Global Citizens Walking Together

Dear Readers,

Our family is really enjoying the challenges of living abroad, learning to communicate and learning to appreciate our differences.  But we also have our moments of exhaustion and discouragement when things don't go smoothly.  At these times we tend toward homesickness and a perception that "home" in the US would be much better.  Knowing that we can't go home however also gives us reason to persevere.  We are thankful for your support and encouragement and we are ever grateful for people here who have taken us into their hearts and lives to make us feel comfortable.

You have already read about some of these folks - my colleagues at school, our church friends and the relatives that have come to see us from afar.  In this month we are thankful for this warm welcome and hospitality.

Earlier this year we were guests in two other countries, Guatemala and El Salvador.  The three of us traveled with the Sister Parish board experiencing welcome and loving care from our friends there working for justice and peace in their corner of the world.

This weekend marks the annual meeting of our Sister Parish board in the US.  Although I remain president in name, I am not resident, and therefore unable to join my colleagues in our annual Walk in Solidarity.

Here's a clip from the beginning of my Walk in Solidarity 2013 - a crowd of supporters leaving the High Court House in Guatemala City after the genocide case against Efrian Rios Mont was suspended on April 19th.  Mayan people from the Ixil triangle led an impromptu march proclaiming the right to truth and the end to impunity of former President Rios Mont.  It was a remarkable day and left a deep impression.  Here you will see Sister Parish delegates, David Martin and Vicki Schmidt from Fargo, ND, Sarah and Mark Jerde from Rochester, MN, Rick Nelson and Nancy Weins from St. Paul, MN and Linda Williams from Danville, CA all walking as we took over a main street artery in downtown Guatemala City.

I will continue my 2013 walk in solidarity this weekend in Taiwan.  It is definitely time for us to come together internationally to address many injustices and imbalances in our social structures, our economic disparity and our environmental degradation.  As news emerges from the Philippines about the "largest typhoon in recorded history", I am asking myself, what can I do better?  And the answer is clear that it cannot be me alone, but me, my family, my church, my school and our wide network of Sister Parish churches working in solidarity to make the world better.

Please walk with us this weekend for our 25th Anniversary celebration.  And if you unable to walk, you are welcome to contribute to my walk fundraiser at http://www.razoo.com/story/25th-Anniversary-Walk.  Click the link or copy and paste it into your browser.

Many, many thanks!

Greg

A Most Frightening Halloween!

On thursday we had a very surprising earthquake.  I thought it was our washing machine bumping around.    The washing machine was going when the earthquake started.  

My mom told me to stand in the doorway of our bathroom.
 I got really really dizzy after the earthquake.  There are many earthquakes in Taiwan so 
the buildings in Taiwan are built so that earthquakes can not do any damage.  

Camping with Apple and Connie

 This weekend we went camping, 露營 with Apple and Connie in Taizhong 台中.  Their mom, Wei, is  my dad's colleague.    We camped near a waterfall.  We went and swam in it.  Some people were catching fish.  

We played with my play dough too.  We made fireworks 煙花.  We had fun. 

Apple and Soleil 

    

My Grandpa came to visit

My Grandpa came to visit us in Hsinchu.  He taught me the dance Electric Slide and Zorba the Greek.  Today we went to a bike event.  We rode to New Moon Beach.  We went through a very long tunnel.  I got a free YELLOW HELMET!

Ken rides like the wind!

 

Soleil leads the way!

Victory!  11 km in the Windy City

Hakka Haven

Beipu is home away from home for the Hakka people of Taiwan.  The Hakka (or Kejia  客家) people are an ethnic group that migrated to Taiwan from Canton in southern China a while back (perhaps a couple hundred years ago).  Kejia, means "guest families", and is a name given to them by the native hosts.

Carrying with them a culture distinct from the people of the places where they've immigrate,  they held strongly to their language, food and religious practices.  One way they maintained their own ways was to live in a "round house" community together with other Hakka with a central plaza area for markets, temples and other communal events.  Just down the street from us in Zhubei is a Hakka Cultural Center designed like the traditional round houses.  Soleil's new elementary school, Dongxing (Eastern Happiness) Elementary 東興國小 also appears to be designed with classrooms in a semicircular building around a central playground area.

 Last weekend we took a trip with our good friends Louis and Yingying to a Hakka community called Beipu（North Port) 北埔.  Because of weather reports warning of possible landfall of a large typhoon, the streets of this popular weekend destination were not too crowded.  Outside the main temple we were treated to samples of local products like fresh almond milk and ripe persimmon.  

 

Louis and YingYing also treated us to a lovely lunch around a wooden table in a family style Hakka Diner, with agricultural antiques on the walls.  It felt like my favorite truck-stop restaurants back home in Iowa!

Rain Gear for the orchards and fields

Louis, YingYing (Hana) and the irons of Beipu

The weekend we visited was a long weekend thanks to Mid-Autumn Festival.  And an impending typhoon kept the crowds away so we walked around in relative freedom from tourists.  The town however was clearly there to receive more of us as the sale tables were set up outside every store vending consumable goods of all sorts - fresh persimmons, dried persimmons, mochi rice balls, clothes of both old and new fashions, tasty peanuts in a bag, as well as sweet potato or taro biscuits.  We got some of each.

The visit also included a stop by the town temple where the girls were treated to mango and strawberry ice creams respectively.  Then we all walked through the back alleys, called "Ding Dong roads", because the uneven paving stones make a sound as you walk over them.  This is an alarm system developed to alert anyone of an intruder in the dark.  

The girls make cootie catchers on the temple steps.

Temple roofs from the courtyard center.

The small back walk ways led us finally to a quite little tea shop called "The Old Well" where we ground and drank traditional Hakka tea.  This tea usually includes peanuts, sesames and tea ground into a powder and then served like instant coffee from a communal teapot.  

Jenny grinds "Leicha" - traditional Hakka Tea

Bean gladly takes a turn

We left Beipu before any typhoon rains arrived and landed at home pleasantly exhausted from a great outing and great conversations.  Louis told us about his Malaysian origins and how he ended up in Taiwan, and YingYing revealed herself to be a House On the Prairie fanatic.  She has the set of books in Chinese, English and Japanese at home!  We invited her to the Burr Oak museum near Decorah, Iowa next trip she can make to the US.  She was thrilled by the idea.

While Kejia people are traditionally though of as "guests" wherever they go, they make pretty good hosts as well. Thanks y'all!

Big Pears

We have had some nice visits with relatives recently. My cousin's son Kenny came with his girlfriend a few days ago. He lives in Hong Kong and works in Dongguan, China. Yesterday my cousin Ming (Kenny's uncle) and his wife Chou came. They recently moved back to Taiwan after many years in New York state. Within minutes, my dad (Ming's uncle) arrived. He has been visiting relatives in mainland China. We went out to a hot pot dinner at a nearby restaurant. 

I have to show you these really big pears that Cousin Ming and Chou brought. They are nearly as big as Soleil's head. They are crispy juicy Asian pears.

Find your statue - Find your home

Jhubei 竹北 (Bamboo North), the district of Hsinchu County where we live, is newly rising.  Many locals have told us that it was nothing but rice fields about 10 years ago.  But it's full of development mode now, booming with high rise residences.  Perhaps because it sits between the High Speed Railway station and the Science Park district where high tech engineers work, it has become a hotspot for real estate growth.  Several people have expressed concern that the boom may bust, but so far the only direction things are going is UP!  

Unless you're willing to crane your neck to the skyline you might find it difficult to locate your new home in our neighborhood, as walls of granite transitioning to sandstone and then to marble along the uneven sidewalk pavers.  Addresses don't really help since the streets seem to have all the same name with different numbers:  LiouJia 1st Rd. through LiouJia 7th Rd. were laid out in a hurry as construction companies moved in.

Fortunately, an agreement must have been made among the developers to create a symbolic sense of community for each residence.  Modern abstract sculptures stand outside almost every doorway helping to identify home for the Whale Tale occupants or for Mr. Half Smiles residents, just down the street.

In the next two photos Mr. Half Smiles gazes mockingly at Pregnant Woman Begs for Mercy (or from another angle perhaps Backaches and Babies).  Here you have a choice whether you want to be greeted with agonizing pessimism or whimsical optimism at the end of your work day.

Clumsy Herons After a Long Flight or Cranes Have No Shoulder to Cry On:  Gives the appearance that this apartment complex welcomes all Romans still living in Taiwan.

Trying to outdo neighbors and still remain tragically aloof, this sculpture not only apparently got stuck to another sculpture meant for another building but then the artist (or perhaps the developer) thought it best to clarify this mess with a second statue just inside the door (see the yellow figure 8 inside).  Of course the Infinite Helix statue calling from beyond the Twisted Wreck, suggests that this gated community has much more inside than you could possibly enjoy on the outside.  I wouldn't know, I've never gone in.

  

Just around the corner you can find a pair of sculptures face to face like Zax in their tracks.  Standing as if to avoid acknowledging the presence of the other, White Marble Pants with Nobody Inside Them and Who Stole My Worm Fossil?!  stand guard on their respective corners.

  

  

Although our building is quite new and not yet filled to capacity, two new towers on either side of us are going up with more apartments to sell.  Scattered between the towers are showroom buildings for prospective buyers.  

Just down the street is one such show space with a large lawn dotted with a strange and fantastic collection of creatures.  A WWII era black Mercedes (or perhaps merely the statue of one), flanked by a white unicorn.  Across the lawn standing alone as if shunned by its monochromatic lawnmates is a pig in a coat of many colors.  Some of the attributes of said pig (such as it's coloring) suggest it may be some other creature of unknown origin.  None the less, this motley crew is there to sell you, your new home in Zhubei - a wonderland of opportunity and impossible odds.

At long last, like Harold with his purple crayon finally locating his bedroom window by drawing it around the moon.,. we come upon Twister Man, a squared off mod version of the Greek discus thrower, who seems to be gesturing toward the heavens above the Legoland tower where we live.  We are home -- at the corner of Jiasheng 6th Street Section 2 and LiouJia 5th Road Section 1, Bamboo North.