As I sit down to write this letter I am amazed to think that I have been here for one month. There are two ways in which I mean that. One is that I am amazed that only one month has passed; in the four weeks I have been here I have rented an apartment, found and started working at a job, bought a scooter, and done a host of small daily tasks. One day I was wondering why it was taking so long to get some paperwork done so that I can get my residence permit, then I realized that the paperwork was not taking long, it was just that everything else was going so fast.
On the other side of the coin I am also surprised that it has been a month since I arrived. With how busy I have been the time has just flew by. All the adventure I faced on my way to get here are still fresh on my mind. From my impromptu garage sale at the church, to heading down to Texas and having my car break down on me, spending time with my family my, and a long and safe travel from Texas to Taiwan. Hey that last part rhymed, maybe there is a rhyme and reason why I am here.
I look back over the last month, two months, even six months, even the last couple of years and I am amazed how so many things just worked and pushed me in this direction, and I can only praise God for His goodness. Even though not all things are like I expected, I can see that I have been placed here for a reason. While I have my own opinion and ideas why I am here I have a feeling that I may only know the tip of the iceberg of why I have come to this corner of the world.
Sorry I don't have any pictures this time, but I am still without a digital camera, and I have been a bit preoccupied to look for one.
As usual blessings and I pray that the God of our fathers' be with you and keep you
Joshua
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Smokestakes, School, and Scooters
As I get settled into the "routine" of daily life one thing is certain and that is my routine is not boring. With that said, I the reason I haven't updated my blog in the last week in not for lack of material to speak about, it is filtering what I enter. I am not trying to censor my comments based on anything except I do not want to inundate you with basic information. Plus I guess that so many things that I am encountering are either things that I expected or that I do not think that much about. Even at home we all find different things noteworthy.
As I get up and start my day I have the wonderful luxury being able to look out over the city I live in, because I live in a building that is several stories taller than most buildings in the area. So as I gaze upon the city where I live I am struck by the sheer number of smokestacks from
the oil refinery and plastics plant that are in this city. Now I will not be so bold in my sarcasm to say that it is a beautiful sight, mainly because you cannot hear the inflection in my voice. Also it reminds me of where the money is coming from that is paying for parents to send their kids to school so people like me can have a job.
I am reminded how connected we are with each other because these plants sell material all over the world, the greater percentage most likely being sold to the U.S.. For all the money we are investing in this country, I wonder how much am I investing in the people so that they have a greater reward than a paycheck at the end of the day.
I have started teaching at my school and I believe that I will enjoy working there. I am fortunate that I have teaching experience and have also worked with kids so I am not starting from scratch, bu
t I had some humbling experiences already that has shown me that I still have much to learn about teaching.
As far as my teaching schedule, I get to the school at 2, spend about an hour and a half preparing for my classes, from 4 to 5 I work with the students as they have to memorize spelling vocabulary and grammar phrases. From 5 to 9 I teach my classes, I have four different classes that I will teach and all classes are at different levels. Making the changes definitely keeps me on my toes, plus my classes will go back and forth between different floors.
Now I almost forgot to mention that my school is not actually in the town that I live in but about 30 minutes away by scooter. Yes, among the things I had to do is get a scooter so I could get to work. I would not mind taking a bus to work, I did that often when I was in China, except there are none in the area that I live. Dashe is a "small" city just outside Kaohsiung, so there is no public transportation to speak of. But I digress. So every day I get on my scooter and make my track to the school where I teach. One of the good things about where I teach is that most of my ride is out in the country so I don't have to constantly fight with traffic. Now I could make many comments about my scooter ride to and from work, and I guess as I continue to make the trip and have more exeriences I am sure that I will in later bloggs. For now I will just say I enjoy getting on my pigglet, at only 125cc's it is not quite a hog, and zooming up to school. It gives me time to metaly prepare for teaching and at the end of the day it helps me wind down and release tension.
I guess this is where I will leave you. I will add some pictures as I can, but for now all I can do is borrow my roommate's camera and take select pictures. Most you you already know I have a facebook page and I have posted a few more pictures there.
I hope to hear from you soon and I will continue to update you as events here continue to unfold.
Blessings
Joshua
As I get up and start my day I have the wonderful luxury being able to look out over the city I live in, because I live in a building that is several stories taller than most buildings in the area. So as I gaze upon the city where I live I am struck by the sheer number of smokestacks from
the oil refinery and plastics plant that are in this city. Now I will not be so bold in my sarcasm to say that it is a beautiful sight, mainly because you cannot hear the inflection in my voice. Also it reminds me of where the money is coming from that is paying for parents to send their kids to school so people like me can have a job.I am reminded how connected we are with each other because these plants sell material all over the world, the greater percentage most likely being sold to the U.S.. For all the money we are investing in this country, I wonder how much am I investing in the people so that they have a greater reward than a paycheck at the end of the day.
I have started teaching at my school and I believe that I will enjoy working there. I am fortunate that I have teaching experience and have also worked with kids so I am not starting from scratch, bu
t I had some humbling experiences already that has shown me that I still have much to learn about teaching.As far as my teaching schedule, I get to the school at 2, spend about an hour and a half preparing for my classes, from 4 to 5 I work with the students as they have to memorize spelling vocabulary and grammar phrases. From 5 to 9 I teach my classes, I have four different classes that I will teach and all classes are at different levels. Making the changes definitely keeps me on my toes, plus my classes will go back and forth between different floors.
Now I almost forgot to mention that my school is not actually in the town that I live in but about 30 minutes away by scooter. Yes, among the things I had to do is get a scooter so I could get to work. I would not mind taking a bus to work, I did that often when I was in China, except there are none in the area that I live. Dashe is a "small" city just outside Kaohsiung, so there is no public transportation to speak of. But I digress. So every day I get on my scooter and make my track to the school where I teach. One of the good things about where I teach is that most of my ride is out in the country so I don't have to constantly fight with traffic. Now I could make many comments about my scooter ride to and from work, and I guess as I continue to make the trip and have more exeriences I am sure that I will in later bloggs. For now I will just say I enjoy getting on my pigglet, at only 125cc's it is not quite a hog, and zooming up to school. It gives me time to metaly prepare for teaching and at the end of the day it helps me wind down and release tension.
I guess this is where I will leave you. I will add some pictures as I can, but for now all I can do is borrow my roommate's camera and take select pictures. Most you you already know I have a facebook page and I have posted a few more pictures there.
I hope to hear from you soon and I will continue to update you as events here continue to unfold.
Blessings
Joshua
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Long update for a couple of long days
I first want to apologize for what will seem like an endless post but when I get started I sometime have difficulty in editing myself. In the shortest abreviation of my situation I arrived safely and am staying busy.
I arrived as scheduled on Saturday morning and to say that Saturday was a big day would be a bit of an understatement. I was picked up and took to the apartment of another OMF partner to set my luggage while we ran some errands. Since it was 10:30 when we got to the apartment and I hadn't eaten for some time, I asked if we could go some place for a bight to eat. He took me to a local restaurant and we ate and spoke for some time. (Jerrod, I just want you to know that I was thinking about you when I ate that wonderful bowl of noodles) At 1:00 we had appointment with the manager of the complex to look at an apartment that I and another partner could rent. After looking at the apartment we signed the papers, made a down payment and was able to move into the apartment that day.
I guess that you could call the apartment bare bones as far as furniture: at least it had a washer, sink and stove, refrigerator, small end table, coffee table, bench that could be used as a couch, two chairs, bathrooms with western toilets, and bed frames. When I say be frames I am talking about twin size boxes that were built about a foot high and as wide as a twin mattress, but if you caught it already there were no mattresses.
OK back to the story, the people whose apartment I dropped my stuff at, had a few things they loaned us until we got the necessary amenities, among which was a small mat that I could put on my box; now I will say that the mat was better than just sleeping on the box alone, but I would not say that much better. I chose a room, unpacked my stuff and thought about going for dinner. It was only about 4 or 4:30 when I got my stuff unpacked and I know that I did not want to go to sleep until around nine to help adjust to the time change, but my feet were sore and slightly swollen from being on them for so long so I laid down to allow better circulation. Nine O' clock when I wake up from my impromptu "nap" I decided I might as well just try to force myself to sleep all the way to the next morning to get adjusted to the new time.
Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell about how after 30 plus hours of travel and stepping into 85% humidity I was ripe for a shower, so after I get my stuff in the apartment I turn on the shower to find that there is no hot water. Now the water was not ice cold, but I can most assuredly say that it lacked any heat, yet despite cold water I grit my teeth and take my first of what ended up as 4 cold showers.
Between the hard bed and the jet lag which I was enjoying, I got up at 4:00 in the morning knowing that I just wold not be able to sleep until I was tired. I did my devotional, took my second cold shower, and started to piddle around my empty apartment. Not having food in the apartment I went out and got breakfast. After I got back and did a few other things on my computer until my roommate finally showed up. He spent the night with the people he had been staying with. We spoke a bit and he got unpacked.
I went to a local Chinese Church that morning and afterwards I was hoping to do some shopping but because a typhoon was landing on Taiwan I had to adjust my plans and stay in for the rest of the day. I had a great conversation with my roommate, whom I will tell you about later.
On a side note, which seems to be half my writing, there are to things that have struck me as being different from China. One is there are very few internet cafes. I was expecting not being able to get internet services for some time so I thought I would be able to go to a local internet cafe, but because Taiwan has developed so much in the field of technology most people have their own computers, so most there are relativly few internet cafes. The Second difference that struck me that I wasn't expecting is the amount of scooters there around here. I knew that there would be less bikes and more scooters, but the truth of the matter is there are hardly any bicycles and a tremendous amount of scooters here. I may elaborate more on that later.
Anyway, I go to bed, fortunately a friend brought us a couple of extra padded mats to loan to us, and while it is still a far cry from a bed that we are accustomed to sleep on it was also much better than what I had slept on the night before. I got to bed about 9:30 but between jet lag and new allergies that were now plaguing me I once again woke up about 4:30 Monday morning. I spent the next hour in a futile attempt to clear my sinuses and get back to sleep, but resigned to the fact that I would not be getting back to sleep, so I got up, did my Bible study, prayed, and did some work on my computer.
The coordinator for the partner program, David, picked me and Chris up and we met another partner who we had lunch with. Afterwards we were going to go to IKEA to get some mattresses and furniture for the apartment, but David got a call from someone and found out there is a teacher who is leaving Taiwan this week and he has an apartment full of furniture that he was just going to leave behind. We call him and ask if we can have his furniture and he says if we make the arrangements to pick up the stuff then we can have it. So I thank God in How he provided for that need. We do end up going shopping at Costco, yes they have one here, for some basic needs such as food, then come back to the apartment. After we get back I go with David and another person to visit a school for a possible job. Now I live in a small city outside of Kaohsiung called Dashe so there are not to many jobs here; so we drive 30 minutes to where the school is and interview with the director\part owner. I was thinking that I would get a scooter about two or three months after I got here not thinking for a moment that I would be in need of one my first week. I tell the person that I would like a couple of days to think about the job and get back to him. I return home, do some more work on my computer take my 3rd or 4th cold shower, I've lost count by now, and go to bed.
By Tuesday morning my allergies had subsided a bit so I was able to sleep all the way to 5:30. After I got up I did my Bible study, listened to sermon and took a half warm shower. We learned that the water heater needs a battery to light the furnace, so we got one and it started to work. After Chris got up and took care of some things we went out and had an early lunch. He needed to pick up some pictures that are needed all kinds of different identification papers; one our way back we stopped by a bakery that I had seen earlier and wanted to check out. As I was looking over their selection of delectables, we noticed that people inside were using their computers, so we attempted to inquire if they had internet use. After making some gestures and getting even strange looks from the people who work there we were given a card with the word "broadband" on it. With great excitement we made our way back to the apartment, grabbed our laptops and returned to the coffee shop to get connected to world wide web.
I was able to make contact with some people, but I had to leave because of a prior appointment. Since there was no way to get in direct contact with us, David and I went to a couple of different phone companies to see if my cell phone could work with a local service provider. Unfortunately it does not so I had to buy a cell phone. When I got back to the apartment I ran into another partner and made plans to meet her and another couple for dinner. Afterwards I went with them to a Bible study. By the time back it was around 9:30 and I was thoroughly tired. So I take another warmish shower, then turn in.
Praise the Lord I was able to sleep until eight, so I get up and literally praise God for the rest I was able to enjoy, I am still not fully recovered from my allergies but most definitely much better. I get ready for the day, do my devotional, have breakfast then David picks us up to take us to a hospital for a physical examination, a needed step to get resident visa. After we got back Chris had to go to his school early for some training time, and I crashed for a couple of hours. David calls and tells me that he has gotten a hold of someone who we can talk to about a scooter. We head out check out a local school to see if they need a teacher but they are to small to provide full time work. We go look at a couple of shops and finally decide on a scooter to purchase. We make arrangements to pay and pick it up tomorrow, then we both head home. I go to my apartment grab my computer and come to the coffee shop so that I am able to let you my wonderful friends know what I have been up to.
Over the last couple of days there has been many things that have happened, I have definitely had highs and lows in just the short time I have been here, but as I have said before God has been faithful and as I look to balance a few things out I know that as I seek His face He will provide.
As always blessings in His holy name
Joshua
I arrived as scheduled on Saturday morning and to say that Saturday was a big day would be a bit of an understatement. I was picked up and took to the apartment of another OMF partner to set my luggage while we ran some errands. Since it was 10:30 when we got to the apartment and I hadn't eaten for some time, I asked if we could go some place for a bight to eat. He took me to a local restaurant and we ate and spoke for some time. (Jerrod, I just want you to know that I was thinking about you when I ate that wonderful bowl of noodles) At 1:00 we had appointment with the manager of the complex to look at an apartment that I and another partner could rent. After looking at the apartment we signed the papers, made a down payment and was able to move into the apartment that day.I guess that you could call the apartment bare bones as far as furniture: at least it had a washer, sink and stove, refrigerator, small end table, coffee table, bench that could be used as a couch, two chairs, bathrooms with western toilets, and bed frames. When I say be frames I am talking about twin size boxes that were built about a foot high and as wide as a twin mattress, but if you caught it already there were no mattresses.
OK back to the story, the people whose apartment I dropped my stuff at, had a few things they loaned us until we got the necessary amenities, among which was a small mat that I could put on my box; now I will say that the mat was better than just sleeping on the box alone, but I would not say that much better. I chose a room, unpacked my stuff and thought about going for dinner. It was only about 4 or 4:30 when I got my stuff unpacked and I know that I did not want to go to sleep until around nine to help adjust to the time change, but my feet were sore and slightly swollen from being on them for so long so I laid down to allow better circulation. Nine O' clock when I wake up from my impromptu "nap" I decided I might as well just try to force myself to sleep all the way to the next morning to get adjusted to the new time.
Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell about how after 30 plus hours of travel and stepping into 85% humidity I was ripe for a shower, so after I get my stuff in the apartment I turn on the shower to find that there is no hot water. Now the water was not ice cold, but I can most assuredly say that it lacked any heat, yet despite cold water I grit my teeth and take my first of what ended up as 4 cold showers.
Between the hard bed and the jet lag which I was enjoying, I got up at 4:00 in the morning knowing that I just wold not be able to sleep until I was tired. I did my devotional, took my second cold shower, and started to piddle around my empty apartment. Not having food in the apartment I went out and got breakfast. After I got back and did a few other things on my computer until my roommate finally showed up. He spent the night with the people he had been staying with. We spoke a bit and he got unpacked.
I went to a local Chinese Church that morning and afterwards I was hoping to do some shopping but because a typhoon was landing on Taiwan I had to adjust my plans and stay in for the rest of the day. I had a great conversation with my roommate, whom I will tell you about later.
On a side note, which seems to be half my writing, there are to things that have struck me as being different from China. One is there are very few internet cafes. I was expecting not being able to get internet services for some time so I thought I would be able to go to a local internet cafe, but because Taiwan has developed so much in the field of technology most people have their own computers, so most there are relativly few internet cafes. The Second difference that struck me that I wasn't expecting is the amount of scooters there around here. I knew that there would be less bikes and more scooters, but the truth of the matter is there are hardly any bicycles and a tremendous amount of scooters here. I may elaborate more on that later.
Anyway, I go to bed, fortunately a friend brought us a couple of extra padded mats to loan to us, and while it is still a far cry from a bed that we are accustomed to sleep on it was also much better than what I had slept on the night before. I got to bed about 9:30 but between jet lag and new allergies that were now plaguing me I once again woke up about 4:30 Monday morning. I spent the next hour in a futile attempt to clear my sinuses and get back to sleep, but resigned to the fact that I would not be getting back to sleep, so I got up, did my Bible study, prayed, and did some work on my computer.
The coordinator for the partner program, David, picked me and Chris up and we met another partner who we had lunch with. Afterwards we were going to go to IKEA to get some mattresses and furniture for the apartment, but David got a call from someone and found out there is a teacher who is leaving Taiwan this week and he has an apartment full of furniture that he was just going to leave behind. We call him and ask if we can have his furniture and he says if we make the arrangements to pick up the stuff then we can have it. So I thank God in How he provided for that need. We do end up going shopping at Costco, yes they have one here, for some basic needs such as food, then come back to the apartment. After we get back I go with David and another person to visit a school for a possible job. Now I live in a small city outside of Kaohsiung called Dashe so there are not to many jobs here; so we drive 30 minutes to where the school is and interview with the director\part owner. I was thinking that I would get a scooter about two or three months after I got here not thinking for a moment that I would be in need of one my first week. I tell the person that I would like a couple of days to think about the job and get back to him. I return home, do some more work on my computer take my 3rd or 4th cold shower, I've lost count by now, and go to bed.
By Tuesday morning my allergies had subsided a bit so I was able to sleep all the way to 5:30. After I got up I did my Bible study, listened to sermon and took a half warm shower. We learned that the water heater needs a battery to light the furnace, so we got one and it started to work. After Chris got up and took care of some things we went out and had an early lunch. He needed to pick up some pictures that are needed all kinds of different identification papers; one our way back we stopped by a bakery that I had seen earlier and wanted to check out. As I was looking over their selection of delectables, we noticed that people inside were using their computers, so we attempted to inquire if they had internet use. After making some gestures and getting even strange looks from the people who work there we were given a card with the word "broadband" on it. With great excitement we made our way back to the apartment, grabbed our laptops and returned to the coffee shop to get connected to world wide web.
I was able to make contact with some people, but I had to leave because of a prior appointment. Since there was no way to get in direct contact with us, David and I went to a couple of different phone companies to see if my cell phone could work with a local service provider. Unfortunately it does not so I had to buy a cell phone. When I got back to the apartment I ran into another partner and made plans to meet her and another couple for dinner. Afterwards I went with them to a Bible study. By the time back it was around 9:30 and I was thoroughly tired. So I take another warmish shower, then turn in.
Praise the Lord I was able to sleep until eight, so I get up and literally praise God for the rest I was able to enjoy, I am still not fully recovered from my allergies but most definitely much better. I get ready for the day, do my devotional, have breakfast then David picks us up to take us to a hospital for a physical examination, a needed step to get resident visa. After we got back Chris had to go to his school early for some training time, and I crashed for a couple of hours. David calls and tells me that he has gotten a hold of someone who we can talk to about a scooter. We head out check out a local school to see if they need a teacher but they are to small to provide full time work. We go look at a couple of shops and finally decide on a scooter to purchase. We make arrangements to pay and pick it up tomorrow, then we both head home. I go to my apartment grab my computer and come to the coffee shop so that I am able to let you my wonderful friends know what I have been up to.
Over the last couple of days there has been many things that have happened, I have definitely had highs and lows in just the short time I have been here, but as I have said before God has been faithful and as I look to balance a few things out I know that as I seek His face He will provide.
As always blessings in His holy name
Joshua
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