tired of these real fast; unfortunately everyone gives these as gifts. Unfortunately we ended up throwing away several dozen, but we had had our fill. We sat on the beach and watched the full moon rise over the Pacific; it was spectacular.
So we're trying to figure out the rules of etiquette. People seem very forgiving; we hope we haven't offended anyone to badly. We 've been told that the a rule of thumb is; first comes relationships (who you know), then courtesy, then the law. Clearly laws are not taken very seriously, although the bureaucracy is incredible. So driving is interesting. We bought a car from our landlord (nothing exciting, but the AC works, that was most important) and we've been maneuvering about the city without too much trouble, though often startled by the driving habits. Another foreigner we met told us about buying a car and the rear view mirror was missing. So he asked the seller about it and was told, "Don't worry about it, nobody uses those here anyway!" And it's true, the rule is; The person is front has the right of way. So other drivers will pull in front of you without even looking. They're not rude about it and the speed is reasonable (apparently it's very mild here compared to Taipei) and we haven't witnessed any accidents, it's just will take some time to adjust. I need to ask if it is legal to turn on a red light, but then it seems that many people think it is legal to go straight on a red light. Unlike Japan, there are not many bicycles on the streets here, but it's crowded with motor-scooters; and they have little regard for the direction or flow of traffic.
The school lunches are fabulous, but until now it wasn't that great for McKinley as she is a vegetarian and most of the meals have meat. We didn't want to make an issue about it because we're trying to help McKinley not stand out any more than she already does. Then we learned that the school cook is not only wonderfully friendly but she is a vegetarian herself. She cooks with meat because it is her job, but she also prepares a meatless alternative for herself and was very glad to share it with McKinley. It's amazing how things work out.
It's hard not to compare our experience with our time in Japan ten years ago. In terms of teaching English, it's easier here because the Chinese are much less concerned about making mistakes. It often seemed to me that the Japanese culture enforced the idea that one should do something perfectly or not at all. With that attitude, it's almost impossible to learn to speak a second language and this was reflected in their ability after six years of daily English study in school; most Japanese couldn't have a very basic conversation. Here there's much more English ability and the students are more able to interact. On the other hand, the Japanese were always so impressed and complimentary of our attempts to learn and speak their language. Here the response is different. We're enjoying trying to learn Chinese, but unfortunately, because of the tonal nature of Chinese in which every basic sound can have multiple meanings, it's been somewhat frustrating. I guess it's very funny to listen to us, since the slightest variation of tone will result in a completely different meaning. A word can have multiple meanings depending on if it is spoken with a rising tone, falling tone, high flat tone, or falling-rising tone.

Moon Festival

It is a national holiday -- the full moon of September. From what we hear, everyone goes back to their family home and has a barbecue. We heard about Taimali, a village high in the mountains that grows day lilies for people to use in cooking. It didn't take long to get to the turn off, straight down the highway. But then we took the road into the mountains. It curled like a sidewinder, narrow and steep, and cars rocketed down the other direction, not wanting to waste too much brakepad. Fortunately there were mirrors at all the sharpest bends so you could see what was coming.
At the top, we found hillsides of lilies and bamboo. We had our picnic, 85 dumplings (round and white for the moon) and went walking. We were in the clouds, but the wind blew them away once in a while, and we could see straight down the mountain to the shore, where the sea was a pallet of blues, and the city we live in was a spread of white in the distance.
We were with friends, two American boys who have lived here their whole life, Raymond and Brian. Late in the afternoon, we brought them back to where their parents are building a beach house. We played in the sea and waited for the moon to rise. Just as it grew dark, a large Chinese lantern, glued together out of tissue paper, landed on the beach. It just needed a little fire in its belly to fly again, so we set to work, rigging up a frame that could hold flame without burning the tissue.
The moon rose, splendid in a frame of clouds.

A runaway paper lantern landed on the beach, so we attempted a re-launch. 

The moon rose. It's bad luck to point at the full moon on Moon Festival night -- your ears fall off. It is incredibly hard not to point, when it is so lovely!  

waiting for moonrise... 

The swimsuit was in the car, but why bother? 

So many kinds of palm trees. This one grows like a fern, all hairy and soft before it leafs out. 

McKinley and her American friends Raymond and Brian climbing a mountain of daylilies. The Taiwanese dry the buds and use them in stir-fry. 

view from the top of Taimali. That's Taitung in the distance, the little spread of white (concrete) houses. 

Puppets, shoes, candles, costumes, at a traditional crafts museum, a cross between Shelburne Museum and Disneyland without the rides! 

Imperial McKinley, always ready to be the Queen! 

At the national art museum. A pillow, carved marble, fit for an emperor. 

Want to read about Anika playing Vivaldi in Venice? Go to her blog and see how she's doing -- www.voyageofchange.blogspot.com 

The uniform for days when we have gym. Boys wear light blue, girls get to wear orange! 

What to do when you can't understand a word in the class? Read Philip Pullman, of course. 

School lunch. KayKay makes a healthy lunch for a hundred; students bring their own dishes and wash them at home. Fortunately, KayKay is vegetarian, so she makes a little extra for McKinley. 

Going home past the temple, leaving the schoolyard of Shin Yuen. 

Funeral Float

There are certain places where it would be good to go to die. New Orleans was one of the best, a parade of jazz music, dancing mourners. Or to have been a Viking, and go down in flames in your handcrafted boat. But it turns out that Taiwan is another splendid spot.

Today I looked out and saw a mini-blue farm pickup completely covered with a framework and plywood. It looked like a little kid crawling around wearing a cardboard box. The plywood was plastered with thousands of tiny yellow paper flowers. I thought it was the beginning of a parade, or a political float, or something advertising a new kindergarten… but it was a hearse. A heavenly, sunshine-filled hearse.

Why on earth do we do black?

Address at last

This is our address at last. We get mail in a little mail slot in our red metal gate.

65 Shang, 26 Hou
Han Yang Nan Lou
950 Taitung-City
Taiwan, ROC

Joplin, Alison and McKinley James

Thank you for all your wonderful friendships!!!

First Impressions Series: 7

Smells. Would that we could capture them, like a sound or a picture. Perhaps because smell is virtually indescribale, is why the sense of smell is so vivid, and so instantly able to call back memories.
The jagged edge of outdoor smoke; the waft of fruit orchards; the golden tone of Asia.
We walked out into the hallway of our 5-star hotel in Taipei our first morning here, and were met with a smell. It was like shifting universes, from the ubiquitous hotel room, to the smell of Asia. It was the air, not a cleanser, not a flower, but the air. Like the light in Provence, like the scent of NYC: hotdogs and pretzels and chestnuts and street steam, the air here is distinctly unique.

First Impressions Series: 5

Dust. When a house lies empty here, it fills with dust. The waves crash over the sand, releasing volcanic dust. Neighbors burn stuff, filling the air with dust, cars are not too clean... The dust is a powerful presence. It layers like finely packed snow, so that by six months of being empty, our house was covered with a thin gray film.
We spent $5000 ($160) for house cleaners to come in and scrub for 12 hours. When they left, we still had to mop the floor four more times before we didn't leave dirty footprints over everything.
They missed the insidious powdery white mold that falls to the floor like flour. It grows under the edge of the counter in the kitchen, and inside the drawers. Any suggestions for killing the spores welcome.

First Impressions Series: 6

Dogs. We saw one cat, but here there are dogs. We haven't seen a single leash. Perhaps those go with countries who value pure bred puppies. The gene pool here is certainly not racist!
We did see a lovely pale golden retriever, groomed and obedient, running with her 20-something owner out for a jog. But the majority are skinny, dirty dogs, many wild looking, though some with collars are kept in cages at night. They seem to be mostly a theft deterrent, an alarm system, more than beloved pets. We know feeding time in our neighborhood -- the baying of dogs is as loud as the bells in Florence.

First Impressions Series: 4

To be real here, you have to have a name stamp.It's a carved peg that displays your Chinese name. Joplin's name is phonetically, Jo-po-lin, meaning in part, quiet forest. Alison is Ai-li-sen, meaning in part, jasmine love. McKinley is Ching Lien, Ching is a dragonfly, and Lien is on her birth certificate as a middle name -- it's lotus blossom, pronounced Wren in English.
Now at the cell-phone shop, they have 5-minute stamps. You tell them the characters, and they dial in the font. The computer displays what it would look like with an ancient looking pictoral font, or a graceful brush-stroke. There are 30 or 40 choices.
You pick the right one -- we went for ones that we would actually be able to read -- and zing, zing, they have a digital machine carve out the wood or plastic.
Add a little red-orange ink paste, and we're set to open a bank account.

First Impression Series: 3

We were hungry, and fortunately with Christina, who informed us that we were parked conveniently right in front of a noodle shop.
This is how it works:
Take a basket, and fill it with goodies: fried tofu, chopped squid, sliced greens (like boc choy) powdered pork -- and other choices I couldn't identify. The lady and her two daughters work swiftly over a steaming vat set into the counter. She tosses in thick white noodles and swirls their basket through the boiling water. Then she pours them into a bowl and heats up the goodies for a moment. She adds spices to the broth, and voila, there's your noodle soup.
Her daughter was hipster cool, wearing low-cut jeans with a wide belt, and a tight short t-shirt saying "Minnie is the best friend of Micky." It was hot, as hot as a steambath sauna, well over 100, but just beyond their cook station that was open to the street, they had a heavily air-conditioned dining room which poured artic air over us every time the door was opened.
The noodles were fantastic, and cheap. Less than $1 for a bowl. They have great respect for vegetarians, which is such a relief.

First Impression Series: 2

The traffic is light. Scooters by the dozens, and cars by the threes. It's a good thing, because what laws there might be, like 'stop at a red light' are not ... um ... always honored. Like, if the light is going to turn green in the relatively near future, and if it looks as if no cars are coming, or at least not for a moment, then it is perfectly okay to go through the red light. I was stopped at a light, and the annoyed driver behind me just zoomed around and blew through it. It means that at green lights, the defensive driver needs to understand that red is merely a suggestion to some people.

First Impression Series 1

The mountains rise out of nowhere.
Well, not nowhere, but streets lined with vertical Chinese signs like a giant roulette wheel, then a gap between storefronts reveals a forest rising 1000.' Near the top is an intricate, curling red pagoda with dragons resting on the roof.
I exclaimed about it to my Chinese friend, Christina, and she said, "yeah, it's a temple," the way I would say, "yeah, it's a church." No biggie.
But as the white steeple set in a maple golden valley in Vermont in October is extraordinary, so is the red temple perched on the edge of a mountain in the middle of Taitung.

Katrina

To my brother, and my dear friend Whitney Stewart, and all the other millions of people affected by the devastating hurricane, our hearts go out. It is hard to even concieve, or believe in the total destruction. We live so periously on the edge of this earth.

Hike photos

We're finally able to add images, so here are two pictures from the hike in Taipei.

Money

This is a place where I say to my kid, "Sure, take $100 and go for a walk." She came back with a bottle of fresh orange juice and a yogurt. The exchange rate is 31 to the dollar, but the money is called dollars here too, so it is a bit overwhelming at times. Especially when you have to buy a car... with cash.

Some of our first week's expenses:

Air Conditioners $10000 for 2, $22000 for 2 (total US$ 2000)
Car (14 year old Nissan Sentra with 149,ooo km) $50,000 ($1600)
Hot water heater and gas stove hood, installed $10,000 ($300)
Cleaning the house $5000 ($150)
Tiny rice cooker $240 (a deal!!! only $8)

Burning Money

We arrived in Taiwan during ghost month -- it is a time to honor ancestors, not your own, but those who have died without relatives to remember them. If you respect the lonely dead, they won't come and haunt you for the rest of the year. Instead, they will bless you with good luck and fortune.
How do you pay your respects? You set up shrines of delicious food, rice and fruits and flowers, and you light a fire and all day long, toss in bundles of money. This money is printed, pink with golden foil, on manila paper, and we've seen whole store fronts just selling stacks of money. Here's McKinley getting her one-cent in!