Of Mice & Rice

Have you ever sat in a little road side restaurant listening to the sounds of frying, smelling the amazing aromas of fried food and spice, eating beef fried rice, with ‘green things’ on the side only to look down and see a cute little brown mouse eating some of the food that’s been dropped next to you?

It’s about that time that you begin to wonder why the beef you’re eating is in such dainty little pieces! Is it really just to test my chopstick skills – or is there perhaps another reason that just ran out the door with its latest trophy between its protruding teeth?

It was beautiful fried rice too!

Journey Into The Mountains

After being confined to a number of government office complexes, hotel rooms and vehicles I finally had a chance to get out into the Mountains and see some of the people that have been affected by typhoon Morakot.

It was late afternoon when we left the town and headed into the mountains. It had been raining off and on for two days, the bitumen in town was slick with rain and oil, but as we travelled higher into the mountains the road surface became even more of a challenge – it wasn’t there!

Where the narrow mountain roads had once been piles of road and rock debris created a muddy undulating avenue, courtesy of the heavy machinery that had cleared access routes. On the right of the vehicle high mountains of shale stretched into the sky, still unstable and still falling lightly; on the left a precipitous drop to what had once been a wide clear river was guarded by temporary road barriers and string.

The river, apparently once wide and clear, is now a collection of narrow streams contained by thousands of tones of fallen mountain debris. But this is one of the lucky places – there were no houses in the route taken by these landslides. These mountain areas are the home of Taiwanese aboriginal people, no one else can buy, or own land in these areas. The people who live in these villages in the shadows of these awesome mountains are poor, agriculturalists, (Christians predominantly), whose families have inhabited these lands for centuries.

With one of our vehicles loaded with rice and other food we drove into the forecourt of the village church to be met by a dozen primary aged kids who were willing to take any excuse to put their home work aside – even if it meant unloading boxes of snacks and drinks. 89 people live in this village, primarily grandparents taking care of children and farms, while the mums and dads travel and live in nearby towns to try and get work and income.

And these are the lucky people (this time).

Puli

My hosts in Puli, Captains Jonah Wu and Jenny Chen have been gracious. They are passionate Christians who when people were needed to assist in the recovery of the 1999 earthquake in Puli shut down their own business and became officers. With almost ten years experience now they manage a multifacted, vibrant front line mission.


One of their passions is education and discipleship: with this same passion they have introduced me to the foods of Taiwan, including the Steam Boat experience, up until this stage they have avoided the McDonalds and KFC in town. (The fork in the picture was not used - only the chopsticks - I passed the test of picking up a pea with them the other day - but I have not yet been able to catch a fly; sorry Mister Miyagi.)


In addition to his Corps and Centre responsibilities Captain Jonah has been assisting IES personnel with translation and driving for over a month now. He's a good man - without him, (and his team) I would be lost -literally. Over the next days we will be doing a fair bit of travelling together as we re-visit mountain schools and city offices throughout the southern half of this beautiful island.

Moon Festival

Last night I had the privilege of attending a Moon Festival dinner at The Salvation Army’s Boys Home here in Puli. The local Lion’s Club has taken an interest in the Boys for a while now, and once a year they bring their club, and lots of food, including Moon Cake, to the Basketball Court at the back of the Community Development Center is Puli.

In three locations around the town of Puli (in Taiwan 80,000 people is a small town!) 80 boys, up to the age of 18, are offered a future through the care and love of a team of generous people. These boys come to The Salvos through 14 courts around the island. Each of them have ‘problems’ that have resulted in a run in with the law – and rather than confinement, they are housed with The Salvos. (Unfortunately some, when 18, will go from here to Prison.)

But, whilst here at Puli they attend a local school, and are part of the community. 36 of the older boys have part-time jobs, and all of them find the chance of family. Some of them learn to play brass instruments and join one of three bands – another opportunity not just to learn music but to learn teamwork and reliance on others. They learn to listen to others.

One of the teachers from the local Junior High says, “Boys in The Salvation Army have the opportunity to experience family and in that environment they build [some for the first time] their self-confidence and worth”.

Here, at the Puli Centre the boys get a second chance and they experience hope!

Pan Jia Pao (10 years old)

When Typhoon Morakot swept over the island of Taiwan in the early days of August, there was not too much notice taken of it. Morakot seemed to be no worse than any of the numerous typhoons that carve their paths across ‘beautiful island’, (the literal translation of Ilha Formosa, the name given to the island by Dutch explorers on a Portuguese ship in 1544).

But Morakot was different: in the two days that followed 2.5 meters of rain fell on the southern mountains: a tourist mecca of amazing natural beauty and home to hundreds of aboriginal Taiwanese people: for many these lands had been in their families for centuries.

The torrential rain caused massive mud and land slides, rivers flooded and together they destroyed 42 bridges and numerous roads. The mud and water, together with the vegetation they collected, buried entire villages and resulted in the death of approximately 614 people, the displacement of over 25,000 and, as of this week, approximately 75 are still missing.

Pan Jia Pao, a 10 year old boy, lived with his family and 395 other people in the village of Shoulin in the mountains. On the 8th of August, the land sunk into the ground and every single person was buried. Pan was not there, two weeks earlier he had been placed in the care of The Salvation Army Boys Home at Puli – today he is the sole survivor.

As The Salvation Army, and numerous other organizations, try to identify the best way to assist the victims of this natural disaster we continue to be hampered by the fact that it is impossible to access some of the villages deep in the mountains. Government is responding, and donations are coming – but the fact remains that there are over 25,000 people who have lost everything: ancestral land, homes and belongings, not to mention family members and friends.

The challenge ahead is both long and short term: how do we engage and re-energise people that have lost not only family, but material possessions, homes and livelihoods that they will probably never reclaim. What do they need and how can we provide for the immediate; how do they rebuild their identity and self-worth when all that they have relied on to define themselves is buried and/or unstable?

Day 2…

[Don’t worry this is not going to turn into a dear diary!]

After a warm night on a hard bed, today started with a breakfast of bean curd soup, a rice ball and cold black tea in a street side café in central Kaohsiung. I had awoken to the sounds of bird song in the meditation garden below me, but the birds were soon joined by the commands of what sounded like a martial arts class, but in fact was senior citizens aerobics.

After vacating the aged care facility we were on our way to another meeting, another temperature check and sanitisation. Each time I enter (not just me!) a government building or a hotel, I have had an electronic temperature gun aimed at my forehead, my hands sprayed with sanitiser and either a sticker or stamp applied to signify I am N1H1 safe. This morning was no different as I headed into the Kaohsiung County Government building to meet with the Governor’s staff – my temperature in the safe zone (36.5 degrees), my hands sanitised, and another cup of Chinese tea.

The Taiwanese people are a gentle, generous people – and so far the reception by all the people I have met, regardless of status and faith ideology, has been welcoming and grateful. (Even Starbucks gave us free coffees when they heard who we were and why we were here.)

The Salvos have been involved in the response and recovery of Typhoon Morakot since 8/8 and at the moment are assisting 42 schools in 3 counties with materials for students, water filters and generators. This assistance (in excess of $100,000) has been very gratefully received and will continue for a while yet.

The challenge now is to identify the gaps in response needs. The Taiwanese government and the ‘big’ NGOs have the material aspects of the recovery fairly well sown up – or so it seems at the moment. But there are numerous gaps – so with the help of local Salvos, and in partnership with local governments, we are currently conducting a needs assessment of the affected peoples in 4 areas – so that we can deliver some hard facts and design a focused portfolio of response options.

I’m now back in Puli (IES base) so that I can be briefed on the response so far, and officially take over as Team Leader from Captain Julian who heads back to Singapore in the next few days. Something tells me there are some ‘fun and games’ to come.

Day 1...

The day started early as I stepped out onto the unexpectedly quiet, but already warm, humid street to catch a taxi to the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Kaohsiung. The train, mercifully comfortable and cool, sped the 300km south to Taiwan's second largest city in 96 minutes, (that's about 200km per hour), depositing me in the city just in time to be whisked away to my first government meeting with the Director of Social Welfare for the County of Kaohsiung.

As I sat, sipping oolong tea, I found myself in an exercise of patience and frustration control: I understood not a single word that was spoken and smiling when everyone else laughed, or when the Director smiled at me, seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Apparently it was a good meeting!

Despite there being 22M people in a country only 400km long and 120km wide, the streets were unexpectedly quiet. Except for the constant bee hive like sound of hundreds of motor scooters buzzing and dodging cars, trucks and busses it appeared organised - if that's possibile in amidst the organised chaos. But, by the evening the streets came awake, street stalls appeared and people seemed to morph out of the shadows and fill the street side restaraunts.

After another drive north to Tainan, and a meeting with the Corps Officers, we headed for Cijin, apparently famous for it's seafood restaurants, and lucky me, (B&P I tried the, "I don't eat fish line") I got to choose my menu from the tanks and ice racks. Seaweed soup, sour gourd, bugs, crabs, snails, frogs, prawns and rice, all washed down with sweet, cold green tea. I did enjoy some of it!

So now it's back to tonights base. A room in a Buddhist Aged Care facility in Kaohsiung. It's been a day of culture, gastronomic and linguistic shock! But for now, I join Captain Julian Wong (Singapore) and Captain Jonah Wu (Taiwan) - before Julian leaves me on Thursday to begin his trip home.

Tomorrow? I'll wait and see.

ROAD TO TAIWAN

The next 'venture begins this morning. I wait for the flight out to Taiwan with both a sense of excitement about being involved in work I believe in and am passionate about, and a sense of concern - hoping that I know enough to stay above the water and maybe even learn to ride another wave and discover ways in which I can make life better for the people affected by Typhoon Morakot.

So right now I sit waiting for the flight to Hong Kong and onto Taiwan. I read the available material and learn about the culture, the history, the politics and the goegraphy of Taiwan and her people. I read what the INGO community is up to, and what the Salvos have done (and its excellent work) and dream about ways in which we might yet be involved in the ministry of transforming lives in the South of Taiwan.

TAIWAN - TYPHOON MORAKOT

On 8th August 2009, typhoon Morakot swept across Taiwan, particularly affecting the south of the island and especially in mountain regions. The Salvation Army personnel in Taiwan, despite the comparatively few that there are, immediately set about trying to find ways of assisting the victims of the disaster. In the initial days, it was thought that there was not a great deal of difference between this typhoon and ones seen regularly on this island. However, as the first week passed by, it became very clear that the mountainous region south of where Morakot tracked, took the heaviest rainfall for many years – 2.5 meters in 2 days. This rain produced floods and landslides, with rivers breaking their banks, homes being swamped with water and mud, and homes being washed away, especially on the mountain roads. Many roads and 44 bridges were destroyed, making many areas inaccessible and leaving many families displaced and stranded. To date, the estimated loss of life is in the region of 200+ with up to 300 still missing. In addition to this 25,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are being cared for in churches and Buddhist temples throughout the central and southern region of Taiwan.

I am being deployed by The Salvation Army to assist the Region in the recovery programs and will be in Taiwan for 6 weeks from next Monday (21 September).

If you are interested in more details check out these links:
The Salvation Army Taiwan: http://www.salvationarmy.org.tw/web/489357/1
Photos of Taipei Central Corps’ work: http://tpcsatw1.blogspot.com
News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8202821.stm

Principles of Cross-Cultural Communication (#4)

Principle 4: Demand that everyone know my rules and play by them.

A couple of weeks ago a young student, newly arrived from China, had the courage to walk off the street and into the foyer of a church in Preston, Australia. She found a spot on a bench in the foyer where she sat, listened and watched the service. Protected by a glass wall, she observed the proceedings occurring in the main auditorium and despite the utter 'foreignness' of what she saw, she stayed... she had been part of a church back home, but nothing like this.

After the service she was left alone as people from all cultures, christians all (they say), walked around her and wondered, "who is she, what is she doing here?" (I know, because I am one of them!) Marshalling my courage I spoke to her, and she asked, "Am I allowed to be here"? "Am I allowed to go into the Sanctuary"? "But there are a lot of people in blue suits - can I belong?"

This encounter reminded me of a number of things relevant to the image we portray and the environment we build, but mainly it reminded me that often we just expect everyone to know the rules we play by. We expect they will not only know the rules, but abide by them, because they are our rules!

We presume that by some kind of religious osmosis people will understand how to behave, how to speak and what they should wear: we presume that they will know what we believe and believe it themselves: we demand that they do this - that they play by our rules - or they can stay in the foyer. They can observe but not belong. (And we are arrogant enought to assume that they want to jump our hoops and belong after all this.)

Innate within every person is the need and the longing to belong - to be a part of something bigger than we are - to be in relationship. Faith or religious adherence is irrelevant to this - this lust to be together, this drive to be connected is an inherent and unalterable characteristic of the human.

But, despite the fact that this should be so obvious to those who call themselves Christ followers, we still manage to build hurdles to belonging. We still manage to demand allegiance to our rules and regualtions; we still demand some kind of precogniscience of all that we are - before we let others through the glass and into the sanctuary. (After all we have a heritage to protect!)