We are home...

The last month in Taiwan was very busy for Claude and Susan. Claude had meetings in Taiwan and Chicago regarding water technology. Susan was finishing the semester and presented workshops for the Taipei City Government, Child Welfare League Foundation, and MacKay Hospital Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team.

After visiting with Susan's parents in Detroit and visits from our daughter Amy and her husband and sons, we are trying to adjust to being here. Our bodies are here, but our minds and spirits have not quite made it back...

Stop by if you have a chance, we would be happy to share the years adventure with you. It has made us different people, but we think you will still recognize us.

Thanks for traveling with us,

Claude and Susan

Mother's Day on Kinmen Island

Kinmen Island is only 10 miles from the coast of the Chinese mainland. It was the outpost closest to the mainland that the KMT held after fleeing the mainland in 1949. As a result of its position and symbolic value, it has been the buffer between China and Taiwan. Much bombing and even a ill conceived invasion from China occurred. The island had a large number of troops -- 200,000 at one point -- and still has an army base of about 2000. Some of the sites that we visited were left from that time. An entrepreneurial knife maker from Kinmen (Maestro Wu) has even used the steel from shells from China to forge into very nice knives - not exactly ploughshares, but we like the idea of them being recycled for peaceful purposes -- such as preparing food.

Kinmen Island is also famous for its noodles...

A Taiwanese friend encouraged us to travel to Kinmen soon after our arrival in Taiwan. She brought us many brochures and talked of her love for the island and its traditional villages and Western style houses built by Kinmen immigrants to Malaysia and Singapore. She accompanied us and made arrangements for us to stay in the bed and breakfast of a friend of hers. The trip coincided with a trip for Claude to consult on fresh water production issues. The people of Kinmen (like the people of the Marshall Islands) get their fresh water from lens wells (pools of fresh water floating on denser salt water) and collection of rain water. These sources are not enough to sustain the fresh water needs of the island and the water supply has to be supplemented with water shipped in from Taiwan. Claude is working with them to see if technology he brought to the Marshall Islands might be feasible.

So, Susan and Yi-Hung flew in on Saturday after his work was finished. Kinmen is subject to fog at this time of the year so they had an extra hour circling in the air before they landed. The fog was so dense at times that it felt like they were suspended in dense cotton. At one point, Susan looked out and thought, "How would you do this without instruments to help find the horizon?" While we were in the air circling, Yi-Hung explained how many Chinese tourists enter Taiwan via Kinmen. She also explained how many people are talking about building a bridges between the close islands to facilitate tourism. It seems that  China and Taiwan are in a bidding match for the heart of Kinmen. Right now many Chinese take boats to Kinmen and then fly to Taipei. The airport was busy, clean and decorated in the granite that is the primary substance of which the island is made. It is quite beautiful, clean and welcoming. Yi-Hung had made arrangements for a car, so we took off. The island is shaped like a dog-bone or a barbell -- the airport is on the Taiwan side of the "handle" of the barbell and Claude's hotel was in the middle of one of the weights where the major city on the island is located. We met Claude at his hotel and had lunch and toured some of the major sites of the island. As we drove around we saw the ubiquitous monster tour buses ferrying Chinese tourists from one site to another. They seemed too big for the small roads and the small island.

The roads are in excellent shape and flowers are planted along all the major roadways. It is at once civilized and wild. The years that the army was on the island no people who were not from Kinmen could visit here, so many birds started using it as a resting place during the cold Chinese winter. While we were driving we saw many kinds of birds that are just indigenous to Kinmen and China.

Because the island experiences many strong cold winds from China, they have erected many small and large wind lions to protect the island and its people from the danger of these strong winds. Some of them look fierce, others look more benevolent - they were all delightful.

Easter and Mother's Day

Easter
Easter is a non-event in Taiwan. Catholic churches we attend had the same activities for Holy Week, but it was very low key no procession through the streets or around the neighborhood. I visited a colleague who is the Chair of the Social Work Department at Fu-jen Catholic University, who said that Catholics are a small religious minority in Taiwan -- about 1.5-2% of the 20.7 million people in Taiwan. In this country of boisterous religious celebration it was very quiet. We attended Holy Thursday Liturgy at St. Christopher's Church -- a predominantly Filipino community and 12 men, each representing one apostle, had there feet washed by the celebrant with lots of help by the female altar servers.
On Easter day we went to an evening liturgy -- a first in many years. We did not find an English Easter Vigil.

On Easter Sunday, we had dinner with  a colleague and his family. It was a very good way to spend the day. They have a one year old (just barely visible over the top of the table) and a three year old. It was a lot of fun to have little ones around. Su, the wife, did her college training in Florence, Italy so she is fluent in Italian and English as well as Mandarin. They also were open to a simple Italian dinner. The older son made our hearts feel good, he really enjoyed the pasta. The one year was partial to the bread sticks. Claude made friends with both of them, he is such a good surrogate "uncle/grandpa." It was a delightful day for us.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day on the other hand is a very big day in Taiwan. Our grandson, Sean, made himself small and flat and sent himself in the mail. So he was here to celebrate Mother's Day on May 2nd and then we mailed him back to Raleigh. 



Sean's Visit



 He visited the pre-school of a friend of ours. The pre-school was honoring mothers. They had the children do many activities: sing, massage the mothers' shoulders and feet (mothers were very emotionally touched by these activities as were the guests), help the mothers make a flower arrangement and eat celebration cake. It was fun for us and him. Our Taiwanese friends got into the spirit of "flat" Sean, too. 



Sean and Grandma



Sean and Grandpa



Sean and other children at pre-school

Massaging Mom's Feet

Susan and Janet

Our friend (and Chinese teacher), who invited us to attend the celebration, was my surrogate child that day and helped us arrange flowers and made sure we were generally having a good time.  

The weekend of May 8th, we traveled with another Taiwanese friend and fellow social worker to Kinmen Island, a small island close to the Chinese mainland. If you are my generation you may remember hearing about "Quimoi" during the Nixon-Kennedy Presidential Debates. It is now called Kinmen Island. A beautiful island. More to come on later posting to the blog.

Hope you had a fine Mother's Day.

Susan and Claude





Back again...

Curtain call...

The past six weeks have been very hectic with visits from friends from Urbana-Champaign and Michigan. It was fun to share our favorite parts of Taiwan. While our friend Linda was visiting us, we were able to see a traditional Taiwanese opera. Claude and I had to go to Michigan for an emergency. Susan's mother was very ill, but is doing better right now after the placement of a stent in an artery going to her heart. We have returned to Taiwan to finish out our last three months. It will be very hectic for Susan -- class, workshops, and presentations in Taiwan and China.


Last weekend we were fortunate enough to literally run across a local celebration for the goddess Matzu and we were with our friend Yi-hung so she could help us understand what was happening. Here are some of the pictures from our encounter with the celebration of Matzu's birthday...

There are 12 foot tall gods that represent the helpers of Matzu. They parade through the streets to clean up any evil spirits who might be making trouble for the neighborhood people. One has good eyesight and can see anyone not acting right, one has good hearing and can hear any negative talk, etc.

We followed the parade through the streets. There were the gods in elaborate costumes followed by small visiting Matzu statues in palanquins. They were visiting a powerful Matzu in the local neighborhood and would return to their local temple after the celebration regenerated them and made them more powerful.



There was also a baby god in a small palanquin. He was holding the ring of eternity. For each stop on the route through the neighborhood twin lion dancers and dragon dancers performed. This was followed by paperless fire crackers. At the end of the parade through the neighborhood, they took up residence in a local park.

Before...



Afer igniting...

At the park, the temple had hired traveling Taiwanese opera performers to perform in honor of the god. You can see from the pictures it was very interesting. Our friend told us this is not the most elaborate festival, but it was certainly enthusiastic! It was fun to be so close to the activities.




Palanquins for the visiting Matzus...



Dragon Dancers

Orchestra for performance of the opera

It's good to have friends...

Dinner for Joyce's birthday...how many years young?

Yes, that's right, friend from Champaign and Urbana did brave the 20 hour flight to spend time with us in Taiwan. They had an opportunity to see the last vestiages of the lantern display at Chiag-Kai Shek Memorial -- a beautiful display of hand painted lanterns, experience Taipei winter -- cold and damp sometimes and warm and balmy others.  We enjoyed having them here and we have been a little down all this last week with them gone.

We're not sure how helpful those English
menus were...

They got to try lots of special food from Taiwan, ride on the high speed rail, listen to aboriginal music, and shop, but we'll let you tell there story.


We took them to some of our favorite places - Sun Moon Lake. The gondola ride on Maukong.

Floral display

We also had a chance to visit the floral exhibit. It was really beautiful. I think everyone in the group enjoyed the times we spent together.

Claude and Susan



These teapots are survivors...

Survivors of 1999 earthquake...

The teapots and cups in this picture are from a tea shop in Jushan that collapsed and has been rebuilt. The caligraphy on the outside of the cup is "tea." The caligraphy on the inside of the cup calls the taster to "enjoy the fragrance" as well as the taste. The small teapot on the left is from Yixing in China. It is famous for indistructible teapots. When we were in China 12 years ago, we remember people lining the road banging teapots together with wild abandon to show how indistructible they are. With these teapots it is certaingly true!

Friends invited us to their shop, invited us to share tea with them, and told us the story of the teapots on display at their shop. During the severe earthquake in 1999, many homes and lives were lost. The tea shop was on the ground floor of a multi-story building. The living spaces for the family were not damaged, but the tea shop collapsed. Many pots and cups were crushed, but a few survivied. Our friends knew we were looking for a tea pot and some cups so that we could have tea in the afternoon in the Taiwanese way -- multiple steeping, tasting and savoring of the tea and the company of each other -- a time to slow down and really attend to the smell and flavor of the tea be present to the other person. It seems to me nothing is so fragrant as Oolong tea from Taiwan. The high mountain tea is very delicate and delicious through multiple steepings and pourings. Pot and cups are warmed with boilint water. The tea is put in a small teapot to cover the bottom. The boiling water goes into the small teapot. The rolled tea leaves unbend and release their beautiful fragrance and delicious flavor. The tea is brewed for a short time and put in another container to serve all around. This prevents the tea from becoming bitter. This is done at each steeping and pouring.

Taipei Tea Shop

It is a serene and relaxing way to spend time with friends sharing a languid moment of quiet of spirited conversation with people we enjoy. The Taiwanese style tea tasting is a way to stop and enjoy the day. It is great. Even Claude is drinking tea! We are learning to sit with each other with calm and grace. We are thankful for all the friends who have helped us learn about this very delightful way to to value our day time and each other. We look forward to tasting tea with all of you.

Claude and Susan

Latern Festival Wow!



Grandma's Lantern Shop - Yi-Hung and Claude

 Thursday, February 17th is the official close of the Lunar New Year. The new year celebrations end with the Lantern Festival. There are spectacular festivals around Taiwan that include launching very large paper lanterns powered by burning paper in the bottom of the lantern. The most famous is in Taipei County in Pingxi. Thanks to our friend, Yi-Hung, we were able to travel with her and negotiate the taxi, MRT, buses, trains, and foot power to participate in the Lantern Festival.

As you can see there are all kinds of lantern, but these are small ones...

Pingxi is a long time vacation and honeymoon area. Our friend told us that people in the south of Taiwan would come here to see the widest waterfall in Taiwan. We hiked together done to the waterfall. I know it looks like we are standing in front of a fake background, but we are really out there in the mist of the day. This is a very beautiful spot. It reminded us of my father's favorite vacation spot -- Niagra Falls in the U. S. It has that same curve.

A little history...

This area was a coal mining area that was developed during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The mine has been closed for many years, but the railroad, river, and romantic scenery allowed the area to develop into a tourist area. Even the former residences of the Japanese managers are used for a bed and breakfast and restaurant. The train is the original narrow gage rail system that the Japanes introduced to carry coal out of the area.

And then the lanterns...

The Latern Festival ends the Lunar New Year with positive hopes for the coming year. Yi-Hung told us that when she was a little girl, her mother would buy two small lanterns for her and her sister and they would walk together through the streets in their neighborhood to end the new year festivities.

The original sky laterns were made of white tissue paper and people would write their wishes and prayers for the coming year on them before they launched them hoping the gods would hear their prayers. Now the lanterns are made out different colors of tissue paper and have different meanings such as green for health, pink for love, red for good luck, etc. Because friends and family have had some health problems, we chose a green lantern and wrote all our wishes on it.

 Mom and Dad,

Terry Jobin for good health. Continued good health for Amy, Pete, Liam and Sean; Jodi, Jeremy, and Tyler, and all the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and grands. May 2011 be a good year for all.

There it goes...

Happy Lantern Festival!