Yet Another Pet Bird Entry….

About 6 weeks ago my new friends who raise exotic birds gave me two baby cockatiels to add to my ever-growing bird collection. Here’s another shot of what they looked like during the hand-feeding period. 

Later that very same week, dorm parent friends from Morrison Academy in Taichung called me about taking a Indian Ringneck they found which was not convenient for them to take care of. It’s a much smarter, gentler bird than the other two I’ve raised and can say a lot. At left is a pic from the very first day I picked it up. My friend Annie sure has a big mouth!

Finally, here’s a shot of the whole brood from 3 weeks ago or so…

How to Dispose of Dead Dogs and Cats in Rural Taiwan

Last week a friend told me of seeing a dead cat being hung in a bag from a tree on their street. Without me saying anything, that same week a teacher related a Taiwanese saying of disposing of dead dogs by throwing their bodies in rivers or streams, while hanging dead cats in trees:  死貓吊樹頭  死狗放水流。

Well，it’s not just a saying! This morning  I saw another dead cat in a bag dangling from a tree this morning while prayer walking in my teammate’s community.

Just now I googled “dead cat”, “dog” and “Taiwan” where I found, written in 1998, the article  Humankind and Catkind--The Evolution of a Relationship:

Another custom which reflects the bad image cats had in the past is "hanging dead cats from a tree." In some places in the Taiwan countryside, it has been the tradition that cats are not buried after death to rest in peace, but are hung by the neck in the woods. Oddly enough, this is said to be due to the purring sound cats make when they are feeling content. Shin Dai says that people from her small hometown think purring is the sound of troubled breathing, indicating that cats carry illness. Therefore, after a cat dies they insist on tying a rope around its neck to prevent the germs from getting out.

There are still people in rural central and southern Taiwan who hold these beliefs-which arose to try to protect people's health but, ironically, are now seen as unhealthy superstitions of people from the sticks. In March of this year, the China Youth Corps undertook a survey (at the behest of the Environmental Protection Administration) in which they discovered more than 20 instances of "hanging dead cats from a tree and putting dead dogs in the river" in villages within a five-minute bus ride of the city of Changhua. Overall, in two months of field work, they discovered 214 such cases in various towns and villages, most of which were in Changhua, followed by Yunlin and Tainan counties.

Stolen Jasmine Plant

In September 2007 shortly after first settling in here, I blogged about the flowers on my water lilies mysteriously disappearing time and time again. Finally, I moved them off the porch, after which they quickly died because I forgot to water them. After refraining from putting any kind of potted flower plant on my front porch for the past year and a half, earlier this month I bought two Jasmine plants. Unfortunately, sometime during the last couple of days,  someone swiped one!

None of my neighbors have problems with plants disappearing, and they have a lot more (and lot prettier) plants than I do. Why is someone singling out the foreigner? Maybe because I don’t do as  good a job taking care of my plants and they think I won’t miss it?

I don’t have any solid proof, but I have a hunch it might be some kid from the neighborhood, maybe one from a special needs family as we have several around here.  I want to care more about their family situation than about the plant. But I’m praying that the plant issue might lead to a deeper conversation about things that really matter.

Another Assist from Mango, the Divinely-Appointed Church Planting Bird!

In previous posts (search on “yellow bird”) I’ve discussed how the yellow and orange love bird, since codenamed “Mango” in Taiwanese, has been one of God’s secret agents in helping me to get to know people here: Mango flies away, 3 months later reappears, 6 months later someone elses’  pet bird escapes and comes over to visit Mango, etc.-- all leading me to meet people in the community.

Well, unfortunately 3 days ago Mango developed acute respiratory problems and has been increasingly stretching herself out vertically up the side of her cage to minimize wheezing ( see pic). A little surprised she was still around to see the light of day this morning, and knowing that vets here do not treat birds, I nevertheless finally made an attempt to find a vet who could help her.

The vet two townships over where my coworkers live referred me to a shop that sells and treats pigeons two doors down. In actual fact, I discovered they also breed and export in small quantity exotic birds to a few other Asian countries!

Very very cool… after getting the medication for the bird, I stuck around for an hour or two conversing with the family and learning all about their passion for birds. They insisted on giving me two very small baby cockatiels as a gift which I’m not sure I’m happy to have or not, being as I’ll be hand-feeding again for at least the next 3-4 weeks.

Later in the afternoon, the couple brought their 2 kids over to my town for the elementary school English Club that meets in my house. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other opportunities to share in Taiwanese, Mandarin, and a little English as our friendship develops. In summary,  God continues to use “little yellow” Mango, the church-planting bird to assist in the beginning stages of the work here.

5/18/2009 Appendum: Alas, there won’t be any more assists from Soai-a (Mango). The respiratory infection finally did her in this afternoon. :-(

Identical Dish Sets

This evening I went over to a local rice shop for dinner. When I sat down to eat, I was surprised to see they served my dinner on a regular glass plate (unusual for this kind of casual rice shop).

Not only that, I was especially surprised to see that the plate was exactly like those I use at home,  handed down to me when my grandmother moved out of her house into a nursing home 13 years ago. Those plates are probably much older than that! The owner confirmed hers were at least 20 years old.  I told her I would make her restaurant my “2nd home” and she told me she would be my “2nd grandmother.”

Anyway, the back of both sets (see pics) confirms they are “Stoneware Hearthside Cumberland”,  made in Japan- not Taiwan and not Eastern North Carolina. Small world!