Blown Tire

Yesterday morning I took off on my scooter to pick up a high schooler for church. Off and on for several days something about the bike's back wheel hadn't felt quite right, but I thought maybe after a year away I just wasn't used to the scooter.

While I was driving along by myself at a very low speed in an alley, the back tire blew and the bike swerved beneath me. If I had been traveling high speed with someone on the back of the scooter in a busy road, it could have been dangerous (although high speed for a 125 cc scooter is only about 35-45 mph). Though the shops were closed yesterday and I still haven't been able to repair the bike, I thank God for arranging the circumstances as He did so that no one got hurt, particularly the high schooler, who came to know Christ last summer when a short-term missions team brought her with them when they came to Taiwan.

From Babbling to Jabbering

When you study a new language for months and still can say little, it can get discouraging. I try to think of it as a game, although that doesn't give an excuse not to work hard. The CNN article below offers some encouraging perspective:

How babies go from babbling to jabbering

Since I got back to Taiwan, I've studied Taiwanese full-time for three weeks. I'm still about a year away from fluency, but light years further along than I was before I left last year!

Watching the Calories

I've been back in Taiwan for a week. As I try to eat as healthy as possible this month without a kitchen in my temporary one room studio, I succeeded entirely in abstaining from pearl milk teas, bubble teas, or other delicious sugared/iced green teas (all high in calories!). I have also stayed away from any kind of American fast food (McD's, KFC, etc). Last night at a stall in a night market I did consume what some consider the signature dish of the Taiwanese people-- an oyster omelette with some greens and other things in it.... very very greasy and unhealthy. But it was good!

Since my last post, in addition to discovering a few more new Starbucks in various places (when will it all end?), tonight as I was riding home on my scooter I was surprised to see a CostCo under construction EXTREMELY close to my old apartment-- about a 3 minute scooter ride in fact. Before, I always had to run up to Taipei to buy stuff at CostCo but a good bit of what I bought wasn't very healthy anyway. God has a wonderful sense of humor, since I'll be living an hour and a half from here!

10,000 Released; 5 Die already.

Two days ago 10,000 prison inmates were released here in Taiwan as part of a presidential amnesty declaration. Yesterday 5 of them died of drug overdoses and 3 more were arrested.

May the beautiful news of the Lord Jesus Christ continue to penetrate and transform the prison system, offering hope and liberation to all those who use drugs here in Taiwan.

Appendum: 8 have died now as of Friday morning.

As of Monday 7/23, 13 of these have died of drug overdose.

Please stop your talking

I want to try to eat as healthy as possible this month in Taiwan while I have no access to a kitchen. And the average meal at a street-side rice or noodle shop has as many calories as McDonalds. So yesterday I checked out a vegetarian restaurant which claims to use a healthier grade of cooking oil. As I approached the front door, there was a very large sign partially obscuring the operating hours I  wanted to read. Roughly translating into English, it read: "For the sake of everyone's health, please abstain from talking when picking up food." Don't think I've ever seen anything like that posted in a restaurant before!!