Playing Games with the Roosters

In previous posts, I've mentioned the roosters, geese, dogs, and chickens just across the street that awaken me all hours of the night. Well, there's been a funny development here. The last two Monday mornings I've gotten up around 2:00 am in order to listen to NFL broadcasts over the internet before heading up to Taipei or Taichung for work/class. The first week, I had the ceiling light in my bedroom on. But the light emanating out the windows, even though they're glazed windows and even though I had the screens drawn, was enough to cause the birds across the street to commence with their morning wake-up calls. During radio commercial breaks, I turned down the sound on my computer and also turned off the light. The animals quieted down almost immediately. I played this game several times over the course of an hour or two just to see how consistent the birds were... very consistent!

Yesterday I didn't turn on the ceiling light at all, because the noises were still annoying enough to me even though I wasn't trying to sleep. But amazingly, just the light from my desk light and notebook screen were enough to start the birds crowing... I repeated the experiment off an on another 2 or three times. Maybe the noise will lead the neighbors to cover over the chicken coops a little better...

In a related development, I bought an air purifier for my bedroom yesteday. It will serve a double-purpose: in the on-line reviews I read, everyone was complaining how noisy it was! At least it can help drown out the neighborhood noise... :-)

First Local Divine Appointment Realized

About a year ago when I still living in the big city an hour and a half away from here, after I moved out of my apartment I needed somewhere to stay temporarily for a few days. Thinking a place down the street from my apartment was a a hostel of some sort, I inquired about a room and the lady in charge told me they only rented by the month. I wound up staying someplace else.

This year upon my return to the same city to study Taiwanese intensively for a month before moving down to my present location, I inquired at the same place and the same woman rented me a furnished room with a fridge and TV. At the end of the month, I moved out, but had to go back a week or two later to pick up my deposit.

It was only then the lady asked where I was moving, and when I told her the name of this average-signed township of 30,000 people, she shared immediately that she was from the same town! To the Chinese mind, this kind of seeming coincidence is 緣分 yuan2fen4 (the lot or luck by which people are brought together) but to me it was apparent immediately as something most likely which God was behind.

A week or so after, I dropped by to visit her parents and brother, who tried to persuade me to rent an empty studio they were trying to fill, but I was already in the process of moving into my apartment. Also at this time I learned from my neighbors that for generations this family has historically been known as one of the leading/founding families of the community. They live directly across from the community's huge temple complex.

Today, already a couple of months after that contact, I had opportunity to speak with the woman on the phone again (her name is Joy) and was able to share Christ at length with her. She prayed to invite God to fill her life with her presence and renounced links she had with other gods due to her being entrusted to their care when she was little and sick all the time.

May this not turn out to be a blog entry that would turn out to be off-base or inaccurate in a few days. Please pray that the Good News would firmly take root in the soil of this woman's life as she connects with Christian ladies I have networked her with, and that over time she would be adequately discipled and assimilated into a local church up there. Pray also for positive ensuing life change to attract the rest of her family to the person of Jesus Christ down here. This is only the beginning, but it looks like God may be up to something special in this community which is presently without a viable church.

Money Moles

Last term in Taichung I already had quite an experience catching rats on sticky traps on my back patio (5 or so in 6 months time--- not to mention the time I forgot to take in the sticky trap before letting my love bird out on the enclosed back porch to play).

This term is off to a quicker start unfortunately. In Chinese and Taiwanese there's a kind of rat here called "Money Mouse" or "Money Rat" which the dictionary says is a common mole but which is different I believe. The tradition is sort of a Taiwanese version of the tooth fairy in that you're supposed to see money come your way when you catch one. Well, I've already caught my forth. Yesterday morning was the worst: just after I got up I was bent over emptying something into the kitchen trash when I looked over about 3 feet away and suddenly saw not one but two in the trap! Needless to say, I didn't need my coffee to wake up.

Unfolding Events out Back

The front side of the home I moved into recently looks out at fields and the chickens and geese and dogs (and their messes) my neighbors have left over there on the other side of the street. There are no homes. The back side is a different matter. There are two rows of 3-story units that are connected together separated only by a separate alley that is very dark at night and very much unobserved in the day time.

In the last two days two events have unfolded out back. First, yesterday I photographed a few of the hundreds of swallows hanging out along the lines and walls. They're here for the winter I guess. They are very pretty but also unfortunately very prolific in what they leave on the second floor cement patio/balcony. I got out there and hosed it down this morning.

The second event is a little more negative. This evening my neighbors told me a home behind us was robbed sometime this afternoon in the brief period of 2 -3 hours when no one was at home. I was home at the time, probably just 10 or 15 meters from where the crime took place on the other side of the alley. The robber apparently got in through a back door. Coming down to eat a late lunch a little past one, I vaguely recall seeing someone somewhat suspiciously ambling by out front. In retrospect, now I realize he was casing out the block-- probably not just for the present job but maybe also for future intelligence-gathering as he studies everyone's routine. My neighbor, who also saw him, tells me he was probably not the thief but someone else on the thief's team.

Unfortunately, whether it's the birds or the thieves, there's really nothing any of us can do in situations like that here. As an American, culturally I feel like wanting to take the law into my own hands and take care of this kind of person myself since I'm a taller and stronger person physically here, and since I'm told the police don't really do anything in this sort of situation. But my neighbors tell me that if you approach a guy like that and ask him why he's on the street he'll only say that it's a free world and you can't get him arrested without proof. Makes me a little more glad to have the dogs and other animals out front who react loudly to the presence of any stranger. But they're only out front... I'm thankful to God that none of my "stuff" is really very valuable.

It's a Different World Up There

This past week, I attended the last few days of a meeting in TianMu north of Taipei city. It felt really different being back up there where all the foreign import shops and restaurants are located that cater to foreigners. Sadly, some foreigners who come to Taiwan don't get much beyond that.

Sunday evening, after filling in first at a meeting up in Keelung (I was even able to sprinkle in some Taiwanese this time!), I was back in Taipei visiting an American friend and his Taiwanese wife and their kids. He took us along with their domestic helper over to Taipei 101 which until earlier in the year was the tallest building in the world. We enjoyed dinner in the food court and some incredible ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery (the likes of which you'll never see where I'm living now!). Not only that, but we went up to enjoy the view from my friend's spacious office way up on the 53rd floor (sorry, the pics above are only daytime pics and not what I saw). Spectacular! Also on the 53rd floor, I had the pleasure of standing in front of the highest convenience store in the world.

As we rolled back into my friends' reserved parking spot in the basement of their high rise apartment building, I inquired into the cost of the space. His parking space costs 8,000 NT a month, only $1,000 (or about $30 US dollars) less than what I pay down here for an entire 3 story home in the least-developed part of Taiwan-- an amazing differential in cost-of-living. It sure is a different world back up there!