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.
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.
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| The crew at the restaurant. |
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!
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!
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!
Always a thrilll for you and me. Once again I was enchanted by the divine assistance and blessings that have come your way. It's just AMAZING!!!
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