Life 生活

(Rest a bit!)

I was looking back through the list of updates on this blog, and I realized that of the last six I've done, only one has had anything to do with actual life in Taiwan. I mean, yeah, going places is really interesting- definitely for me and hopefully for you- but the reason I keep this blog active is so that I can encourage and inform people back home about Taiwan, and foreign service in general. So let's talk about life in Taiwan.

The first thing you need to understand about Taiwan is that it's not America. (Or any other country besides itself- a shout out to the ten people in South Korea who read this!) (And Brian in Rwanda!) That seems obvious, yet it's something that I myself didn't really understand when I first got here. In a way, it was almost impossible for me to have understood that- I had only left America once before, for three weeks; that's not really enough time for it to sink in, I don't think.

What I mean by that is that the Taiwanese people have a fundamentally different thinking process than most Americans, brought about by both the difference in culture and in language, and that shows in everything. I mean, of course, people are still people- everyone eats, needs a place to live, buys clothes, that kind of thing- but the standards are different, and everyone is okay with that. The restaurant has roaches on the floor of the dining room, but that's okay because all their dishes are sterilized and spotless. A businessman will drive a BMW home from work to sleep on a tatami mat on the floor. Traffic lights are more like guidelines, although there aren't as many accidents as you might think... stuff like that.

Of course, as one of Jehovah's Witnesses, it's nice to have the congregation to turn to- no matter where we go in the world, we have friends and the support our brotherhood brings.

Sometimes the support is more literal than others.

And this congregation, Taipei South, is a really cool one. It's huge, first off- over 180 people- and as soon as we have enough elders, we'll split. The trouble is, all of our six elders are foreigners- two from America, one from Hong Kong, two from Japan and one from Korea. We have two local brothers serving as ministerial servants right now, but there just aren't enough Taiwanese brothers taking the lead for the congregations to be reasonably sized. And that, in large part, is because of the draft, which until recently was really nasty for our brothers to deal with.

It used to be every male Taiwanese citizen had to join the military for two years, and if you didn't you went to jail. No alternative service, nothing, jail. After you served your term, you would be drafted again... and be jailed again. And again, and again. So many brothers, faced with the choice between serving Jehovah wholeheartedly but life in prison (leaving their wife and kids with very little income, no less) and serving in the military for two years... chose the military. Happily, Taiwan introduced alternative military service a few years ago, and now our brothers (like Jerry) have a third option, so hopefully the elder problem will be resolved quickly.

It's a really warm, energetic congregation, full of young people and foreign pioneers who have come to improve their Chinese, for one goal or another. We often do things together, from our weekly sports night, to movie nights, family worships, just hanging out in the park...

This time it was movie night!

The territory is a very good one as well. In general, people in Taiwan are very friendly, especially to foreigners, and even more especially to foreigners who can speak Chinese, so although obviously not everyone wants to talk to us it is very refreshing to have most everyone treat us well. 

Our territory is the heart of Taipei City- we have over 700,000 people in our small chunk of Taipei alone! That means the large majority of our preaching work is done intercom-to-intercom rather than door-to-door, which can get a bit frustrating as not all buildings maintain their intercoms very well, and sometimes it's impossible to have a conversation simply because you can't make out what they're saying through the static! At least we are able to place things inside mailboxes, though- often if we're having trouble actually talking we'll simply offer to leave a tract in the mailbox, and most people accept.

Less than half of our congregation owns a car, and no one uses their car to come to the territory- we all go by foot or by bicycle. It's nice, sometimes, because you get some fresh air and exercise, which always makes you feel better. Taiwan is a very hot place, though, and walking everywhere you need to go can make you very tired, and even more sweaty... but that just means we take breaks often in the ministry.

Ice cream break, anyone?

Of course, we do other things besides just door-to-door territory work; for the last few months we've been regularly setting up a table at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, which has been enjoying incredible success pretty much every day. I worked there yesterday, actually, and in two hours we placed 18 books, 10 brochures and a few sets of magazines- and that was one of the slower days! The Memorial Hall is a tourist spot for Mainland Chinese tourists, so most people we talk to there are in fact from Mainland China. We can't exactly give interested ones names and numbers of people who they can contact for a study, but we can direct them to our website, which has never been banned in China... the new website tract is very useful!

Yesterday with Joel and Nikolai

As for me personally, I have two bible studies and five regular return visits, plus being regularly included on a few other studies that other brothers conduct. Before I came here, I was told that the mere fact that I'm a foreigner speaking Chinese would make bible studies fall into my lap- in fact, even when I arrived, several Taiwanese brothers and sisters told me as much. In my experience, that's not true, at least not here in Taipei. In fact, I would venture as far to say it's harder for foreign brothers to find interest than it is for locals, because Taipei has had missionary movements from all kinds of religions- Lutheran, Catholic, Mormon, etc- for about 150 years now, and they are thoroughly used to foreigners speaking Chinese and think they already know what we want to say.

That doesn't mean there's no need, however- I already mentioned the shortage of brothers in the congregations- and it's probably the best place in the world to learn Chinese, with a completely Chinese-speaking environment but plenty of foreign brothers and sisters to help you learn and many half-fluent Taiwanese people ready to try to guess at your meaning.

My living situation has improved a lot since I arrived. When I first got here, I lived in 談靜華 (Tan Jiemei)'s restaurant, but since then I've moved to a cheap apartment in the college district. Roommates have come and gone- Mason and Harry have been replaced with Joe and Jerry, and briefly Tom and now Joel- and we've steadily improved the place, fixing gas leaks, broken faucets, cockroach infestations, we even bought a table so we could have a place to sit together for family worship.

Although we still don't have things like plates, so we ate pancakes off of napkins and used spoons to cut them

Side note about furniture: In Taiwan, IKEA is considered pretty good quality stuff and moderately expensive. The alternative, though, is way harder- you go to the Furniture Street (industries are grouped into streets here for some reason- there's also the Appliance Street where we bought our fridge, and the Computer Street where I got this computer I'm using right now) and try to appraise stuff, then offer the boss some money for it. You then haggle him down to a hopefully acceptable price, and walk off with your new loveseat. Some people get really good deals this way, but I have a feeling I'd get ripped off... and anyway, I dislike regular shopping, let alone haggling.

Who needs stores, anyway? We got this lovely chair from the side of the street!

When I first arrived, I was on a scholarship to study Chinese, so that was my job- when I wasn't out preaching, I was usually studying. That's been over for quite a while, though, and I've had to find work. Even while I was still in school, I started teaching a private student named Alex- actually, I'm still teaching him- mostly for the practice, but also for a little extra fun money. Once I graduated, I found two more sets of students to teach- Hans and Jessie, and Gigi and Fifi. I really like my private classes, since I have a lot of freedom over how and what I want to teach them, and I can form a better relationship with the students. However, the pay isn't quite so high as at an actual school, I have to commute between their houses (I make house calls- convenient!), and they can cancel classes with no notice. In fact, I no longer teach Gigi and Fifi- they have no time during the school year for extra classes, but if I'm still around next summer their mother promised she'd give me a call to keep going.

Another problem is you cannot get a work visa from private students (unless you get incorporated and form a teaching company, which is too much work for most people). So, I got a job at a kindergarten called 樂學園, translated Happy Learning Garden, and taught there twice a week. I didn't like the class as much, but it was steady and they promised me a work visa. However, during Pioneer School I obviously couldn't teach my class- I was busy learning myself. I arranged for a brother from Taipei English to cover for me, and to make a long story short he totally dropped the ball and got me fired.

That made me sad, so here's a happy picture of a wood-fired pizza being made for me

It worked out in the end, of course- I used the extra time to work on my thesis, which by the way has been completed, submitted and accepted, and I started at a new school last week. Getting fired was really a blessing in disguise, actually- this school is way more professional, the kids are better-behaved, the pay is higher, and to top it all off I work at the same school with Terry, our former missionary brother who married a Taiwanese sister, so if I ever have any problems or questions I can go ask him and chances are he figured out the answer ten years ago. I'm waiting on my degree to arrive in Taiwan, and as soon as I have it they'll submit the paperwork for my ARC- essentially a Taiwanese green card. It's taken a bit of time, effort and 麻煩, but as of right now it seems like everything's in the clear! I think for right now I want to stay here another year, save some money, and see what opportunities open up.

This was the pizza, by the way- Banana Almond

So, no real Indiana Jones- level heroics going on or anything, but although life is different in Taiwan it does still keep going. I preach and teach the good news about the Kingdom, I teach English so I can eat and have Internet access, and I try to go interesting places with interesting people. It helps that the congregation here is so fluid- there are always new interesting people to hang out with! And speaking of interesting places, I'm going to a place called Green Island tomorrow. I'll tell you all about it...