Probably one of the biggest parental fears with international travel is the sick child who needs medical care. If you've ever wondered what that sort of situation might look like, here is OUR story.
It's started the same way it mostly starts back in the States - sick friends. Our friend, Sophia, was sick on her trip with us to Baby Boss. And she still wasn't better by the time we saw them on Sunday. She was on meds to bring her fever down, however, so she had the strength and energy to play, and we tried to keep her away from the kids and limit our exposure to her.
I think it wasn't enough. The day after playing with Sammi, Sofia, and Alan for the last time, Eloise woke up with a head-ache and threw-up in the morning. Most disappointingly, this cancelled the return trip to Yingge with JJ and Mabel to eat at the century old home on Old Street. (This loss took me a while to get over. I was SO looking forward to this experience. It was going to be one of the last fun things we did. And I was anticipating it would also be one of the coolest.)
Blessedly, by the same afternoon, Eloise felt much better and didn't have further spewing episodes. (Making me all the sorrier our plans had been cancelled. STILL getting over it.)
So I was anxious that Eloise's bug would spread to the rest of the family in our final week. Actually, I'm not sure Eloise caught anything from Sofia at all. In fact I think it was Arthur who did.
Sofia wound up staying three days in the hospital beginning right after we saw them on Sunday. I don't think hospital stays are as big a deal in Taiwan as they are in the States, but she proved to have a pretty ferocious fever. And by Wednesday, so did Arthur.
His lasted all day. At some point, I gave him the baby ibuprofen we had traveled with. This helped somewhat, but he didn't seem fully himself.
That night I told Q I would trade beds with Kai so I could keep an eye on Arthur throughout the evening. I gave him a final dose of ibuprofen at 8pm, and we all went to bed.
Sure enough, around midnight I woke up to Arthur calling for me. Our room was somewhat dark (though I'd left a light on fearing he would also need to throw-up) so I reached down and felt his hand. It was outstretched and shaking. I rolled nearer the edge of the bed and rubbed his back, but he continued to call to me as if he wasn't aware of my presence.
So I got on the floor with him and held him in my arms. His little body was on fire, and most disturbing of all, he continued to reach up, shaking and trembling, and call for me to hold him though he was already in my arms. I didn't know what to do, but I was scared and felt I needed to cool him off as fast as possible.
I took his shirt off and began pacing the apartment to circulate air around him. I'd been wanting to give him a warm sponge bath earlier, but didn't have any washcloths so I didn't. Now I found a shirt of his I'd put in a pile of things to discard in Taiwan, ran lukewarm water over it, and sponged his head, neck and back. He'd become aware that I was holding him, taking care of him, and he began responding, though without any energy.
And I was tired. We went out to the couch and I laid him down on it to rest my arms. He lay there and seemed to go back to sleep. As I wondered what to do next, Arthur called out to me again. Laying on the couch, perfectly safe, he seemed terrified and told me he was "falling upside down."
I picked him up again, paced, sponged, and went in to wake Q. "We need to talk about what to do," I told him. He could see Arthur in my arms and quickly got out of bed and came into the living room. Though it was past midnight and how to get to the hospital, and what would happen once we got there were ALL big unknowns, when I described what I had been dealing with, Q was fully on-board with going. He said he was surprised I was hesitating at all.
I didn't know Arthur was feeling up to the "smile" above,
but I was relieved to see his face in this first pic when
all I had said was, "I'm going to take a picture.
He readied our bags with food (we thought we might be admitted because we knew Sofia had been), passports, and other essentials, while I ran down the hill to the security house to ask them to call us a cab. They said one would come in just 3 minutes and I responded that we would be ready and ran back up the hill to make sure we were.
One of the challenges we faced was that we were down to our very last bit of cash. Blessedly, we'd already been inside the hospital, so it wasn't completely unfamiliar, and we were confident we would get good care. But we knew none of the ATMs liked our card. We DID have enough cash for the cab, and figured we would cross the money bridge later.
The cab driver was VERY fast. I didn't go into any great detail about our needs - I figured to anyone paying attention, a foreign family heading to the hospital at almost 1 AM said enough. As we waited for a green light to turn onto the main road to the hospital, an ambulance passed. Our cab was so fast we caught up to it and would have arrived at the same time were we not cut off by another red at the turn into the parking lot.
Inside, the staff quickly established that we were cash pay and we waited maybe 5 minutes to register by giving them Arthur's passport. We were then taken back, Arthur's temperature was taken (101.5F) and his weight noted, and we got in to the doctor who was able to see us right away. The doctors in Taiwan study medicine in source-language, meaning English is the FIRST language of their medicine. So in English, we visited with the doctor about how long he had been sick for (the whole day), what we'd done (given him ibuprofen) and his other symptoms (none). I told them about the shaking and disconnect with his body Arthur had experienced just an hour earlier. The doc asked more about that, but most of his questions I wasn't able to answer because of the darkness of the room Arthur and I were in.
The face he pulled for this second pic was a "tender mercy"
for my mother heart. I knew if he felt well enough to
pull a face, his full recovery couldn't be far off.
The doc examined Arthur by looking in his ears, throat, and feeling his glands. He had Arthur squeeze his hands. Through all of this Arthur was a champ. When he wasn't being talked to, he rested in my arms, but was responsive and unafraid to interact with the doctor. He even made a few funny observations which I don't now remember, but they were definitely tender mercies calming my panicky mother-heart and helping me to feel he would be alright.
The doc said he found a slight infection in Arthur's throat, and that the fever was likely due to this. However, since he didn't exhibit other symptoms of a cold, he said he would prescribe cold medicine we could take if we needed, but for the fever, prescribed ibuprofen (which we already had) and acetaminophen. (This thrilled me! It was, in fact, all that I had wanted in the first place, but at the hour I needed it, IF a store that sold it existed, I had no idea where or how to find it, and doubted it would be open anyway.)
After the diagnosis, Arthur and I waited for the meds to be prepared and Q went on the hike to the 7-11 behind the hospital for more cash. In the end, it turns out he didn't need it. The total we payed the hospital was under $1,000 kuai - less than $30 for the emergency room visit AND 3 medications. AND it took less than 30 minutes! The hospital called us another cab and we were back home fast.
Leaving all the other kids at home had been an unsettling thing. Before we left, Q had awaken Kai to tell him where we were going in case there were issues. I told Q that if we were admitted, or there for a long time (our experiences in stateside emergency rooms and instacares have taken hours) we could call Mabel in the morning to come be with the kids. (I felt blessed and comforted that this seemed an option. It is difficult to find people in Taiwan who don't work or who don't have little kids for whom contagion would be an issue.) Anyway, the kids were sound asleep when we got back around 1:30 am, and in fact, in the morning Kai did not remember Q waking him up and was surprised to learn Arthur had been to the hospital.
Getting out into the cool night air had also seemed to help Arthur. When we got back to the apartment and went to give him his first dose of acetaminophen, we couldn't find the dosage! I got online and Q and I spent some time trying to do the math to convert Stew's weight into kilograms and teaspoons into milliliters. NOT fun with a 1:30 am brain! Exhausted physically and mentally from the effort, I thought to myself that it was a CRAZY oversight to not provide that with the prescription, and hunted on the instructions again for the "mL." On this second try, though I didn't find the "mL" I DID find that he was supposed to take 7 CC's. For the life of us, neither Q nor I could figure out what CC's was an abbreviation for, but we again googled a conversion for the CC's prescribed to the mL measuring cup and discovered they were the same! CC, or cubic centimeters, are the same as mL! A good thing to know!
Arthur took the meds. In general, he is not a fan of syrup medicine, but tolerated this one as he had the others. I promised him the medicine would help him feel better and not be so hot. Within about 20-30 minutes my promise came true and he slept comfortably until about 6 am, when I was able to give him another dose of ibuprofen before he got to emergency heat. All the following day we staggered the meds every 4-6 hours and Stew's strength and energy came back, comforting me further, though I could tell he was not well.
And we were down to the last few hours in Taiwan. I felt so blessed that in all of our sicknesses, I had kept our time incredibly open. We didn't have to cancel anything but the dinner on Monday. We weren't able to do as much as we might have to enjoy our last days in Taiwan. BUT, with Q's help, and with the health we all felt on Tuesday, we were able to stagger things and get out and do final gift shopping.
On Thursday night after a day of meds, I posted an update to the post I had written on facebook the evening before we wound up in the emergency room. I had asked people to pray for feverish Arthur. I updated that though we had wound up in the emergency room, we had the meds we needed, and were doing better. I asked next that people pray that Arthur would not NEED the meds - that he would get better for our long journey home coming up in less than 48 hours. These prayers worked! Arthur's final fever dose was Thursday morning, and his fever never came back!
We survived an emergency room visit in a foreign country in the nick of time to get well and return home to tell the tale!
This trip has had very little specific places or people from my past. But we are running out of new things to do and see, so I thought we'd take a free afternoon and hit an old area of mine near Taipei.
On my mission, I served in only 3 areas. The first two were in what counts, in Taiwan, as country-side: Bade and Miaoli. My last area, which I opened back up to sister missionary work, and opened it while training a new missionary, was in the heart of what was at the time, the most densely populated area on the planet: Zhonghe/Yonghe.
Right: Eloise on Memory Lane itself, or the street on which I think our apartment was (and still is... see below).
The kids outside the Zhonghe/Yonghe church. Now THREE wards meet there. The outer white tile has been replaced with a granite looking stone. Nice!
I went from only serving in branches to covering two wards. At that time, unlike the Elders whose areas were only a portion of the district, the sisters covered the entire district. Only when we were sent there, we covered two entire districts. Up til that time, I had never been more stretched in my life. The work was huge, the press of people was intense, and church on Sunday was 6 hours long, plus meetings. We sisters had a work load that was otherwise covered by 8 elders. And all with a companion who didn't speak Chinese. Though I'd never felt such pressure, I also had never felt the Lord so close as I felt him then. I received powerful answers to prayers. We enjoyed such success that within 3 months, they brought in another sister companionship and assigned us to one district (though I don't now remember which) instead of the two.
Inside of the chapel, very little has changed. I stood at this pulpit many a time to share my testimony, including the final testimony I shared with members before I went home.
THIS was the place I went back to see. The chapel, which had been the only one I served in as a missionary, now is on the old and small side for Taiwan. The sister missionaries we met there (coincidentally, and blessedly, as it would have been locked!) let us in, and told us that in most areas now in Taiwan, they all have chapels! (I already new my other areas had chapels, and have even been to Miaoli's on a previous trip. And by the way, this area STILL has 2 sister companionships, though it's unlikely that they've kept the sisters there at a constant number over the last 18 years.)
This original shot was taken only a few weeks before I came home and on the p-day when I discovered I still wanted to dance when I got back. I was in the middle of one of my only ballet work-outs here when the Elders showed up and wondered what I was up to. Kai replaces Elder Bolander, who interestingly, I met up with in China on a ballet tour years later!
This is a recreated shot. In the original, I'm holding a broom
because I was sweeping out the font in preparation
for the baptism.
Anyway, I had fun recreating with the kids, some of the shots from my mission at this church. I think perhaps the roads seem much less familiar, not only for the change that can happen in 18 years, but also because we taught SO MUCH, and our area was so huge, we were either in the church teaching, or not on many of the same roads twice.
This was also the only place in MY LIFE where my fantastic sense of direction failed me on a regular basis! I got more lost here than I have ever been anywhere else. BUT, going back with my kids, my old landmarks and sense of where I was at got us from the MRT station to the church and over to where I think our apartment was. I was able to point to the road where, on our bikes, we alluded a guy who was following us on a scooter. I showed the kids the one-direction road where we lived and told them about driving against the crazy flow of traffic to short-cut our way home. (It's now a calmer two-way street. I think the MRT has really reduced vehicle count on the street level mid-day.) I told them how my bag was stolen from the church and for weeks after, I would scan the banks of the stream we walked and biked along, hoping to see my scriptures cast aside by the thieves. I bought them a green mango chunk filled popsicle and told them about the hot p-day where that was all I ate because I was too hot to eat anything else. I told them about weirding the elders out with a decorated table and flowery sign that read, "Welcome to District Training Meeting," just for the amusement of myself and my companion.
I *think* this is "the agency" - our nick-name
for our apartment. - specifically,
the detective agency. My comp was Agent 1,
and I was Private "Ai" - my Chinese name.
Good times!
There were hundreds of other stories I didn't share, and won't share here. But it was good to be there and give a tiny taste of that time in my life to my kids. Amazingly, they listened and even seemed to enjoy mom's time on Memory Lane. What a blessing to have this moment with my kids. I wish I might have shared the moment with more of the amazing people from that time and place, but they have actually met both companions I had in that area. And as for the members of both wards, I hope I see them in Heaven!
PS: Perhaps I took it for granted, because I was always there, but completely unplanned, just at the right time, two different sets of sister missionaries showed up. The first set let us in, and then had to go. We promised to leave the door locked behind us. But we managed to forget an umbrella in the locked chapel. We were about to abandon it when the second set stopped in. They saw the lights on and were able to unlock the chapel again so we could grab what we had left. It was such a blessing to get in to the building because the whole rest of the time, we were on the street wandering.
Sherri and I after getting home just in time for me to go
teach my last ballet class for the ward members.
This post is out of chronological order by quite a bit. Many Sundays ago Sherri, a sister in the ward, came up to me and noted that if I had been a dancer, I should visit Taiwan National University for the Arts, very near to where we are living, while we are here. She said they had a ballet and dance department there, that she was friends with the dean of that department, and that she could take me there.
Of course, this was delightful all on it's own. I told her I was very interested in going and mentioned I have a friend from my days at Ballet West, Jiang Qi, who I knew was in Taiwan teaching at some university. Sherri told me it was probably TNUA, and though I couldn't believe the world would be THAT small, I thought it would be fun to go anyway.
Sure enough, a few days later she messaged me that Qi (pronounced "Chee") WAS teaching there, and Sherri arranged for a visit.
The visit itself, on Tuesday, Nov 24, was very nice. The university was beautiful. Sherri took us around the grounds and to a Museum of Art full of modern media pieces, which were, in my opinion, hilariously terrible. I should write about some of them just for amusement. But I'll save my fingers for a more important record.
These water buffalo are the school's pets and graze in this field. This one startled the kids by suddenly moving towards them. Thankfully, they were paying attention and were able to quickly move beyond the length of it's tether.
Me and the Dean of the Dance department of TNUA.
So, after Sherri's tour, we met up with the dean who took us around her department. The studios were beautiful. I was also impressed with the students, who could not have been dancing very long, given the kind of school schedules and FULL academic days lived by kids age 5 on up. Finally, we would up on the top floor outside a freshman modern class and Jiang Qi's men's class. Sherri told me she could be with the kids in the hall and let them play and watch the modern while I went in to see Qi's class with Kai.
So with 10 minutes left in class, Kai and I entered. Qi recognized me right away, came to hug me, and introduced me to his students as a dancer he danced with many years ago. The 15 boys burst into applause at Qi's enthusiastic introduction, which I thought was really cute. Kai and I then settled ourselves on the floor and watched the rest of class.
Jiang Qi is the gentlemen between Kai and myself. The other boys are his students.
Qi was as graceful and gracious as a teacher as he had been a dancer. I had forgotten how absolutely regal he is. At 60, he isn't doing a lot of dancing any more, but there is no mistaking from his demonstrations that he was a fabulous dancer. It was so fun to see him and remember. I got to tell him about going to see him perform with Ballet West when I was younger, in my teens. I don't remember the ballet he was in, but the second or first act ended with him being lifted up on the shoulders of other dancers and waving to the audience as the curtain fell. I was watching the show in the VERY deep Ogden theater and was sitting in the balcony on the very LAST row. As it happened, I was grateful I was there. I was so drawn into the action by Qi's performance, that when he waved to the audience, I waved back! Thankfully there was no one sitting behind me to wonder why on earth someone was waving at the stage! (I didn't share that I also remember his final performance with Ballet West. I got to sit on stage and watch him dance the Blue Bird in the Sleeping Beauty. His power and grace, combined with my knowledge that it was the last time I would see it, brought tears to my eyes, which wasn't optimal - to be crying ON STAGE in a scene that had no reason for tears - but I was moved.)
Two of the blessings of Qi's influence watch the modern class.
But as I described afterwards for my kids how neat it was for me to see this great dancer again, I realized Qi's influence on my life runs much deeper. It was Qi's connections in China that brought Utah Regional Ballet there, and they took me - Qi might be the very reason I've been to China.
MORE significant than that, it was Qi who offered me the job with Guangzhou Ballet in China after my mission. (At that time he was preparing to return to China to be their Ballet Master. He never did but instead became a professor of dance at a university in the US.) Because of this offer, when Jonas Kage, my boss at Ballet West, offered me a position of apprentice, I was able to refuse the offer, preferring China to an apprenticeship, at which point, Jonas offered me a better contract.
AND, having received a better position, Qi then encouraged me to stay at Ballet West, though at the time, a part of me thought, "What could be better than an opportunity to combine my love of ballet with my love of Chinese?" However, Qi's counsel was wise: once I was IN China, it would be very difficult to get another dancing job elsewhere (due, I assume, to the cost and hassle of international flights to audition). In MY mind, the other difficulty, of course, was who to marry if I lived in China. I was 23, and knew I needed to find a good Mormon guy. Qi's counsel to stay tipped the scales in favor of my long-term future, and it was while dancing for Ballet West and living in the Avenues in Salt Lake City that I met my hubby and father to my 4 beautiful children. So in a way, I told them, they had Qi to thank that they were even born!
Perhaps, on that last point, it became an outing they won't soon forget! I only wish I had digested all of that sooner so I could thank Qi in person! What a blessing to get to see such an influential person in my life again! The world God created for each of us really is THAT small!
We hit two destinations today, and met with three friends (which might have been 8)! Whew!
I LOVED this quote, and so, grabbed it via this shot.
First, we hit the Evergreen Maritime Museum. We'd stopped by last week when we wound up at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, but entrance wasn't cheap when you accounted for all of us, and there was just an hour 'til closing.
Today, we still only gave the place 1.5 hours, but they had started a promotion where you could write your New Year's Resolution on a display and get discounted entrance, so we lucked out!
While EV is "King of the World," Arthur has spotted the ice burg! Love it!
AND it was FABULOUS. There were tons of intricately recreated models of ships through the centuries. And there were interactive displays which were very cool, and would have been all the cooler if they had been in English. But most things were in English, with very few errors, which was a pleasant change of pace. My favorite thing was the salvaged last words of a Titanic passenger who had carved a farewell to his family on a plank. I cried.
We Caspies triumph after we complete our own boat puzzle!
Here we met up with Krissy, another candidate to teach the kids Chinese and live with us in Utah. It wasn't optimal to try and meet someone AND manage Arthur and three other kids in a multi-floored museum. But we liked her and she joined us for lunch at Taipei's Main Station - our second destination.
I wanted to take the kids to see the train station because I remember it was busy and it was huge. My memory of it's busy-ness and huge-ness was BEFORE the MRT was completed and before the high speed trains ran. It's busy enormity is almost beyond description. On a Saturday afternoon, the press of people was intense. And we wound ourselves through an immense labyrinth on 4 below-ground levels just to find our way to the ground level and main hall.
I had suggested we meet Sammi and Sophia there for lunch. We didn't arrive until 2 pm and we were starving. Sammi pointed to a box lunch place next to where we met and said it was the cheapest option. More crucial, the lunches were ready NOW so we grabbed what we needed and went to find a place to eat in the food court on the second floor. That was MY plan, but I wasn't prepared for the throng that would still be eating at 2 pm on Saturday. Not only was there not a place for all 9 of us, but the noise was so loud we would not have been able to communicate without shouting.
We fled quickly to a pavilion outside and sat to the far side of a performance going on which we didn't understand. So things stayed noisy, but there was room for the kids to run, and dance, and complain our box lunches weren't very good (true). So I was much more content there, and we were able to visit with Krissy a bit more. (She was great with the girls, and easy to talk to, and would make a good teacher/roommate, but we give preference to people who are able to stay longer, and as of now, she was only thinking to come during a break from school. We're going to keep in touch.)
Around 3 I finally pressed us to leave. We were meeting a family from the ward at home at 5pm and I needed to clean and cook dinner. Sammi helped us back inside, and then decided to buy everyone a treat.
So we had tiny custards out of real egg shells and the kids drooled over the Thomas the Train ride around a giant Christmas tree and Quent asked Sammi about the mass wedding happening just yards away from that.
This shot was Q's idea! So we were wedding crashers, joining the other 20 or so couples who just got married. It was a group ceremony we just caught the tail end of and only crashed the picture portion. It struck Q and myself as very odd and very funny, but our reaction confused Sammi so perhaps group ceremonies in hectic public places are a thing here....
Finally we said goodbye to Sammi and Sophia, and Kai who was staying with them for the weekend and were on our long ride home. We made it back at 4:30 and I decided I MOST needed to lay down or I'd be a lousy hostess. It was a good thing I did because our guests delayed their arrival, then confessed they were at Costco, then asked how late the kids went to bed, and finally said they would be there at 8 pm, at which I point I suggested we change days. (I don't know how kids function pleasantly until 10 and 11 pm here - and I'm talking LITTLE kids, 3 and 4 years old! - but MINE don't, and I don't either.)
My kids had been looking forward to this evening for a few weeks, but thankfully I had an alternative activity we'd been procrastinating too: putting up the Christmas tree. So after an easy dinner of pasta and salad, the kids and I made our tree and then made ornaments for almost 3 hours while listening to Christmas songs. It was a lovely evening after all, and the rest I grabbed at 4:30 carried me through 'til bedtime! It's days like these that truly increase my love of the Sabbath as a day of REST!
PS: The weather for all of this was unseasonably GORGEOUS. Clear blue skies, sunny, about 75 degrees! My one regret of the day is that our plans weren't more centered around enjoying it while it lasted! I said to Quent, "This is the kind of weather that comes just before a typhoon! I wonder if one is coming." Sure enough, though it's no typhoon, a storm came in last night about bedtime and it's still dark and rainy outside today. (Sunday)
About two weeks ago we were eating dinner with friends, when Arthur climbed into my lap and exclaimed, "This is a boy who loves his mom." Wow! Talk about knowing the way to his mother's heart. That made my whole week! A few weeks before that he said enthusiastically, "Mommom, you're my BEST friend!" How I love that kid!
Stew's Thanksgiving meal with Sammi and Alan
I gave him a much needed haircut today. I think I had trimmed the hair out of his eyes one other time on our trip, but otherwise, it's been about 4 months since his last hair cut. When his dad, who met us on the train this evening, complimented Stew on it, he then climbed into my lap and whispered to me, "Momma, I no like R-do (how he says his own name) anymore."
It was such a sad little confession, I couldn't help but wonder what was up, so, full of concern, I asked him why. He explained, "I no feel awesome anymore."
"Oh no!" I replied. "Why don't you feel awesome anymore?!"
His answer: "Because you cut my hair."
"Well, actually your cut hair gives you even MORE power," I comforted him. "It's like a super power." That seemed to do the trick, and I think he will suffer no more mental anguish from losing about an inch from his lovely locks.
From our outing today to the Mirimar shopping mall for a ride on the ferris wheel. Notice the haircut. :)
Earlier this afternoon on the train, he was being unusually docile. (He wound up taking a nap later, so I think he must have been tired.) He was calmly sitting in his stroller and just chatting with Kai, who shared the following as his happy moment of the day.
Arthur pointed at him and said, "Bzzt. Now you are 3!"
"I'm three?" Big Bro asked.
Stew with BOTH buddies: Bradly AND Big Bro
"Yes, so we can be best buddies!" Cute little Arthur is the most richly blessed with buddies here because HIS peers are not locked away in schools, yet. But still he truly misses his best buddy and cousin Elwood back at home! He even crawled into bed with me one morning, sobbing, "Elwood is so far away."
"Yes," I comforted him, "but you will see him very soon." Later in the day, Arthur told me of a dream he'd had that night that he was playing with Elwood at his house with a train. Poor cutie had to wake up and realize that though he had a train and buddy Bradly, Elwood WAS still far away.
But while there are aspects of life - haircuts, missing friends - that have tried our little guy, he is still FULL of confidence and his 3 year old swagger makes everyone smile. He even said at one point, "I can do it! Because I'm an American!" Look out Taiwan! Arthur is on the lose, practically running wild, and he will melt hearts if you let him!
Happy Thanksgiving, AGAIN! We finally got around to a real celebration! Here are the images and pictures from a very fun Holiday weekend!
Sammi created this collage from our dinner on Saturday. Details below!
Friday afternoon, Q took off work early to adventure with us.
It was back to Shang Kai Shek Memorial to check out the INSIDE displays - we learned more about China's struggle with Japan before Communism took over and the KMT fled to Taiwan. Clearly, EV was ENGAGED!
Then, since we were so close, we went to meet a roommate candidate at the temple - she was doing a later session, so we chatted over dinner. And while we were there, it seemed about time to get Kai to his FIRST round of temple baptisms! (I would have joined him, but my voice was on it's second day of absence, so I opted to come home and rest.)
Me and the kids in front of the Taipei Mormon Temple.
One of these people is not like the other!.... Kai just happened to be at the temple for the Tamsui Ward's temple night! It meant he had to hang out to wait for all the adults pictured to finish their session to bring him home. (ALL of the people above are adults - though some don't look like it! My sweet Sister Wu, or grandma Shirley, as she asked us to call her, is all the way on the left. Next to her is Grandma Margaret. The sister two down from Margaret is Sherry, who took us to see a colleague from Ballet West at a nearby University. Left of her is Coreena, our Relief Society President. Left of her, not bending over, is Helen Wu, who took us to Costco. And directly above her and next to Kai are our two bishops - the one on the left is recently released, and the new bishop is on the right with a hand in front of part of his face.)
Meanwhile, the rest of the family headed home on the MRT. Arthur entertained himself, and more than a passenger or two, with his "funny hair" which he requested I do for him.
Finally, Saturday was the big feast. We were joined by Sammi, Alan, Sophia, Alan's friend from college, and later, Sammi's cousin who also wanted to meet with us about being a Chinese roommate when we go back to Utah.
Below is the adult table. Place-mats are the left-over craft paper I bought for crafting at the Halloween party. We even bought paper plates and clear plastic cups for the occasion. And Veeve colored fall colors on the paper towels we folded for napkins. (We haven't seen true napkins anywhere in this country.) We also scored Martinelli's Sparkling Cider from Costco for dinner. Fancy!
We served from the top of the shoe rack and the microwave cart, both in the front room. The mashed potatoes (my best batch ever) were made in the wok. It was a relief they turned out so yummy because Sammi and Alan reminded us that they had come to my family's Thanksgiving when they were staying in Utah and Alan specifically remembered the mashed potatoes and had missed them for years. Mine held up to his memory. The yams turned out to be every one's favorite, though most started with a very small serving, assuming they wouldn't like them. The rolls, in our oven pictured below, I bought two nights before from a bread store. (The bread stores are SO fabulous here, we didn't miss homemade rolls for one second. I DO however miss JAM! Everything here is jelly, short on fruit and long on sugar.)
Alan was given the assignment of buying the turkey. I don't think they hunted far, but opted to bring two chickens instead. However, sadly the didn't go to BUY the chickens until AFTER he dropped his family off to eat, so not only did he miss dinner, but the rest of us missed eating meat with ours. We were able to make a chicken gravy from the drippings, which come with your rotisserie purchases here, and it was a big hit. Thankfully there were plenty of potatoes, so everyone had another serving or two with the gravy. And we served a salad with a dressing I made from lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, and dried thyme which I bought from the grocery store. We put pomegranate, celery, chopped walnuts and chopped apples in the salad too.
Anyway, I was THRILLED for our feast - it tasted a lot like home, and equally important, the food was enjoyed by all our guests, more than half of whom had never had Thanksgiving before! Yes, that is pure delight and anticipation on my face!
We have officially worn out our original welcome in Taiwan. Had we not extended, we'd be home now. Our landlord rented our apartment here before we changed our minds and decided an extra month in Taiwan beat being homeless in cold Utah, hands down!
So we might have been homeless here a for a few nights except for the kindness of our landlord. His name is JJ and his wife is Mabel. They have 2 kids, now in their 20's, whom they raised in the town of Dayuan which is right where the international airport is. They still live there, though their kids now live in Taipei. Aside from their home there, and the three bedroom apartment in Tamsui where we live, they also own an English cram school in Zhongli. Mabel opened the school with 6 students in a rented room, and grew it from there. In fact, she has just retired from running it since we've been in Taiwan. And JJ works as an engineer for the high speed trains - he is a rocket scientist by education.
Anyway, they are lovely people and we have liked them since the moment we met, now two months ago. JJ is more reserved, but has a twinkle in his eye. Mabel is loud, opinionated, bossy with the kids, and a real hoot! She is a fun character through and through, and by the end of our time with them this past weekend, Arthur was vying to stay up later at night by asking to snuggle with Mabel!
Sadly, our pictures of our time together are few. I think I've been pretty tired (and wound up getting sick on Sunday) but we saw and did and learned a lot I am happy to record!
First, Mabel came on Thursday to clean for the new guests arriving Friday and staying through Sunday morning. I was grateful she offered to clean because packing up everything to empty the apartment was a big enough job for me. (We were blessed to be able to leave almost everything next door at Sister Yang's house. Her husband was home, but she was in Shanghai). Still, out of gratitude for our place here and for letting us stay with them elsewhere while this was booked, AND out of a curiosity about house cleaning in Taiwan, I happily cleaned with Mabel.
As it turns out, I don't think I learned much at all about how most women clean in Taiwan. Mabel has her very own interesting techniques! Her cleaning items (which I had hunted for here, and not found) turned out to be shampoo and toothpaste! So I'd found them after all. She used toothpaste for the kitchen sink, counters and stove, and for the bathroom sink as well. On the mirrors, glass, and chrome, she used rubbing alcohol. And for the showers, tubs, toilets and floor, she used shampoo! She liked using these products because of their "safety." By her reasoning, because we can use them on our bodies, they are probably less toxic than cleaning chemicals. I think she is probably right. But I don't know how disinfected the bathrooms are. I may stick to my toxic chemicals at home anyway.
But she and I cleaned, the kids played in the bally room, and Q worked until we'd made everything company-clean. Then we loaded her car with our overnight bags and were off to their Dayuan home. We heard it was very spacious. And by Taiwan standards, it was! It was actually 2 homes which they modified to be one - the last two in a row of about 8 town homes. They were built 25 years ago and had garages! So they had 2 garages and a large kitchen because it was the ground floor of both homes. The second floor they kept divided, so we stayed on one side, and their home was on the other.
Our space was a family room with a futon, two chairs and our air mattress we brought and put on the floor for Kai. Around the corner on the back was a small bedroom with 2 twin beds Q and I slept on, and a bathroom. On this same level on the other side, JJ and Mabel had a small living room with 4 chairs in it - it didn't look like anyone ever used it - another small room in which they had their kids' toys boxed up and a stocked wine closet, an upright piano was in the hall, and there was another bathroom too.
Our space didn't have another level up, so to get to the third floor from our space, you either had to go down to the kitchen and up the flight of stairs on the other side, OR go out our "front door" and into JJ and Mabel's front door and up from there. So this third level had 4 bedrooms - JJ's and Mabel's, a room for Mabel's mother, their daughter's room, and their son's room, plus a wide hall which was being used as office space for Mabel after she left her cram school. I didn't see other bathrooms here, but my guess is that JJ and Mabel's room had one, and there WAS one in the mother-in-law room. Finally, the top floor had two balconies, a large family room with couches and a TV, and an office for JJ, and a bathroom.
So I'm pretty sure their home had at least 6 bathrooms and 6 bedrooms, NOT counting the toy room/wine closet! It had lovely potential. Q honored me while we were there, however, by not noticing the potential but instead the press of stuff that crowded the corners and diminished the loveliness. It seems that for many women here, either a sense of homemaking isn't taught or felt, OR no one has time for it because of the long work hours everyone suffers through. So the home felt more like an old college dorm or missionary apartment. It was nice for me to have my family experience a home like this to come to a deeper understanding of the labor of making a home reflect a sense of loveliness, and the peace that can be felt as a result of the effort to dejunk, repair, decorate, and beautify.
I hope I'm not coming across snobby or ungrateful! I'm sure our feelings of roughing it were amplified by the gas water heater going out resulting in cold showers, the hard beds, and the ant infestation in our space. Needless to say, though the home was large, it wasn't a lap of luxury.
And we learned a lot from that too! First, we gained a deeper sense of gratitude for our Tamsui accommodations. The beds are soft. It's as cluttered or as clean as we decide to make it. But it's new so when we clean, if FEELS clean. And it's relatively bug free. Secondly, as Q and I discuss the conditions under which we might like to come back to Taiwan, I have floated the idea that the country might suit us better. My thought was that country life would be simpler - we would find people with time to have a conversation. What we found in this corner of country-side is that people were just as busy, but that because cars are necessary, we might feel all the more isolated from interaction. And though the country was lovely, LIVING there didn't FEEL like living in the country of Cache Valley - clean, open, peaceful. We discovered we could feel trapped by the inconvenience of country life as easily as we might feel trapped in a crowded city.
We didn't know any of this when we planned our present trip. And of course, our feelings about here only reflect what we know about THIS apartment in Tamsui, or one tiny spot of country in Taoyuan. But we have realized, traveling around, how blessed we are to be living where we are. There are not many places we've seen that feel as broad, peaceful, clean, and therefore homey as where we live right now. I think Heavenly Father was really looking out for us when THIS place came together.
But back to our weekend! We went to dinner with JJ and Mabel to a lovely restaurant and had GREAT food Thursday night after JJ got home from work.
The crew at the restaurant.
On Friday, Q worked on the fourth floor where he could connect to their wifi, and Mabel and I went out with the kids. She took us to two plant nurseries. The first was much like any nursery you might find in Utah. In fact, many of the plants for sale we recognized. We met the owner, a friend of Mabel's, and chatted for a bit. Then she took us to the second nursery. I wasn't quite sure it WAS a nursery. It had a large, beautiful restaurant with nice views where she ordered a yummy lunch for us. After lunch she took us to a fish pond and bought fish food for the kids. After Kai scared the fish out of eating by trying to grab a few with a net, we discovered the kiddie electric cars that you could actually drive and steer for about 5 minutes for $10 NTD. Though there were plants for sale, THIS seemed like the place in town to be, so I finally asked Mabel what sort of place it was. She then told me the following story.
She said when they moved to Dayuan, it was a regular nursery, much like the one we had just visited. She would come and buy plants there, and one day she thought to herself that it would be nice if there was somewhere to sit and enjoy oneself during a plant buying errand. She thought how nice it would be to sip some tea, and consider the plants, and if she sat longer, she might see more than just the plant that she'd come to find, and be inspired to buy more. So she told the boss that she thought he should put up benches and sell tea. Well, the boss said he didn't have money for benches, and he wasn't sure about tea, and he thought it was a lousy idea, and who was SHE anyway. She said, "I'm an English teacher. And you could buy wood and make the benches yourself. You don't have to. But you COULD try."
So the boss bought the wood and built the benches and sold tea, and sure enough, people came and drank tea, and the boss made money on the tea and sold more plants. A few years later, Mabel had her little kids with her and again she had an idea. She told the boss, "You have this land. You should do something with it kids could enjoy, like a fish pond, or coin-operated toys. Then parents would bring their families, and maybe the kids would like to eat something, so you could sell them real food, and the families would stay a long time, and spend more money and buy more plants."
Well, the boss really thought Mabel was dreaming then! "Are you crazy, lady!?" He asked. "I don't have money for kid toys! And what do YOU know about plants, nurseries, or restaurants that makes you think that would work!?"
"I'm an English teacher," she told him. "And you could rent the kid toys, or split the profits from them with whomever owns them. Anyway, you could TRY. But you don't have to."
So the boss rented the toys, and they made the money for the pond, and business went so well he built a restaurant, and now his nursery is a destination, all because he listened to Mabel! Mabel says NOW when she sees him (he wasn't in when we came) she is offered to sit at the best table, and given free vegetables, and plants, and he is very grateful for a wise customer who has become his friend. (Below is a video of MY kids enjoying the kiddie rides.)
Anyway, I loved this story. I tried to record it here with some of the personality of Mabel's telling, but my retelling has probably fallen short. However, the story DOES illustrate who Mabel IS - a fiery go-getter with a can-do attitude. On Saturday evening, I learned perhaps some of that is genetics.
As I asked her about her family, I found out her grand-father was a general in the Guo Ming Dang (KMT) army that helped defeat the Japanese in China. Mabel, in fact, did not know this when she was young. Her grandfather was invited to come to Taiwan when the KMT fled to Taiwan to be an assistant to the Vice President here, so Mabel grew up thinking he simply worked in government. But growing up, she lived in the same house as her grandfather, which she said was very large and lovely, and which was given to her family as part of her grandfather's work. So when her grandfather died, they had to move. She said at one point, her grandfather along with other military higher-ups in the KMT were invited by China to return to the mainland. They were promised homes and prestige. As Mabel told me the story, I wondered if China had been trying to sever the upper leadership from it's rebel state at the time, leaving it incapable of becoming a threat. Anyway, Mabel said that her grandfather didn't go, and it was a good thing he didn't. He had a friend who did return, and instead of a home and prestige, he was thrown into prison and held for ransom. His family back in Taiwan finally scraped together the large sum to free their father, whereupon he was returned, but Mabel said that his memory was gone. She said he had been beaten and tortured and was just a shadow of a man until he finally died.
Anyway, that was a gripping story too. And I wondered if Mabel's grandfather possessed the same wisdom and bravery that Mabel seemed to have. Perhaps she got her height from him as well - she is taller than I am! For an older woman in Taiwan, that makes her VERY tall, and she said she is the shortest of all her siblings!
Back to our weekend, JJ and Mabel had a family event and left us at home on Friday night. There was food in the fridge we were invited to cook for ourselves, but it was a completely unfamiliar kitchen and I couldn't find pans I felt comfortable using. Instead, we ate the bread and peanut butter they had taken us to buy on Thursday night after dinner. We wound up pretty hungry and a bit trapped because of the isolated nature of their neighborhood. NO convenience stores within MILES!
On Saturday, JJ and Mabel got back from Taipei where they had spent the night and took all of us to Yingge and to Daxi. The time we had already spent in Yingge resulted in me and the kids really wanting to go back to the old street with Q. I wanted him to see the place, and the kids wanted to try their hands at pottery. We got to! Actually, EV was picked up from JJ and Mabels by Alan Friday night and went to stay with Sammi and Sophia for the weekend, as Eloise had the previous weekend. So it was our crew less EV on Saturday. But luckily for her, Sammi and Alan brought her to Yingge on Sunday, so she didn't miss out!
Our family spent hours there! Kai and Eloise got to make pottery which is going to be dried, painted and fired and sent to JJ and Mabel's house for souvenirs the kids can treasure! We shopped - I was hunting for a small, rectangular ceramic planter for a shelf at home, which I didn't find, but got a small, $2 pot instead. Kai got a ceramic whistle in the form of a whale, and Eloise got a ceramic whistle which makes bird sounds (which was sadly busted by Arthur a few days later on our hard floors).
After 5 hours, we headed to our next destination: Daxi. Both Yingge and Daxi were places I went on my mission. I had been back to Yingge with my mom and had done ceramic shopping then, but Daxi I had never returned to. I remembered it was a tiny town and that there was a lovely hike to a suspension bridge somewhere around there. I still don't know about the hike and the bridge - we arrived after dark and were first taken to an ancient hole in the wall for dinner - the "famous" local fare being only somewhat to our liking, as the "famous" local fare generally is. But after dinner, we found ourselves on Daxi's Old Street, and it may just be my favorite spot in Taiwan so far!
The evening lighting was not adequate to capture images to do it justice, and being the country-side, things were closing up fast, but this narrow street had 180 year-old structures on both sides! The names of the old businesses or families were carved in stone above the shop fronts. More than anywhere else, this place transported me to a different time!
BEYOND cool, one place whose exposed rafters and old furniture called to me had a gate in the rear through which you could see part of an old, but refurnished and in good repair home and courtyard! It was so picturesque I asked if we could go inside. The owner explained we weren't able to - that it was her personal residence, and that it included the building next door and extended beyond where we could see to include a whole other courtyard!
Well, I thought this was fabulous, so I went next door to see if I could see more and discovered, through Mabel's help, that actually, this home, in the same family for 5 generations, was attempting to receive preservation funds from the government and that YOU CAN go in under one special condition: you can purchase a family meal and tour! Mabel and I were thrilled and immediately booked our return date! Thanks to the size of our family, our two groups just meet their minimum of 8 people! Q and JJ just looked puzzled that Mabel and I were so beside ourselves with excitement. But Q agreed to put up the $60 for the experience, and so we'll be back as one of the last things we do in Taiwan! As for the kids, Arthur had fallen asleep in his stroller and missed much of this, and Eloise and Kai took it all in in stride, probably amused that their mother's favorite phrase seemed to be, "Isn't that cool!?" or "Isn't this AMAZING!?"
So I didn't get the pictures I hoped for THIS time, but maybe NEXT time I will!
That brought us to the end of a very long and exhausting day, and the next morning I felt more tired than I expected. On the way to church with JJ (Mabel had other commitments), I told Q I thought I was getting sick, and about half-way through their meeting, I knew it. My joints were achy and I was feeling more spent.
But I did manage the energy to take in Chinese evangelism with a great measure of curiosity! As we drove Mabel to the train station, she told us about her experience speaking in tongues. It certainly peeked our curiosity for the meeting we were headed for. The church was like the branches I remember serving in in Taiwan - in rented space in a commercial building. Except of course on the stand was a drum set and electric piano. The preacher was a woman who gave a very nice - TED-talk-style presentation on the peace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The kids only understood when she said, "Amen?" and then answered herself, "Amen!" and they were quite amused by that.
That meeting was on the third floor. On the second was a separate meeting for the kids. Arthur was pretty restless with the adults so they left quickly. I stepped out to find them, but Q later told me, he had stayed restless in the kid meeting so Q took him on a walk and to get food on the streets of Zhongli. Kai and Eloise made it down to the second floor kid meeting too, and just missed all the excitement upstairs. After the preacher's speech, the band came up and began to play. The music was very contemporary, but the words - the parts I could understand - seemed to be about God's grace, power, and mercy. It also seemed the lyrics were pretty familiar with the congregation of about 100 people. I don't know if they sing this same number every week or not.
The singing lasted for maybe 15 or 20 minutes. The song morphed into various related but different melodies. Sometimes the music would get very loud, and other times the band played softly. In and out of pauses in singing, the preacher would insert more preaching, also at times almost shouting "Praise Jesus!" and other worship instruction, and then getting soft as she encouraged the congregation to "look inside and give all their stress, and their unhappiness, and their worry to the Lord." The people swayed. Some raised their arms. Some heads were bowed, but others were raised in rapture.
Sometimes the preacher encouraged everyone to pray aloud, and then the music would get really loud and would almost drown out the sound of everyone saying their own prayers (I assume for the murmur of voices I would be surrounded in.) JJ missed all of this too. I don't know where he went. Anyway, I was all alone, and I stood sometimes, and sat again when I felt too tired. And I went back and forth between feeling pretty uncomfortable with all this public display of affection for Jesus and being quite moved by the enthusiasm for the Lord displayed by the worshipers.
I had two take-aways. The first was to get myself to an evangelical congregation back at home! I was so sad the best part was missed by hubby and ALL the kids, but they could not have understood the words anyway, though I'm sure they would have found the music and singing interesting. And the other thing I liked was the moments where we were encouraged to begin a new walk with Christ, right there. I thought that down time where no one says anything but we are given space to think our own thoughts is a good thing and might be used better in our own worship experience. The preacher reminded me and Q of ME. :) I loved seeing a kindred spirit who was pretty clearly on fire about the scriptures, and excited to tell everyone about it! So it was fun to thank her for her message and get a hug before we left.
The kids had a less interesting meeting, by the sound of it. They watched a movie about a bible story that had been translated into Chinese. But like our own ward in Tamsui, they got FABULOUS treats - full size Snickers candy bars for each of them! Eloise came away with two little gifts from girls in the children's class - a hair bow and a tiny flower. The church members were friendly and excited to know how a family of foreigners came to join them. They seemed so excited to see us I didn't want to make the point that we would probably never see them again.
After church, JJ had made reservations for us to enjoy a Hakkah dinner at a local restaurant. I was slowly but surely fading, but was glad I had enough energy to not ask to be taken home because the food was great, and some of it was the better stuff from my second area, Miaoli, where there are more Kejiaren. I wish I had a better appetite, but I think the kids filled in where my enthusiasm lagged.
Arthur had broken out in hives the night before. We would have been more concerned, but it didn't seem he was. Mabel thought it was a food allergy and IF they were, our guesses were the taro or steamed peanuts we'd had with our hot, soft, dessert tofu Saturday night. If it was the peanuts, Stew got a double dose because the restaurant gave us a huge ball of glutinous rice in a smashed peanut and sugar mixture and he and Eloise went to town on it - mostly preferring the crunchy sweet powder to the gooey rice. (In the end, the hives seemed to fade on their own a few days later, still not bothering Arthur much. We never did figure out what brought them on, but it wasn't his first mysterious rash since he's been here....)
JJ had planned to take us to a museum in Bali after we'd gathered our things from their home and headed back north toward Taipei. But I knew it wasn't going to happen for me, and that I needed to get to a bed, fast. So the museum trip was cancelled and after lunch, we packed up our things, loaded up the car, and came straight back. Only we got stuck in traffic on the way back through Bali. That was personal misery! Joint aches were increasing, and chills were setting in. I did some quiet writhing in the back seat, but hopefully stayed a pleasant enough travel companion for JJ and my family. When we finally got in, JJ just made a note of the gas meter. Thankfully the place was left fairly well taken care of, so he wished me good health and left quickly.
Home again! But our medicine, food, and everything else was still at the neighbors who weren't answering their door. I asked Q for help putting our used sheets back on the bed and laid down while he took the kids to find dinner and buy groceries in Zhuwei. They got back around 7:30 pm. At about 9 pm we were joined by EV, and shortly after that, the kids went to bed, and then we got a knock on our door that our neighbors had returned. All that had been missing was finally back and I could truly rest!
Happy Thanksgiving! It's been a quiet day here. Literally. I caught a cold that wiped me out on Sunday and Monday, and apparently it's still alive in my system because today my voice is gone and my throat is killing me. However, when I consider the epically poor health our family was suffering days before we came to Taiwan, all I can feel is grateful that our health has been so stellar, on the whole, for our entire trip!
Our "Thanksgiving" feast - Thai food!
So we have spent this Thanksgiving laying low. I've been clapping for attention and whispering to the kids. We've cleaned the apartment - which is tiny, so it's a tiny task when everyone helps. We've studied Chinese. We've played. Kai has worked on writing. The kids are watching the movie Cars on TV now, Q is working, and in a few minutes we are going to go to dinner (hopefully find a Thai restaurant that was recommended to us) as a very distant nod to the celebrations that would just be beginning if we were home.
Really, I should be grateful for this too! Between Nutcracker and being hostess for Thanksgiving or hauling our whole family to Salt Lake for the feast, this has been so much more quiet and restful than any past Thanksgiving in a long time, and probably the future ones stretching on for years too. But I can't help but miss all that Thanksgiving is - food, family, cooking, cleaning, and even Nutcracker season.
Still, this Thanksgiving is special for us in it's own way too. Like the pilgrims we remember, our family are strangers in a strange land at the moment. I have reflected on the pilgrim/pioneer/immigrant story ever since we got here, and I have a few thoughts I'd like to share.
They begin with WOW. I have a new and unbounded admiration for FAMILIES who leave the lives they knew in pursuit of their dreams of something better. Immigrants, pioneers, and pilgrims have all left lands that they love - family members and neighborhoods, support systems they have trusted, roads that they knew - to venture into the unknown. Many times the "new world" has meant a new language and the isolation one can feel when a perfectly capable adult finds himself freshly illiterate.
My journey pales in comparison to the unknown faced by others. I speak the language, sort of. I have come before. And I know I am going home. But I had no idea how hard it would be.
I thought, naively, that because so many of the foods we enjoy at home are from whole foods, that I would be able to easily cook them here. It turns out that not even the fruits, vegetables, and meats are the same. If, somewhere nearby, they ARE, I wouldn't know how to ask to find what I'm looking for anyway. Sugar, butter, herbs are all staples packaged in a foreign tongue and looking nothing like they do at home. I've reflected on the evolution of national flavor as a result. Perhaps many of the foods we Americans think of as Italian, or Irish, or Scandinavian are only the echos of what the cooks could create once they found themselves in America. I admire and praise mothers who have brought their children into an unfamiliar environment and braved the babble of market places, or sewn their own seeds in unfamiliar soil, all in the hope of creating a flavor of home that will nurture the bodies and souls of their families.
We left a house full of comfort and I didn't expect to miss it quite as much as I have. Again, I knew I was coming to a modern, first-world country. I can't imagine saying good-bye to my beloved house and all it's comforts forever! How DID women ever agree to leave so much behind to carve out lives in the wilderness?!
In dozens of small, little ways, living life as a family away from the family life we knew has been a challenge. Sometimes not one I can even put into words, but one I certainly feel. I am often alone as a mother in a country where most mothers work. I am alone by my illiteracy. The loneliness can feel like it's own wilderness. And yet, I am not alone. I DO speak the language and the kindness of the people here has made an eternal impression. I feel blessed to have a "big" family - that while my children feel this loneliness too because all of THEIR peers are in school all day, they still have each other.
And OF COURSE there is an utter joy for us to be in Taiwan as well. And maybe the immigrants, pioneers and pilgrims felt that too - marveled at the mountains, open spaces, flora, fauna, cities, or opportunities, or reunion with family, and felt blessed. But I am humbled by their sacrifices as I take the smallest taste of what their experience might have felt like. My own little sample has certainly become it's own feast of thanks giving.
