Mental Health Hospital Visit

Earlier this week I went to visit a young Taiwanese man who in previous years has roamed in and out of several of our Taichung churches in previous years, not to mention many other churches all  around Taichung. Unfortunately, the place where I went to visit him was the mental hospital in Caotun, a place where I had gone to visit him twice before 3 years ago and he has frequented many times.

Let's call the fellow Matt (not his real name). I won't get into any details, but Matt is generally friendly and kind; just can't get along with his parents and can't hold down a job for more than a couple of months. At age 33 he still lives at home. Thankfully, he's never been violent nor a threat to himself. Though I'm no doctor, it doesn't take a genius to see his problems are due not just to himself, but originated in his family of origin.

On the day of my visit, his father and mother set things up so I could be there as sort of an advisor/referee in addition to the person there from the hospital who was moderating the meeting between the three of them.

There was scattered arguing and bickering between the three of them but for the most part the woman from the hospital kept the meeting civil with her cheerful mediating attitude.

One thing that struck me with sadness is how there was so much suffering in the room, and not just in the mental realm.  Besides Matt, the three other adults all lived in WuRi, not too far from each other, their homes had both just been flooded last Saturday with two feet of water from the record-breaking rainfall of the latest typhoon.

Matt commented to the woman who has been helping take care of him this time that she was the friendliest he's ever met in all his time having to stay in the hospital (and he's been in the CaoTun unit or the mental care unit at Taichung hospital many many times over the past decade). Based upon what I observed, that was an accurate observation. She did indeed radiate joy and kindness in a place which lacks it. And this in spite of her home just having been flooded.

Although the three other adults were not Christians, they asked me to pray when I left. I felt burdened to pray not just for Matt, but briefly for them as they struggled with the mess of cleaning up after the flood:"When we are in pain, God is in pain. When we grieve, God grieves...."

I know very little about the mental health system in Taiwan, and even less about the hospitals in the US (aside from the movie "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest"). I do know there are many many people involved with it, that like any system it's far from perfect, and that perhaps it relies too much on the prescription of medicine rather than dealing with issues endemic to extended families. I'd like to slow down to take the time to learn more.

Cute? Solemn? Stately?

Last Sunday, a neighbor who organizes field day activities for senior citizen groups all over this part of Taiwan invited me to observe their croquet event in an adjacent township. I chatted with another neighbor who was there manning the sound system. Then I got into a conversation with a nurse on hand for the event. She asked me if I had been to many temples in Taiwan.

Among other things, I shared with the nurse that the initial reaction to the idols that many of us foreigners have when seeing them for the first time is that they scare us/leave us alittle horrified. She responded, in contrast, that she thought they looked  cute.

CUTE? When I shared this comment with two neighbors one evening, including the one who is in fact a professional woodcarver crafting many of these things, they both emphatically responded that in no way are they cute!  莊嚴 (dignified, solemn, stately) was my woodcarver friend's  response.

That leads me to today, almost a week later. An idol parade has just passed by my house involving a couple of hundred people. A few idols were paraded in their chairs, and lots of other people were dressed up as gods. The reverberating chaos of firecrackers nearly scared my birds to death.

Most of the men were chain-smoking cigarettes, betel-nut chewers spitting their betel-nut on the ground. More of them, including one man from NanTou who greeted me by the temple when I went out on a quick errand, had had a lot to drink. I saw a number of folks parading down the street with beers in hand.

Dignified? Solemn? Stately? This particular crowd may have been very different due to the nature of those down the street who were organizing (clarification:a number of "eels"- Taiwanese for Chinese gangs or hei1dao4, known for their prevalence in this part of the country) have moved in down the street inviting a number of youths to come over, with the neighbors telling me they they seek to avoid eye contact or interaction with them, and so should I in order to keep safe), , but those are certainly not the adjectives I'd use to describe the gods nor the events organized to worship them. When yet another neighbor two doors down lit firecrackers in their honor, my prayer from inside the house was that Jesus would be glorified on the street and in the lives of those who passed by. As for the gods themselves, "May the Lord rebuke you.... "(clarification: meaning being, it's for God and not for me to take care of!)

Latest Monk Parakeet and Indian Ringneck Acquisitions

For a number of weeks now I've been thinking about purchasing another new bird (ever since the last two flew the coop). I didn't want to make the same mistake I made last fall when I bought an adult Indian Ringneck (previously misidentified as a Green Conure since I only knew the Chinese name) which proved over more than half a year to be totally untamable.  So I waited until I got back from a week of meetings in order to purchase another baby bird that will need to be hand-fed 3 or more times a day for a month. This time I had been thinking about getting my first Monk Parrokeet, which locals tell me are very talkative and playful (see also the invasive Feral Monk Parakeet Community in Chicago)

During this past week of meetings, I phoned three bird shops I've visited recently, but all of them came up empty. Then I looked up all eight or so of the bird shops in Chiayi City and called them one by one. Only one shop was open that had them in stock, and the $3,000 they quoted was 700 NT more than what I expected.

I had dropped off the Indian Ringneck with friends in Guanziling (關子嶺) in TaiNan County and yesterday after the meeting ended I drove back to visit them and pick it up. Walking back up the road there in Guanziling, we saw another Indian Ringneck in a cage which was happily playing with a baby bird and saying "hello" repeatedly. My bird, in contrast, has never spoken a word and only wants to kill other birds and attack intruders! Then and there I made my final decision: Since ChiaYi was on the way home, why waste any time?

The shop owner told me she wanted 3,500 for the baby Monk, but when I told her the other price her shop had quoted earlier, she came down to 3,000. I couldn't get her down any lower, but when I mentioned I had an adult female Indian Ringneck sitting in the back seat of my car she dropped down to 2,000. So I was able to trade in the mean bird which doesn't like people and hopefully can start all over by training the baby myself! (I'm so glad God doesn't deal with his prodigals this way, or that my parents didn't do this to me!).

Since BeiGang was also on the way home and I knew the shop there presently had a baby Indian Ringneck, I forked out another 1,500 NT to make up for the one I just got rid of. The shop owner had already attached a chain to its foot so maybe I'll be buying a bird stand instead of caging it up all the time, but I don't know if I want it to lose the freedom of walking around in the cage either.

Hopefully before I head overseas in September I'll have two tame, talkative birds. While not as expensive as the larger parrots, these birds aren't nearly as cheap as the 200 or 300 NT parrokeets or lovebirds. I will absolutely NOT be spending any more money on birds the rest of this term. Hopefully these two will both survive to adulthood. I observed today the Indian Ringneck can fly already so it looks like it at least will make it.

Noisy, Dirty Days on the Horizon

Although there have been lots of nighttime bugs,  loose dogs, noisy animals and assuming neighbors to deal with periodically since I moved to this agricultural environ last August, one of the strengths of this neighborhood is that we live on a dead-end street with very little traffic. Kids can play or ride bicycles outside without parents or grandparents worrying too much about high speed traffic,  and adults can stand out in the middle of the street chatting as they take in  the late afternoon breeze or cool night air.

That's all about to change. For years there have been rumors that the government plans to widen the road and connect it with another road, thus making it the preferred bypass route for reckless trucks and other high speed traffic wanting to avoid town.

For years the neighbors have discounted those rumors. But in the last few weeks  they started hearing them again. And then this past week there was a public announcement that any junk left standing on the opposite side of the street would be confiscated (there are no residences on the other side of the street, but LOTS of stuff placed on public land which people have claimed as their own).

Well, today people have been moving stuff, and I expect that as early as tomorrow the construction crews may be moving in. It will be noisy, and very very dusty for months to come. And even after all the construction is finished, those nighttime neighborly chats at 9, 10 or 11 pm will probably never be quite the same.

Tipping Point in Western Yunlin

Last night I finished an audiobook version of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference. While I didn't appreciate this book quite as much as the other title he wrote that I read last year (Blink), it still got me thinking.

Social Epidemics are caused by word of mouth. While I don't particularly care about the latest fads (e.g. Hush Puppy shoes becoming popular again), nascent trends, news, etc. and the people in this area care much much less, nevertheless, I wonder: who are the mavens and connectors in our communities that can lead to a mass movement of people coming into intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ?

We've been praying to get to know the "people of peace" in our communities (Luke 10:5-9). That is, we will look for those who are receptive to the Beautiful News of Jesus, and who possess a reputation which leads to the spreading of this News and the introduction of people to the community of faith.

This kind of person will usually be someone of influence who recognizes the great value of what we bring, becoming our "protector, promoter and pathway finder." May God give us eyes to see and ears to hear, resulting in a tipping point more than we can ask or imagine.