E-Lun Night Market

In Taiwan people like to go to night markets to pass the time (they’ve never been my favorite activity because I don’t like crowds). There isn’t much of a night market in this town, but my coworkers in Baojhong are very faithful in visiting and praying for people in theirs.

Night before last I made my first visit to a night market about 15 minutes away in the coastal town of XiaLun (Mandarin; Taiwanese: E-Lun) in Mouth-of-the-Lake Township. Being as I’ve volunteered in a few different schools with students from this town and that I often ride my bicycle through there on my route around the coastline, I was saddened in the 20 minutes or so we walked around the night market that I didn’t bump into anyone I knew.

As I walked down the last lane, I spoke a simple prayer asking that I would bump into somebody. Within about 20 seconds I heard a guy shout “hello” behind me and lo-and-behold there was a group of high school basketball players/drop-out (?) guys I met a few years ago from the community of Flying Sands. We didn’t have a long or especially meaningful conversation, but this nevertheless was an answer a prayer!

 

After exiting the night market, I had to walk around the perimeter back to the car. Well, I thanked God for the contact and spoke up another simple prayer. Within a minute I had bumped into the husband and wife who operate the local eatery I frequent most often here! And then another neighbor! Usually when I get my food at the eatery, the husband is way too busy, tired, and stressed to talk. It was the most relaxed I’d ever seen him. Again, no supernatural miracles or extraordinary conversations, but I was reminded I need to pray like this more often…. 

Sek-kia is a Male too

In a previous post I introduced Sek-kia the multi-lingual Indian Ring-Neck parrot whom I inherited for free.  By the way, Sek-kia is the name of a fruit here in Taiwan we don’t have in the U.S. (custard Apple, sugar apple) but is also a way to say “Buddha.”, Anyway, I recently discovered in the past two weeks that Sek-kia, just like Bala mentioned in another recent post, is also a male. Note the new rings which just came in around the neck….

 

 

Actually, as their body size and shape of their beaks is different (Sek-kia is about 2 inches longer, his beak is somewhat smaller proportionally, and the ring on the back of his neck is redder), and as Bala can only meow like a cat while Sek-kia speaks human words, I’m beginning to wonder if Bala is an African ringneck and not an Indian ringneck. Or if Sek-kia is a roseneck. Or it could just be that Bala is stupid. Poor Bala! (pictured below)

Mr. Ding Meets the Reporters

Day before yesterday my neighbor Dave Ding invited me to go with his wife and daughter to the art exhibition in Chiayi city where his latest prize-winning wood carving is on display. Mr. Ding and the other artists were interviewed by the reporters, and next Saturday a ceremony will be held.

 

 

Taiwanese Turtle

Long ago when I was in junior high school, l remember riding in the van on the way to Fairy Stone, Virginia with my brothers and sisters and my mom when she swerved to miss a box turtle…. accidentally driving straight over it instead. :-(

Turtles are not an uncommon sight when driving in America, but I was surprised the other night while driving on a country road in the rain when I thought I saw one on the side of the road here on the western plain of southcentral Taiwan. I turned around, and sure enough, there it was. This “flower turtle” （花龜） is slightly smaller than my hand.

Having a friend who likes turtles to the degree I like to raise birds (well, maybe not quite that much), I scooped it up and delivered it to him last night.

In other nature-related news, 3 weeks ago at dusk my neighbor and I watched as a small bird (we thought it was a sparrow) flew in to my open door. I looked and looked the next day, but never found it, thinking that in a few weeks the stench would give the position of its corpse away. But yesterday morning, after having kept the steel doors shut for the better part of a week while I was out of town, I found a tiny bat by the bottom of the door… still living, but barely. I released it in the field across the street. So I guess if it was the same creature, bats can survive a long time without feeding…

Guava is a Boy!

I bought Guava about 2 years ago when still a baby Indian Ring Neck. About a year ago, our relationship moved from a love to a hate relationship, perhaps as a result of sitting it out on a 3rd floor window balcony all day for a few days, perhaps simply as a result of entering into adolescence. Anyway, soon after everytime I let Guava out of the cage it had the immediate instinctive reaction to begin biting me! Things haven’t changed.

At first I assumed Guava was perhaps a girl….

But in the last month these dark rings developed, leading to the certain knowledge that Guava is a handsome mature male!