The Aftermath

Long, long ago, in a land quite far from you, there was a typhoon. It hit this faraway land, hereafter referred to as “Taiwan,” on August 8, 2009. You may recall that I mentioned it. Typhoon Morakot brought with it great devastation to this cozy little island just southeast of China. Kaohsiung, on the other hand, saw very little of that damage. In my estimation, the typhoon was no more than several days of non-stop torrential rain.

As comfortable a notion as it is to believe that typhoons don’t do much more than rain a whole lot, the reality is far more severe. Last weekend, Grace and I took a trip to Maolin, a forest area/nature reserve not terribly far from Kaohsiung. We had wanted to go much earlier in the year, but transportation was challenging and Fonda (our coordinator) had told us that most of Maolin was “gone – washed away with the typhoon.” Suffice to say, I thought this was spoken with a touch of hyperbole. And oh, how I was wrong. As a means of comparison, I will give before-and-after descriptions, with the “before” coming from my Lonely Planet guidebook.

Maolin Gorge Waterfall
Before: A 2-km trail that criss-crosses over the river via five bridges.

After: A 2-km trail with no bridges. We walked in the riverbed. We did, however, find evidence of bridges.

Meiyagu Waterfall
Before: A 15-minute walk to a scenic waterfall on a smooth stone path.

After: Check below for the smooth stone path we were promised. We never made it to the waterfall, so I can’t speak to whether it was scenic or not.

Maolin Valley
Before: I’m not entirely sure, to tell you the truth, but I think it was largely green and covered in various types of vegetation.

After: Make sure you look behind Grace so you can see where all the landslides occurred.

Dona Hot Springs
Before: Two long concrete pools in the rocks.

After: Nothing. It was just gone. Blown away with the typhoon.

Hongcheng Gorge Hot Springs
Before: A very scenic setting, where you can observe the lovely valley while sitting in the tubs.

After: Just gone. Like the Dona Hot Springs – there was nothing left.

Dragon Head Mountain
Before: An oddly-shaped hill in the midst of the river.

After: An oddly-shaped hill in the midst of thousands of tons of silt and buildings filled with trees and dirt.

On the bright side, I found myself a new man while I was in Maolin. He’s quite the looker, don’t you think?

We also found a traditional slate house that the local aboriginals used to live in. I imagine this is what life must be like in Asia for tall people.

Also, just so you think it's not unrecoverable, I am including two pictures that hint at the beauty of what this place must have looked like pre-Morakot.

Another bright spot: a shining example of Chinglish.

In the end, despite not seeing what I thought I was going to see, I was very glad to have gone. I was amazed at how far the Maolin community was from recovering from this typhoon that happened nine months ago. The pictures don’t do it justice.

Random Acts of Kindness Day

In America, we have this day called “Random Acts of Kindness Day” (which you all know, since I’m pretty sure all my readers are American).  On this day, you are supposed to do random, unasked-for nice things for strangers.  I can’t imagine this holiday, if you can call it that, exists in Taiwan.  “Why,” you may ask, “is there no ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’ in Taiwan?”  Let me explain.  I doubt there is one specific “Random Acts of Kindness” day because every day is Random Acts of Kindness day.

Never in my life, in all the countries I’ve been to, all the places I’ve seen, have I ever met people that are as consistently kind and well-intentioned as I have in Taiwan.  In America, there is a tendency to distrust the average Joe on the street.  If someone offers to help you, you are disinclined to take them up on their offer because you think they might have ulterior motives.  We are a nation that thrives on the distrust of other members of our society.  In Taiwan, on the other hand, you can trust the Average Joe.  Take the time, for example, when I had a flat tire on my scooter and some Taiwanese woman I’d never met helped me push it all the way down the street to the repair shop.  Or the time when my mother and I were on a short hike outside of Taipei and another hiker gave us an orange and an ear of corn to eat, just because we happened to walk by them.  (Think about it—in the States, you probably would have thought it was drugged, or something was wrong with it, or someone was playing a mean-spirited joke on you.  Never take candy from strangers, right?)

Or consider the other day.  At a total loss for something more interesting to do, I was wandering around looking at teapots.  I found this one store with really lovely teapots, so I walked in and started checking them out (way outside my budget range, sadly).  The owner of the store invited me to sit down with him and drink some tea, which happens a lot in tea shops.  I told him I didn’t want to trouble him, but he’d already made tea, so I sat down with him anyway.  He eventually called his daughter down, and what ensued was an hour-and-a-half long discussion, just because I happened to be there.  Neither of them spoke any English, mind you, so we were doing this all in Chinese.  They didn’t ask for any kind of payment.  We just sat together and drank tea.  They even gave me some tea bags before I left (also free of charge) so I could try some more kinds of tea.

Believe when I say there are some things I will miss terribly about this country.

Happy Mother's Day!

Much to my surprise, Mother's Day is on Sunday (I'm a terrible child).  Of course, I only realized this when one of my co-teachers told me this was the case and that she wanted me to teach a culture class about Mother's Day to our 5th graders.  I showed them a video which I think all of you will find particularly pertinent and entertaining.  I know they did.  Here's the link, with English AND Chinese subtitles, to cover all the bases.  Check it out, and enjoy!  (Yes, mom, I know that you shared this with me a long time ago.  Rest assured that your motherly influence has now extended to all the Taiwanese schoolchildren as well.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfyyGQxZrAY&feature=related