A Home Away from Home

Monday a small group of us went to ---- two hours away from Erlin to perform a mini show for the students. When we arrived we had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with the students about what it is like for us to communicate within a group of 100 students from 20 different countries and the importance of understanding cultural differences.  The students were very shy at the beginning and hardly spoke up. However, once we performed for them, they could not stop screaming and taking our pictures and autographs.

Tuesday the entire cast headed to Taichung, 90 minutes away, to work with university students and set up the stage for our show the next day. When we arrived, we were paired with several students that helped us translate in the classrooms and take us around the huge university.  We played interactive games for an hour with the students.  Like the previous day, the students were incredibly shy until we started laughing and having fun with the games. Once we made them laugh, they were more excited to participate and ending up having a blast. We went to two different classrooms and each time, it took us 20 minutes to leave because every student wanted pictures with us. We were rock stars and you could tell the students were very anxious for our free show for them the next day.

That evening mama and papa took Miguel and I to the night market down the street. Papa wanted to take us to the market on the scooters so I hopped on mama's scooter and Miguel got behind papa and we sped down the street to the market. It was somewhat frightening because there do not appear to be rules of the road. Scooters and cars drive on whichever side of the street seems most convenient.  Furthermore, the scooters wiz through all the cars on the street.  It was a fun adventure making our way to the night market. Once we arrived we could see and smell all the various foods. We passed tables selling sushi and others selling chicken feet. We passed a table selling squid and rather large frogs. One woman was chopping up cat fish and shoving them into a pot to cook. Papa bought us a traditional dish to try known as stinky  tofu. The name alone does not do the smell of the tofu justice. The smell and taste of the tofu taste like the first day of cattle season...  Papa wanted us to try tacos and Miguel and I got excited for a familiar meal, until we found out that the tacos we were eating were fried octopus balls.  Miguel and I had fun exploring the night market and just when we thought we were going home, papa told us that we had been invited to their neighbor's house who was hosting a cast mate.  We were losing our energy fast, but the two kids at the house wanted Miguel and I to play the wii. I've never been a big gamer, but Miguel and I could not figure out how to play the game so we just pushed buttons while the kids laughed at our attempt. After a while we finally headed home and I jumped into bed.

The following morning I worked on my global series presentation with Linnea, Annalies, and Nirite. It has been difficult for all of us to prepare our presentation because only two of us had access to Internet at our homes in the evenings.  As much work as it was to prepare, we were very excited to share our information with the cast. In the afternoon, we had rehearsal in the auditorium. This stage was the smallest stage we have performed on this far. The band and mic group singers, who are normally in the center of the stage, had to be moved to the floor to make room for the cast to be on stage.
Our partners that we were paired with the precious day came back to watch us during rehearsal and they were all extremely interested in joining UWP after spending the day with us. About 100 of the students took a back stage tour and listened to a presentation on how to be a part of a future cast.
The students went wild during the entire show. Every time we finished an energetic dance number, which is about every other song in the show, the students roared with cheers and endless applauding. I took picture after picture and signed so many autographs after the show with the students. We even had 60 students interested in more information about traveling, which is a great accomplishment.  After our two days at the university I am now up 25 Taiwanese friends on facebook and the number keeps growing daily.  And I am not quite sure I really officially met all of the students who added me on Facebook but that just contributes to making me feel even more like a rock star.

Thursday was our regional learning day where we got to explore the area.  We started the morning by visiting a rice castle, which was basically a museum of rice in a building that looked like a castle. It was difficult to understand our tour guide's accent, but I think I understood the process of growing and picking rice from the pictures. We even got to try some pop rice (pop corn made from rice) which was very good. From the museum we headed to the largest temple in Taiwan for lunch. I felt like I was at the imperial palace in Beijing because of its magnificent size. After lunch we visited another beautiful temple that was small in comparison. We then headed to the harbor for seafood snacks at a restaurant.  I have never been one to enjoy anything seafood but I had some clams, baby fried shrimp with their eyes still in-tacked, and a fried baby fish-bones and all.  After our snack we headed to a glass museum, which I am still trying to figure out its significance. It was a museum that had mirrors, windows, vases, and every animal imaginable made from glass.  Although I did not fully understand the importance of all of the sites we visited, I had a blast spending the day exploring with my friends.

Friday was the day of our hunger and poverty global series presentation.  The three girls and I spent the morning going over our presentation and finalizing our PowerPoint and information.  During lunch, we had a hunger banquet, which was an educational workshop that led into our discussion  on poverty and hunger. During lunch the cast was divided into three groups representing the three socioeconomic groups. I was put into the middle group-middle class.  The first class group represented 15% of the world's population. The middle class represented 25% and the lower class represented 60%. Our dining area had been changed into a gallery with heartbreaking quotes and pictures of poverty. It wasn't even three minutes before there were tears in my eyes. The first class group sat at a fancy table and was served course after course of catered food. My group sat in a circle of chairs and had to serve ourselves the rice that we were given along with water. The lower class had to take their shoes off and sit on cardboard on the floor surrounded by trash and was given an insignificant amount of rice and dirty water.  My group had to watch the first class lavishly dine while watching the lower class scrape every last bit of rice from the bowl.  It was a very eye-opening activity and it made me remember how blessed and fortunate I am to have three meals each day. It also made me decide that I will no longer complain about the food I am served. Whether or not I like the food I am given, I should be grateful that I have food on my plate.

After the hunger banquet it was our turn to present more information on poverty and hunger.  We spent the first 30 minutes discussing how poverty is defined, where it exists, and why it exists.  We then played a complex game with the cast that the four of us have  worked on for four weeks. The girls and I developed a Hunger Games activity that represented poverty in an interactive and competitor way. The cast was divided into districts and each district was limited by something related to poverty. One district was limited by their education and could not read or write. Another district was limited by technology. Each of these limitations would in turn, affect the districts participation in the activity. Each round the districts would send two competitors to the capital to compete in a game. However, not every district could play each round due to their limitation. As the game progressed, participants and districts died as a result of their limitation.

To make the Hunger Games activity more fun, we dressed up like people from the Hunger Games trilogy and treated the cast as though they did not matter. The cast had a blast playing the game, but began to get frustrated when they no longer had control over when and if they were able to participate. Once the game had ended, we spent 45 minutes debriefing the activity and I was amazed at how involved the cast became.  Our goals was for the cast to understand that there are so many factors that contribute to people living in poverty and most times, it's almost impossible to escape. There is often very little that people living in poverty can do to escape. We wanted the cast to realize that making a difference will have to come from someone on the outside who is willing to lend a hand. We head to The Philippines soon, a third world nation, and we challenged the cast to find their own unique way of making a positive difference in the life of someone while we are in The Philippines.  It was a very successful presentation and it was so nice to hear such positive feedback from our cast mates.

Saturday was our show in Erlin and for our host families. We had so many people want to see our show that we, unfortunately, had to turn away 100 people. It was another great show and the audience went crazy after every big dance number. Mama even bought me and Miguel flowers. Mama and papa's son, Oskar, lives and works in Taipei, came home to see the show and he pulled me aside and could not stop saying how much he loved the show. He said "thank you so much, you have no idea what you have done for this dying town."  It's times like this when you realize that Up With People has a gift to share with the world and its not about changing the world all at once-the change starts with one person.

Sunday was our host family day and we headed to Taichung again, but this time to explore the city. Mama, papa, and Oskar took me and Miguel to Top City for lunch, which is a brand new large shopping center. For the for the first time I saw familiar franchises like Baskin Robins and Cold Stone. My heart skipped a beat when I found a Dunkin Donuts. Because we got so excited at the donuts, papa bought us some to try and they tasted like a piece of heaven.  After lunch we went to pick up Oskar's sister and grandmother and walked around a nice park in the middle of the city.  Across from the park was another mall that had foliage growing on the outside of the building as well as inside, so we went to explore the mall.  Later  papa took us to an electronic store to see if we wanted to buy any electronics because they were cheaper than in America.  We headed to the biggest night market in Taichung for dinner. Miguel and I enjoyed a nice potato with toppings as well as some more stinky tofu, which does not taste nor smell better the more you eat it.

We ended the night by going to get haircuts and I must say there were many firsts with this haircut.  We got our haircuts in a place that papa compared to Costco or Walmart. It was a tiny room inside this building on the second floor. The first new experience was paying for the haircut which consisted of putting a bill into a machine and receiving a ticket. I felt like I was at a vending machine putting my money in and out pops a new haircut. When I sat down to get my haircut I gestured that I only wanted a little bit cut. The next new experience was getting my haircut while my hair was still dry. The lady started snipping away and I'm pretty sure there was a look of fear in my eyes. Five minutes later she was done and in order to get the cut hair off my head, she used a vacuum-another first.  All in all, I left with a new haircut and many new firsts under my belt. It was an exciting way to end a great day.

I do not even know where to begin to explain how wonderful and generous mama, papa, and Oskar were to me and Miguel.  One trait that I value above all others is kindness and if I could raise my children to be half as kind as my host family is, I would be a proud father.  Although it was not as easy to communicate verbally, mama and papa continued to shower us with their love and made me feel like I was their own son.  Mama did not let us leave until we understood that she will always be our Taiwanese mama.  One thing that I couldn't quite seem to understand was why we stopped to take pictures in front of buildings that seemed to have no significance.  I'm fairly certain we took well over 800 pictures in ten days.   It wasn't until our final day that papa explained that we take so many pictures because they want to remember every experience with us. Papa and mama want to be able to show their grandchildren our pictures and tell them about how wonderful of a time we had together.  I am so blessed to have a place to call home and people to call family in Taiwan.

Hello Taiwan

We began our 2+ travel day at 4:30 am to get on a bus and head to the JFK International Airport in New York City.  We checked in at China Airlines, which was incredibly busy in addition to the 100 students, luggage, and tech equipment that we carried with us.  It took our group so long to check in and get through security that we delayed the flight by 45 minutes.  Our flight departed at 3:30 pm and we flew non-stop 16 hours to Osaka, Japan.  I watched four movies during the flight and took a brief snooze, but surprisingly, the flight went rather quickly.

From Japan we got off the plane, went through security again, and boarded the same plane to fly two hours to Taipei, Taiwan.  By the time we landed, I had no idea what time it was nor what time my body thought it was back home.  All I know is that it was dark when we got to Taipei.  From Taipei, we took a two hour bus ride to a temple near Erlin, which is on the central west coast.  Our first night in Taiwan was spent sleeping in a beautiful temple.  The boys slept in one room and the girls were in the other.  The room was basically two long bunk beds made of wood.  Needless to say, none of us got much sleep the first night sleeping on wood.  However, the experience of sleeping in a temple was worth the restless night.

The next morning half the group went sightseeing, while the other half participated in a press conference and mini show.  I had the opportunity to go sightseeing and we visited a massive Buddha that overlooked the city.  We then went to a Lions Club, one of our sponsors, and had a special tea ceremony.  We learned how to properly drink tea-you first smell the tea, then you take a small sip, and then you must finish the tea in two more drinks.  We met up with the other group for lunch at a bicycle museum and had the chance to explore the museum for a while and ride some of the bikes.

After lunch, we headed to another temple in the center of Erlin and watched children perform a dragon dance in the street.  We then headed inside the temple to watch a special ritual and offering to the gods.  From the temple, we headed to a facility to meet our host families and eat dinner with them before heading home.

For the next two weeks, I am roomed with Miguel, a student from Mexico and we are staying with a wonderful host mom and dad that we call mama and papa.  They live very close to our facility for the week in a very nice four story home with a rooftop walkabout that overlooks the city.

On Thursday we had our first community impact day in Taiwan.  I was in a small group that visited a nursing home.  The nursing home was an hour away so by the time we arrived, the residents were just finishing lunch and getting ready to take an afternoon nap.  So, our group just talked until 1:30 when the residents woke up.  We began by taking some of the residents outside for a walk.  Kelli, one of our Education Coordinators and I were working together in one building and one employee, who spoke English, asked us if we would sing a karaoke song for the residents.  Kelli and I both had a little panic attack, but decided it would make the residents happy.  By the time we finished the song, the employee had wheeled all the residents from their room into the lobby where we were singing.  The rest of our hour was spent performing karaoke on the machine in front of 15 residents who did not speak English.  Kelli and I have very limited options for songs in English on the Karaoke machine so we ended up singing our hearts out to Happy Birthday, You are My Sunshine, Doe-Re-Mi, and Jingle Bells.  One of the employees even decided to select some songs for Kelli and I to sing, which we had never heard before and since we were on a roll, we just made up the tune of the songs and pretended we knew exactly what we were doing.  As horrified as I was in the beginning to sing at the nursing home, I had the time of my life putting smiles on the faces of the residents.  

Thursday night Papa took Miguel and I to a small city nearby to see a beautiful temple.  He was not able to explain to us who the temple honored, but I felt like I had stepped back into ancient times with bright, beautiful colors and the intricate details on the walls and ceiling.

Friday we traveled to Yuanlin, two hours away, where we set up for our first show.  The theater was an incredibly beautiful auditorium that made me feel like I was in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood looking out into thousands of seats.  

That evening, Mama and Papa took us to Tzu Chi, which at the time, Miguel and I had no idea what it was.  We now know that it is a huge non-profit international organization that cultivates sincerity, integrity, faith, and honesty within while exercising kindness, compassion, joy, and selflessness to humanity through concrete actions.  Papa, who speaks enough English to communicate, took us to see Mama, who can barely speak English.  Mama was performing at Tzu Chi where she sang and did sign language.  When we entered the Tzu Chi temple, we had to take off our shoes and Papa explained to us that every morning at 4 am, employees clean the entire complex from floor to ceiling.  There was not a speck of dust to be found anywhere in the huge building.  We entered this massive complex, with auditoriums, both inside and outside, and made our way to the main room.  When we walked in, everyone watched us and several people escorted us to special seats.  After a few minutes, several photographers came over to take pictures of me and Miguel.  Miguel and I had no idea what was going on so we just smiled.  Soon after, a woman who seemed rather excited to see us, came over and told us that she wanted to interview us for a documentary that would be shown around the world.  Miguel and I immediately began to panic because, at this time, we still had no idea what Tzu Chi was.  However, we agreed to the interview and followed the woman over to the corner of the room where we sat down to first have tea on the floor.  After our tea, the nice woman took me out in the lobby to interview me.  She asked me questions about volunteering and why it is important to me.  It was a pretty easy interview until she asked me what I thought about Tzu Chi.  All I had to go off of was the concert that was taking place inside the auditorium so I proceeded to say "I think Tzu Chi is a wonderful organization and is doing a lot to help the world.  I think the music is beautiful."  Although I somewhat made that statement up at the time, after the fact, it seems to be an accurate statement.  It was a chaotic whirlwind night with many unknowns, but I sure had a great time and a memorable, humorous experience.  

On Saturday morning, we headed back to Yaunlin for our first show in Taiwan!  I spent the morning working with three other cast mates on a presentation that we have later on next week about poverty and hunger.  Members of the cast are selected to be a part of a series of presentations called Global Series where we, as students, are given the opportunity to present information about global issues to the cast.  Nirite from California, Linnea from Denmark, Annelies from Belgium, and I have been working on our poverty and hunger presentation for several weeks and we spent the morning trying to finalize the presentation.  

In the afternoon we had a full run-through of our show since we were on a new stage without our own familiar equipment.  We did not bring most of our tech equipment with us to Asia that we used for our tour in the United States, so we rent the lights, sound equipment, and stage equipment.

Our first show in Taiwan was a success and was well received by the Taiwanese people.  They especially loved our two Taiwanese songs that we added to the show for our tour in Taiwan.

Sunday we had the opportunity to attend and participate in an International Culture Fair at a university.  This was a really unique opportunity for us because the university students had spent four months preparing their booths and it was our job to join their booth and share with people about our cultures with the information and games they had prepared for us.  Throughout the day, we had the chance to visit other booths and appreciate all the time that the university students put into the culture fair.  The fair was full of people all day long and it was a huge success.  The Up With People students spent most of their day dancing to the international music that was playing and, I must say, the international culture fair was one of the most fun days that I have had with the cast on our tour.