Taiwan Time

Greetings from Taiwan! 

We have been here for over 5 weeks and are getting used to things.  We spent about 10 days in orientation in Taipei
County.  This included various talks on culture, schools, language introduction field trips and even a Tai-chi lesson.  We certainly learned a lot in such a few days.   This lady’s language(Mandarin) lesson was so much fun because of her enthusiasm.  Ruthie was the best student. 

While we were there an earthquake rattled the place….my first. Since then, two typhoons have hit the island to a greater or lesser extent depending where you were.   Danger?  Not much.  The worst danger here by far is the traffic.  There are cars, buses, trucks going everywhere with moped scooters buzzing around like like bees! A night in Xanxia (near Taipei) .

The orientation was really first class with very good speakers and events.  The food was very good but took some getting used to.  The accommodation was very comfortable, also.  Here are   Rose, Gene, Ruthie and Carolyn.  Gene and Carolyn are also from Rogers, Arkansas.

Ruthie with Derek, one of our trainers.  He is really funny. 

At the end, we had a ceremony with officials awarding certificates.  Officials and teachers had arrived to escort us to our teaching posts. 

Ruthie and I were touched by all of the care.  We remember our experience in the Peace Corps in
Africa 30 years ago.  The training program was good, but living conditions were very Spartan during training;  people were sick from the food.  We rode dusty buses, trains and trucks, trying to get to our locations.  We waited  hours at a time for rides….often all on our own. 

Now we are at Taitung, a city on the southeast coast.  It is a beautiful area with mountains to the west of us and the
Pacific Ocean to the east.  It is a city formed by the delta of four rivers that come out of the mountains and pass through Taitung.

We have been teaching here inRenAi
Elementary School for three weeks;  it has been a good experience.  Now the students are getting used to us.  As far as anyone knows, we are the first foreign teachers posted at this school.   

We teach English to grades 2-6 one class a week.  Since this is a large school it gives us a full schedule, but we are a “mile wile and an inch deep”.  Education officials seem interested in giving  young students exposure to native English speakers. 

We are doing Power Point presentations (homemade ones),  singing songs (sometimes with us playing musical instruments) and acting out lessons. More later …..from
Taiwan Time Silas Irving  & Ruthie Granderson