A Week Down Island

July 21-July 25

I spent this week going down the island on the west coast. It was my first time traveling on the west coast yet I didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy the sites.

A team consisting of Dennis, Lauren, Grace, our leader Gabe, and myself led English activities at 10 different high schools and middle schools. We started out by taking the high speed rail down to the city of Tainan. We were very busy in Tainan working at 6 schools in 3 days. Then we traveled to the second biggest city in Taiwan, Kaohsiung. We were there for only 2 days and visited 4 schools.


Our presentation would follow along a Powerpoint presentation that was created for us. We originally followed it word for word but soon found that we could change things to cater more to what we wanted to say. Specifically, we had the idea of teaching the students The Wave. I would teach the students the wave and then tie the idea back into the overall theme of our program, friendship.
Then later in the program I finish with a motivational talk about spreading friendship like a wave. It was a great experience for me and I really felt that my strengths were being utilized. Another example of our creativity was when we had Dennis dance for everyone. Dennis is a very good step dancer so we would tell everyone that we were going to teach them dance moves to go along with the song “Give Me 10!” but then Dennis would do some difficult steps moves.
Everyone would cheer after he would perform. Then we would scare them the idea that they too would have to do those moves. Of course they couldn’t do them right away! They were difficult step moves! But then we would say…. “Just joking! HAHA.” After that we would show them the “simple” moves that involved some minor hand motions. It was things like this that really made the trip fun. We were given a lot of responsibility and creative freedom.


After the activities were all finished, the students would flock to the front of the room/gym/auditorium to get autographs. I signed hundreds of autographs throughout the week. Many people also wanted my autograph as well. Sometimes I was even signing a magazine that I was on the cover of.


We were on a tight schedule during the daytime. We would wake up and be ready before 8 AM. Then we would eat breakfast and go to the first school. When we finished at the first school, we would have lunch and then head to the second school. Sometimes the schools were very spread out.
Finally after we had finished at around 5 PM, we would have the night to ourselves. We were often very tired from intense activity but that this time in Tainan and Kaohsiung was blessing for us. We often went to the local night markets to get the full experience of these cities.


I would say that the highlight of my after work time was eating the mango shaved ice in Kaohsiung. We went to a place that was famous for it. It was so good. I loved it and always finished my helping first. This was the best shaved ice I had ever had, and that’s saying something!

Overall it was just a great week to look back on. I am emailing a student that was fun to talk to. I really felt led to reach out to him. His name is Edgar. I hope that we can be friends for a long time.

Well, it’s off to more Taiwan adventures for me.

In Him,
Raeder

ER Taiwan

As if my life didn’t have enough excitement in it already, I had to do something stupid.
This Saturday, we had planned for a trek through the woods to one of our favorite spots, The Waterfall.
There is a river up in the mountains behind Neihu that pools at a particular spot that we call The Waterfall. Last summer, my friend Steve had taken



me up to the waterfall to get away from the city and swim. We also jumped off a high place about thirty feet above the pool of water.



Standing above the water, my feet were hesitant. It takes real courage to make that leap of faith.
I would conquer my fears and eventually jump five times from that special place during my one waterfall visit last summer. It’s the kind of feeling that I live to experience



– the same one you get when you ride a roller coaster, become frightened all of a sudden, jump out of an airplane, or experience a life-threatening moment. ADRENALINE. I love it.

Now comes this year. Another chance at the waterfall. I had been looking forward to this adventure since I last enjoyed it. It was one of the highlights of my time in Taiwan last summer.



We awoke somewhat early for a Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. I took a bus to my friend Bob the Canadian’s house to ride with him on his scooter to go to the waterfall. A couple other friends joined us – Steve, Phil, Jon, and Eli. Later we would hang out with Ann, May and Bob’s little son, Silas.

We parked the scooters at the trail-head and made our usual trek through the woods to the waterfall. We were very blessed to have a beautiful day. But like always in Taiwan, it was hot and humid. I was already sweating by the time we had gotten to the part of the trail where we broke off and walked a somewhat secret path to the waterfall. To get from the trail to the waterfall, we had to walk through a man’s house. It was just a dilapidated, run-down shack, if it could even be called that. One wild man lived there… He didn’t say anything to us while we passed through.

After a small amount of tricky climbing, we reached the waterfall! It looked even bigger than I remember. It had a cool, refreshing smell that the city lacked accompanied by a cool breeze. By this time, my shirt was suck to my back and my anticipation for the waterfall was growing. I was here. The water peacefully flowed down the river. It looked like a waterslide but I dare not try to slide down.

I quickly set down my things, took off my socks, shoes and shirt, and got into the water. Aw…. Nirvana. The waterfall is like something out of a movie. It’s about twenty feet by twenty feet and in the middle the water is deep. I mean deep deep. It is so deep that we can climb up to a high point of about 30 feet and jump in safely. Although there is plenty of space available to jump, we still have to be careful about landing in the middle. You can imagine how devastating an over-jump can be – I can tell you from first-hand experience.

After spending some time in the water, Phil and I anxiously climbed up to ledge where which we jump. It looked even higher than I had remembered. I was completely prepared for this moment. My blood pressure rose and my heart was beating faster. I had to totally shut off my brain to make my body jump of this cliff. To do something like this requires a total absence of human nature. My feet pushed off the edge and I soared through the air. I dropped quickly down to the water…. And rocks. I suppose it was too much adrenaline. I had over-jumped. I landed in the water but hit rocks soon after. My left ankle hit first, collapsing under the pressure of my force. Next, my left knee came crashing down and took the brunt of the fall. My whole left leg went numb and I surfaced.



I could really feel much, which is not a surprise considering the level of adrenaline I had pumping through my body. I swam slowly back to the area where we were sitting with our things. I was fine at first. My body didn’t really feel much. I check both my knee and ankle immediately. My ankle looked fine at first and would eventually be fine except for some bruises.



My knee, however, was not. I had gashed my left knee open. A piece of skin about the size of a penny was missing from my kneecap. I could see down to my bone. I move the skin on my knee around, seeing my bone through the hole. Eventually, it started bleeding and it wouldn’t stop. My kneecap was sore as well. Fortunately, I was fine apart from these injuries. I could have broken a leg or been injured more seriously. I am very thankful.



Phil jumped down off the ledge and splashed into the water. Why couldn’t I just do that?

I sat on the rock examining my wounds. I patted the blood away with Kleenex and wrapped it tight with a towel. It didn’t really hurt except for when I bent my knee. I think my adrenaline was still killing the pain. Although it was hard for me to agree to, we decided it best if I didn’t jump off the rock anymore today. Phil and Jon each jumped a couple of more times before we decided to leave. I got up and climbed on my own out of there. I walked the whole trail back to. This was the first time that my knee really hurt.

We retreated back to Bob’s house to hang out and clean my wounds. My walk was more like a limp now. Back at Bob’s, he cleaned out my wound thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide. It stung pretty bad but it was more than necessary. White foam kept bubbling up as Bob poured small amounts over my knee. My knee was slightly elevated and my leg stiff.

The other guys went out to grab food and got some to go for me. When Bob was finished dressing my wound, he gave me a Taiwanese style healing. .This had nothing to do with my knee, we were just having some fun. First, he put some balm stuff on my shoulders and back. It felt like boiling water was being poured on my shoulders. He then put these suction cup type things on my back to suck out all the bad toxins from my skin. It looks really weird when it happens. My skin was being sucked really hard on my back, creating pressure that weighed my down. It’s like a bunch of huge hickeys on your back My skin was turning red, dark red, bright red, and purple in some parts making huge bumps on my back. It can be very intimidating for someone to see this for the first time. I had seen this down last year at a night market but had never had it done to me. Afterwards, I felt very tired but relaxed as well. It was a good distraction from my battle wound.


When the other guys had gotten back, I ate my food of noodles and tofu. My leg was being elevated with another chair. Bob said that we needed to get stitches for it. It was like a cut on the skin. An actual area of my skin was missing so stitches would have to pull my other skin over that area and close it off.

I was resilient at first because I didn’t have any traveler’s insurance and thought that I would be fine without the stitches. But Bob convinced me that stitches would be the best thing. Phil had left earlier, and Steve had a prior engagement (and a problem with blood). So Bob took me to the hospital. It was Saturday night so the only part that was open was the emergency room.
We checked-in at the counter and Bob filled out some paperwork. I was put into a wheelchair to keep pressure off my leg. I still had to hobble around when I walked so this was definitely a nice relief.

I was looked at by a doctor in the emergency room. He removed the bandaging that Bob had put on. It hurt because the tape was stuck to some of my leg hair. He checked to make sure my kneecap wasn’t fractured. Although it was sore, praise God it was alright. It was just a little bruised. Bob was busy telling all the hospital staff about how crazy I was. I couldn’t stop laughing. They were all laughing too. They couldn’t believe that I would jump from so high.


I was wheel-chaired into a surgery room where instructed to lie down on the bed. I was first given a small anesthetic that, I swear, didn’t work. They jabbed the needle right into my wound and I yelled a bit. Thank you God for giving me a strong pain tolerance because it was in full use today!


Next, they cleaned my wound out. They used this larger syringe that held water in it. It was pushed down into my wound and then squirted water out. It cleaned a lot of the blood out. I’m glad Bob was there because we both just kept making jokes and laughing, although it hurt a lot.
Finally, it was time for the stitches. I stopped watching at this point but later got to see the pictures, and even video, that Bob took with my camera. I just looked straight up, and sometimes even closed my eyes, as they violently sewed the hole in my knee shut. It was probably the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Bob joked about the doctors hurrying up so that we could go dancing.
He told me stories to keep my mind off the pain. I think the worst part was when the blood would gush out of my knee and the doctor would forcefully pat it dry. The pressure was just excruciating.

When it was all said and done, I was wheel back to the front desk to get my bill and prescription. It was surprisingly cheap at only 1300 NT, which is like $45 US. I was given an ointment to put on the wound and some pain killers that I really needed before they worked on me. I walked on my own out of the hospital with a limp in my step. I’m sure I’ll heal fine. I took a taxi home and just took it easy.

I thank God for protecting me today. Count your blessings.
It could have been much worse for me. Thank you, Bob, for your help, love and support today. Thanks to all the other guys on the trip for helping me out and praying for. Thanks to the dudes at the hospital who worked on me. Most important, thanks to the Man upstairs. He saved me again.

Moral of the story: Don’t over-jump your leap of faith.

Red Envelopes

My time in Taiwan is going by so fast. I’m having such a great time once again.

This last weekend, I had the great opportunity of going to a Chinese wedding. The groom used to work for ORTV so I tagged along with Debbie and her mom.

The actual wedding wasn’t anything special, aside from a wedding. It was all in Chinese, minus the prayer given by Doris. The bride’s dress was especially long but I hear most of the time they are even longer. It was interesting yet I didn’t understand more than a few words. I was fortunate enough to not have to sit through too long of a wedding. Apparently Chinese weddings usually last for a lot longer then this one did.

Immediately following the ceremony, different groups were called up to take pictures. I was in a big picture with other ORTV staff members. I felt uncomfortable because I didn’t know the bride or the groom yet I was going to be in some of their wedding pictures. But I belong to the ORTV family so I’m a friend.

Following the wedding, there was a two-hour gap in time before the banquet. We grabbed a snack but didn’t want to eat too much because we were soon going to have an eleven-course meal! With the rest of our time we visited Debbie's grandma in the hospital. Then it was off to the banquet.


The wedding banquet was at one of the nicest hotels in Taipei called The Grand Formosa. The banquet was in a large open room and was decorated with balloons and a
lot of tables. There were far more people at the banquet then there were at the wedding. Everyone that attends brings a red envelope with money in it. Traditionally, money is put in the envelope as the wedding gift. These same type of red envelopes are used for Chinese New Year and other special occasions in the Chinese culture. The red is a symbol for good luck (and to ward off evil spirits). An eleven-course meal may sound expensive, and it is, but the money in the red envelopes is supposed to cover the cost of the attendees and then some more as a sign of goodwill for the married coupled.

With the meal, we enjoyed a glass of red wine and an everlasting supply of fruity juice. Each dish was served on a small white plate. Every table had their own server who was responsible for serving the dishes and clearing the plates when we had finished the course. We started out with lobster and jellyfish. My favorite dish was the scallops. It was also my first time to have shark fin soup. During the banquet, the bride changes dresses about four times as part of the tradition. I don’t fully understand why. Overall it was just a great experience. I wasn’t even full until dish 10! And that was my Chinese wedding experience. :)

An Airy Feeling

Being back in Taiwan is like coming home. Last summer, when I arrived in Taiwan I experienced an overdose of culture shock. Though it didn’t take too long to overcome it. I’m a rather adventurous person so exploring Taiwan was my playground. Some people might not understand that about me. From then on, I loved this little island.

This year, as I stepped off the airplane, I knew, this is Taiwan. I didn’t remember the smell being so distinct when I was describing Taiwan to my friends and family last summer, but being back here definitely brought back that memory. Also the weather is distinctly unique. The weather is not overwhelmingly hot right now. I left last summer at the peak of the hot season in August. It is only the beginning of summer so I expect the weather to heat up.

Last night, I had the opportunity to play basketball for the first time in Taiwan since last summer. Just like last year, my clothes were soaked in sweat. I had a lot of fun in spit of the fact that I couldn’t shoot a lick. To give you a little perspective on how it feels to play basketball in Taiwan: We have to play at night because it is cooler, well slightly cooler. It feels like my entire body is being dipped in wax. My pores can’t breathe and my only access to oxygen comes from a tiny hole in my head called a mouth. My hands can slide down my arms on a slide of sweat. And I can shake the sweat off my leg hairs like a dog.

When I got home last night, I took a cold shower that was quite refreshing. However, when I dried off, I found my body still wet. So I dried off again. This constant wetting would not succumb to my drying. Thus my body’s excretion of sweat won the long battle and I fell asleep in a pool of sweat. Don’t worry, I am fully hydrated. My two Nalgene bottles are in full use. I have only felt these unique feelings of heat from two places: 1) Taiwan, and 2) a sauna.

My Asian Experience

I would like to say that I am an experienced traveler. Unfortunately I am not.

Last summer featured my first trip outside of the US, minus day trips to Canada. I traveled to Taiwan as an intern for Overseas Radio and Television in search of an adventure, an opportunity to serve, and a good experience to throw on a resume, though I wouldn't have admitted it at the time. I was in Taiwan for approximately 55 days, staying more than half of those days in Taipei and about 3 weeks in Hualien halfway down the island's east coast. The largest task of my internship was playing one of the main roles in an English teaching television program known as "Let's Talk in English." It was a funny feeling being on camera and receiving constant attention for it. I signed some autographs and even signed a glass encased picture at a famous hotel.
I'm not a rock star, just a guy trying to teach English.



I loved Taiwan and wanted to experience this small Asian island to the max. I boasted that I would try any food once and on more then one occasion was humbled for it. Some of these humbling experiences included chicken feet, blood rice cake, liver, sea cucumber, and other intestines that shouldn't be eaten if ANYTHING else is available. This made each meal an adventure in its own right. I'm a thrills kind of guy so you can imagine the daily excitement meal time gave me in Taiwan. Besides the food, I tried my best to understand the culture of the people: how they thought, the way family was structured, and language. Language was a big thing. It was by far the biggest barrier between myself and the locals. I was tutored nearly daily while in Taipei and tried my best to practice every chance I had. In Hualien, I tried to hang around the PTS(Public Television Service) crew more so then the ORTV crew because the ORTV crew were all English speaking and some even American while the PTS crew had few English speakers. They were truly Taiwanese. I learned more from them then I ever did in the classroom. I was able to build relationships with them and earn their respect. I didn't want to be the spoiled American.



Getting back from Hualien was sad and a sigh of relief at the same time. I had finally finished the aggravating TV shoot but was again placed into the English speaking, partially white populated, air-conditioned offices. The blinding bright spot was the growth of a friendship. Her name was Debbie, in English. Lin To-Chia in Chinese. In the time I had left in Taiwan following the TV shoot, I traveled around the large and exciting city of Taipei with Debbie. We traveled to an area along the boardwalk, Danshui; a shopping area around Taipei 101; and a shady red light district known as "Snake Alley" just so I could try some snake. All in all, we kept in touch. More then that, we grew as friends.



All things considered, my experience in Taiwan was life changing. I had a such a great time that I had to come back, partially for the friends I made and partially for the country I love. Following my time in Taiwan this summer, I will be traveling to China as a part of the study abroad program at my college(Pacific Lutheran University). Finally I will get to go to the mainland. I'm really excited to continue my learning of the Chinese language and experience the fascinating culture. And now that the earthquake has hit the Sichuan province, maybe I can lend a hand too. I've always known that God has big things planned for me. Never before did I expect it to be Asia.