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Published: September 10th 2007
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Dapper Doug, at Danshui
This is one of our favourite places in Taiwan. There was another earthquake last Sunday—just a 2—but we didn’t feel it because we were on the motorbike at the time. There is a winter typhoon named Typhoon Durian, raging along well to the south of us (headed for central Philippines), and it will miss us completely. All is well, in other words.
I seem to have spoken too soon. Over 200 people died in the typhoon, mostly from mudslides.
My renaming project is moving along. “Apple” has become “Abigail” (“Abby” for short). “Maxine” has become “Max”. There’s nothing wrong with the name “Maxine”—unless you happen to be male.
I felt sorry for Abby the other day. The poor little soul was crying, because someone was picking on her for being aboriginal. The comments were hurtful drivel, to the effect that you don’t belong here because you aren’t Chinese, you are boat people, your skin is too dark, blah blah blah.
I shook my head in wonderment at the complete ignorance of the comments, and wondered how the Chinese people themselves got here in the first place if not by boat. There used to be a land bridge to Alaska, but that has no Bering on how
Four Wheels for Us
Lao-puo is really enjoying her new motorbike, now that she is getting used to it. She looks like a little gazelle, the way she can whip around now. North American aboriginal people got across from Asia or on the situation here.
Anyone inclined to pick on an aboriginal girl around here would be well-advised to think twice before doing so. The Ami kids tend to be bigger and heavier than their Chinese classmates, and watching the boys lead the school in the aboriginal war dances tells me that it might be unwise to mess with them.
It seems that racism is a human weakness, as opposed to a uniquely Caucasian one. I had a little chat with Abby, through an interpreter, because she told me that she wanted me to take another picture of her. Abby was astonished that Canadian girls lie out in the sun to deliberately darken their skins.
It did not go unnoticed that I was wearing an aboriginal necklace the next day. Mine is just plastic, but the real ones are made from the bones and teeth of wild pigs. You might say that due to a lack of precious stones, aboriginal jewelry is a boar bones effort. The kids already think I dress strangely anyway, because I wear sandals and socks to school.
I should be able to get
More of my "Grandchildren"
Our lives are very full and rich over here. all my planning done for the rest of the semester during the next two days—I will be at school all day but not doing any teaching because of exams. Lao-puo is going into Hualien again today, to do her first prison visit. There is also a detention barracks in Hualien, and a jail near Guangfu. I guess they need a lot of jails around here—the two guys who snatched my colleague’s purse in Hualien City and knocked her off her motorbike were promptly arrested. They were remanded in custody, and have already been sentenced to four years each.
“The best-laid schemes of mice and men…”
I didn’t do a hand’s turn of lesson preparation, and I’ve even been too busy even to look up the rest of the poetry quotation. Lao-puo had some neck and leg pain that laid her out flat, and she had to go to the hospital in Hualien City. Mennonite Christian Hospital is one of several in the city. In typical Chinese fashion, she promptly got into to see a specialist, had an X-ray, and the next thing you know she was on her way with a bucketful of pills. Even without National Health Insurance (spouses aren’t eligible for coverage for four months) the total bill was NT $1450—about fifty bucks. One of my colleagues very kindly drove us into the city, and back.
I spent the night doing my Florence Nightingale effort, and I whipped home on Esmerelda between classes to see what she needed. The school was awfully good about the time off—I can just split without having to make up the time. Mind you, I am already volunteering my time for special education classes, the drama group, and a composition contest in Hualien City on December 23rd.
What a sweeheart job this is! I use slapstick comedy routines as a reward for good class work. In other words, I get paid to watch the Three Stooges. The kids love it. I suppose that showing “Trailer Park Boys” would be over the mark, even though Bubbles is bound to be a hit.
It’s now Thursday night, and Lao-puo is mending slowly. It’s a torn ligament from pushing down to hard on her bicycle. She is quickly getting good skill on her new motorbike, after a couple of mishaps. Yesterday she twisted the throttle instead of hitting the brake, and nearly drove Elvis through the front door and into the house. How the hell would you explain that to the insurance company? I guess you would just fill in (without comment) “collision with refrigerator” as the cause of the damage to the motorbike—and hope the adjuster would assume that I keep a beer fridge out in the carport. (I don’t, by the way).
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