Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! This gives a whole different meaning to the opening line of the Christmas song. For a country that doesn't exactly celebrate Christmas they sure do have the market on actually roasting chestnuts on an open fire.
It's raining here but the Christmas spirit ... well some of it even reaches this part of the world. Downtown, Christmas trees have gone up and department stores have decorated with some of the greatest ornaments and bright lights. You can hear Christmas music all around the city much to my delight.

My English class and I had a little party to celebrate the end of a session. They told me that having parties like this was very North American. They normally go out to restaurant or karaoke bars to celebrate. After eating we played the game where you stick a name of a famous person on your head and have to ask questions to guess who you are. It was super funny and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves. This class was an intermediate English class although they seemed quite proficient in the language. I used each teaching opportunity to address current world issues like fair trade, sex trafficking and racism and each time they proved eager to tackle the difficult English vocabulary and the hard moral issues.

Life In Taiwan

Traditional food to the city I live in.Kinda like fish ball soup. More people eat at dinners like this for dinner than at home because it's cheaper and faster.


Nothing beats a little Bubble Tea. Course here it only costs a dollar compared to the 4 or 5 back at home.


Some friends I made. They've been helping me with my Chinese.


Danshui Night Market, the place where I've been living.



The little kitchen at the dinner.


Two of my friends turning the Asian picture pose into something a little more ghetto ... kind of.

Taiwan Formosa

I sit on the subway reading the English subtitles beneath the Chinese characters, looking at all the people crammed in around me and after a brief reminder that I am in fact in Taipei not Toronto, I smile to myself and think, "feels pretty normal to me." This city is fasinating melding of worlds old and new. Ancient China, meet the West. Skyscrapers, ancient Buddhist temples, Louis Vuitton and street markets all bustling with activity from morning until way into the night. I will attempt to recreate my last 6 weeks here now that I have a camera so you too can experience the Formosa Island.

Near the busy Taipei Main MRT Station lies a building called the Taiwan Story. As you walk down the stairs you are transported in time to 19th Century Taiwan. Coblestone streets, recreated stores and homes and a tavern straight out of those movies that we’ve all come to love like Crouching Tiger. With our little map and our food tickets my 2 friends and I made our way around the museum stopping, of course, to have a traditional Taiwanese meal in the tavern. All we needed were swords on the table and some warriors. I couldn’t help but think that I can go anywhere in the world but I’ll never be able to travel back in time. How sad! Ancient Taiwan would have been fun!!

Taiwan: First Impressions

I probably walked enough miles today to burn off all the calories I gained over the summer. My favourite thing to do ever in a new place is to lose myself in the city. With a scribbled map in hand … enough to get me to the train station so I could find my way home I walked aimlessly around Dan Shui. It’s actually a cool city. And coffee drinkers have no fear … coffee shops galore including 2 Starbucks within a mile or so. And yes the coffee tastes exactly as it does at home. I also managed to find a massage place and then find an even cheaper one, many many temples, a castle and a market full of so many different foods that I’m pretty sure it’ll take me all year to try them all.


There’s something about walking though a market place that’s beautiful. I think it’s all the people, bustling about, the noise, the smells and sounds. On either side of me the crowds weave in and out while vendors announce their products. I don’t think I knew what anything was. Ok, I can pick out bubble tea and well .. that’s about it. The people here are beautiful. I walked into a store and everyone takes off their shoes before you go in. Granted it’s a shoe store but there’s something so peaceful about it. Like, take off your shoes, come in relax, stay a while. There were machines selling soft ice cream cones of every flavour for like 30 cents and obviously any kid eating it had it all over their face. Fried squid on a skewer, and don’t think calamari, think the whole squid, … like meat on a stick and you know how I love that.

On the waterfront there are people writing your name in Chinese calligraphy, portrait painters, 2 men dressed like monks singing and carnival games. It’s all pretty amazing. I wish I had a camera but there’ll be more time.

There are old temples that look like what you’re thinking when I say temple. Chinese style roofs, and gaudy deco. Red, gold, buddhas and other idols .. or are they all called buddhas? I have yet to find out. Incense burning. And then there are simple storefronts with small shines inside. What struck me though was that when you walk in a touristy church you have to buy or ‘donate’ to get a candle to burn. In every temple I walked into I could have taken a hand full of incense sticks or fake paper money for free. No I didn’t burn any but I sure wanted to. This month is ghost month and people spend much of their time trying to appease their ancestors. I need to find out more about it.

I’ve almost conquered jet lag … hooray for melatonin but I’m off to bed. Tomorrow I’m gonna go out to dinner with the SBS. They seem like a fun bunch.

LOVE STARVED

When we stepped out of the vans, all we could see was a blur of movement as some 20 children rushed at us, throwing themselves into our arms only to push off and lunge at the next nearest body until, after finally hugging every single person, they found one to attach themselves to for the remainder of the time. Barrio Marisol is a poor and severely marginalized community built up by the government in a earthquake-collapsed valley in the otherwise rich northern part of Armenia. Ruth, the creator and sole fulltime worker of the children's program, explained to us that by the age of 9, over 70% of these children who live with other siblings or grandparents, often abandoned by mother and father, will have lost their virginity to a family member. Some of the older ones may have gone to school but have since then dropped out to work so that they can help take care of younger brothers and sisters and most will never leave this barrio, turning instead to violence, prostitution, and drug dealing to make ends meet.

Diego sat beside me both days with a pad and pencil asking me how to say different words and phrases in English. As I would write it down for him and repeat the word slowly he would chime, in between trying hard to pronounce the words correctly, that he wanted to learn English so that one day he could get a good job. We were only there for 2 days but hopefully we were at least able to remind these kids that they are worth loving!

Old Friends, New Adventure and Michelle's Spectacular Tour of Colombian Food

Nothing says cultural experience like local street food. So I asked one of the Colombians to take us on a little tour. Meat on a stick, empanadas, little yummy cheesy bread balls, coffee milkshakes ... and I’m happy to say that none of us felt sick afterwards. Part of this tour included taking 2 of my teammates, Terri and Jackie, with me to see the family that I stayed with 4 years ago during. There we had the best homemade coconut ice cream in the world, flake pastry cones filled with arequipe (caramel spread) and “arepa con todo” which is like a thick corn tortilla with butter, meat and cheese. Needless to say, I’ll be hitting the gym now that I'm home. See the family was wonderful. It was great to be able to chat more clearly having a lot more language under my belt. The girls, Yuri and Jenny, who were 13 and 14 back then are now out of school with jobs and boyfriends and even the pastor I worked with is getting married soon. Honestly, just to see them again made the whole trip worthwhile.

It was also great to make some new friends. We were blessed to have a wonderful lady, Liliana, who helped us with meals. I'm pretty sure she wins the award for most servant hearted person in the world. We also had a bunch of youth stay with us at the farm on and off and the best part was that they were able to come to many of our work times. A large majority of our goal is not to go and work alone, but to equip others to work with us. It amazing watching the mentality of the Latin church shift from inside it's 4 walls to the people around them. Sandra and Margarita, 2 girls who bunked with us are 2 who have begun to understand this very concept. I had a long conversation with Sandra where she talked to me about her passion to meet the needs of the people around her. She is currently studying social work at university and working to see how she can practically apply her education and beliefs in her city. That's incredible.

COLOMBIA

In 1 week I'll be heading to Colombia with a team of 9. It's pretty crazy that it's come up so fast. I will be spending the first 10 days in Armenia, working with a youth conference, old pastor friends, street kids and other poor barrios, or communities there. Then I'll be flying to Cartegena to renew old friendships. I"m excited. I'll keep you updated as much as possible.

SUMMER '07

The world has indeed become a lot smaller in the last few decades but when you form important and hopefully life long friendships with people who all live far from you and no where near each other the idea of communication takes on a whole different meaning. Thank God for Skype and Facebook, texting and cheaper long distant plans, but you can only go so long until your heart becomes lonely for them. After all you became friends in the first place because you could talk late into the night, vent your frustration, go out on the town, share clothes etc and far away makes this a little more difficult. So I spent a large majority of this summer saving up and traveling around to see the people who are dear to me. Some people may have questioned how I could have afforded, both time and financially to do this. I have learned and deeply believe that relationships, thought they come hard, are the essence of our existence. So I will always do without in another area if it means that I can spend time, renew and pick up where I left off with people. Here are the stories of the summer. I hope that in reading them you will see how precious these people are to me that as I move to China I will be able to continue to invest in and nurture these relationships.

OTTAWA

Packed up the soccermom van, squished all 6 of us in and drove to the capital with a small detour in Montreal. It was awesome. My good friend Simon and his wife were moving to Ottawa for the year while he does some teacher's college and so we took the opportunity to help them get their new apartment ready. Nothing like washing walls and trying hard not to think about what caked onto them. I also got the time to get to know his wife Jenna who I didn't have much of a chance to know not living here for the last few years. She's by far the nicest person ever. Love her and am soo happy for them even though I'm sad they'll be 5 hours away. Guess next summer will take some more roadtrips. We stayed for Canada's day which was awesome. I don't think I've ever been there for it before and it was by far the coolest fireworks I've ever seen. Sorry Symphony of Fire! The street was full of people dressed in red, break dancers, circus performers and buskers all celebrating our birthday. And of course we made sure we got some beavertails in the Ottawa spirit.

CAMPING

Nothing like a little camping to relax and bond. Our site was a bit ghetto though. That first picture, our first site, is pretty much just sand with a manmade wall between us and the next site. Ha ha, we moved to somewhere they had grass. Seriously though, nothing like being on the side of a highway, hearing big semis go by all night long.
It's funny, we drove to the end of the road the next day to see where they might have been coming from and it was only another camp site. HMMMM!! Nevertheless the beach on Lake Erie was gorgeous. White sand and sun who can ask for more? Oh yeah, don't forget hotdogs, beans and marshmallows. I love camping!

SEATTLE

I may have found a new favorite city. Seriously though, big busy city, mountains, ocean. All the things one needs. My friend Jamie, who was in my first small group, showed me all over the city and we had some serious quality time. Can you say street markets!! You may remember Jamie from such events as cutting my hair and styling it into a Mohawk.

It was so great to reconnect with her and talk again. She's one of the most caring and servant-hearted people I know. She's a person who inspires me. She's preserved through so much and not once has been bitter or cynical but just keeps loving. There should be more people like her in our world. She's currently studying to become a chef so she can take that into micro enterprise development in 3rd world countries. I'm so blessed to have her in my life.

Washington State

Another story of adopting family. Not having a sister or brother kind of puts me outside the realm of aunt unless my future husband has siblings. So in the meantime meet my nieces. They're the kids of a good friend from Denver. We did Phase II together and she was often a lifesaver when I just needed to escape.
Reegan (two) and Keeana (6 months) are the girls who have stolen my heart. Little Reegan has finally been potty trained and Keeana is just starting to sit up as you can see. She still falls backwards every once in a while. They are sooo precious!! It's so hard not to be around to watch them grow up but at least I can still visit. Before I hit Seattle I stayed with Keeley and family at her folks house in Washington. They own an awesome restaurant called Pearl’s, which you should so check out if you're ever in Ellensburg. Lets just say her mom's an awesome chef and I gained a few pounds visiting!