She'll be coming round the mountain wehn she comes... yee-ha!

Well I just got back from the mountains about 20 minutes ago and now I'm so tired I think I will need some of the magic black liquid (Coca-cola - not tea or coffee!)

Aboriginal villages
For the past 4 days I have been living up in the mountains going with the doctors as they travel from village to village treating the aboriginal people up there. Dr Lai, myself, 3 nurses and the aborginial driver (yes, we get chauffered around!) headed off in our van and we drove to this little village where we basically treated a lot of gout and hypertension and diabetes (the boring bread and butter stuff of medicine) but then Dr Lai said that this was probably too bopring so he took me to the nearby school and introduced me to the principal there who then asked me if I was keen to teach English for one morning. I accepted, so next month I am going to head up there for a day and teach the kids English. The kids were amazed at seeing a white person (as they had never seen one before!) and I think the only phrase they teach the kids is "How are you?" in English so I was bombarded with "how are you?" all day long. We stayed overnight in this village whose name I don't know and apparently the village was 95% Christian (Praise God for that - isn't that amazing?) and they had a couple fo churches in a small village.
Then we returned to Puli for Wednesday night, but headed out again on Thursday morning for another overnight trip. This time we went to Dr Lai's home village in the mountains and so he knew everyone there and they were all friendly and more kids came and stared at me and one of his relatives is the headmistress there so we arranged for me to teach English there also and then that night after dinner we went karaoking and sang really loudly until we couldn't sing any longer.
Then today we went to a small village where they checked blood sugar levels on little elderly aboriginals and then our last stop was a small village where apparently the local kids had been tipped off that a white person was coming. SO as soon as I stepped out of the car a crowd of about 12 kids swarmed me and started yelling "guang to" (which means "light hair" - as in 'sparse' not 'blonde') I have been getting called this quite a bit lately and so it's my new Chinese name. The kids kept rubbing my head to see if what hair I did have was real and they were amzed at how my skin was a different colour to theirs. Then the kids took me on a tuor fo their town and we had afternoon tea on the roadside. As we sat sipping our Oolong tea, I taught them the "ABC" song and I felt like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" singing "Doe, a deer" with my crowd of eager students sitting at my feet lapping up every word I said...if only my Sunday School kids listened that hard!The mountains themselves were amazing (I seem to be using that word a lot)! I can't really describe them accurately but that are huge and green and tropical and you fell like your on top of the world (literally) and you realize just how magnificent God is!
The roads we traveled on were really bad (I appreciate your work now Dad!) Every year after the rain, the mud slides down the mountains and basically the roads just fall off the mountain. We saw these big chunks just missing from the road so that we had to drive on the other side of the road. For most part we were driving on single lane dirt roads on the side of these huge mountains with a huge drop off the edge only 40 cm away! Our drivers were really skilled though and I was amazed at just how well they drove so we arrived there safely!
As it turned out, the driver was a Christian and is apparently getting married next week so he was on cloud nine all week. Dr Lai was a lot of fun although his English wasn't that good) and when we were karaoking he started dancing around the room like a 4 year old... I can't see my consultants in Sydney doing that (except for maybe Dr Hersch)! The nurses were nice, and cooked all meals for us, and took me on mini tours of each town we stopped at.
However, I think during these past 4 days I finally hit my saturation point of Taiwanese culture. Pete and Jade went with another mountain team so other than Wednesday night (when we were back in Puli) I didn't speak a full sentence of proper English for 4 whole days. It was a pretty solitary existence and although everyone was very hospitable, I am beginning to find the hospitality here overwhelming. Every time we go somewhere, I am served with enough food to feed me for a few days which means that I am struggling to finish it all (but I want to so that I seem polite and grateful in their culture) Last night I was finding myself having to say "no" to more things than I said "Yes" to, simply because it was getting too much for me. Maybe it was just because I was alone and had been 'on the road' for 4 days that I experienced this, but I found myself this afternoon wishing I was back in Sydney. However, once we ran into that crowd of waiting kiddies at the last town, I soon forgot about it and started felling better. I can understand though, how missionaries can feel very isolated as I have only been here 3 weeks and they spend their whole lives abroad. I am currently trying to work through this "cultural overload" so please pray for me, as I'm finding it hard! I had a phone call from Mum and Dad on Monday which really helped a lot; it's so good to hear life still exists in Australia! Apparently some Unichurchers maybe dropping a line on Sunday so I'm looking forward to that!

Christian stuff
On Monday night we were taken out by Michael (for dinner again!) to meet some visitors from a Christian hospital in Japan (Mesa and Dr Watanabe). They were really nice and spoke English well so we chatted to them for a while and had some good fellowship, and then on Wednesday night when we were back in Puli we invited Mesa to come and join us for our nightly Bible study. It was great to chat to her about her experiences of Christianity in Japan and we prayed for her non-Christian family who she lives with. It really IS hard for them to be Christian in their society and family context, so please pray for them!
We looked at the Exodus and how that parallels what Jesus has done for us in bringing us out of our slavery to sin so that we might live in the Promised Land (heaven). I think Mesa was surprised to see the connection, but it really is SO amazing how God rescues his people! Pray that more people here would come to understand God rescue plan for them in Jesus!

Weekend
This weekend we are having a quiet one in Puli (I think). We are planning to go to church on Sunday but other than that, it's going to be quiet and relaxed!

Hope you guys are all going well back home and persevering in the gospel. For those UNSW students, I hope exams went well (esp. the med students!) and a big hello to all those at Unichurch!

Well I really better go! We are going to the supermarket in a minute with Joyce to get some food... I love the supermarkets here...everything is SO cheap!

God bless,

Jimbo (guang-to)

Aowanda

Hi everyone!

Here's your daily dose of Taiwanese news!

Thanksgiving Dinner
On Friday evening, the hospital celebrated American Thanksgiving with a huge party! Although America doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving till later this week, the hospital at Puli throw a huge feast the week before (I don't know why).Now when the Taiwanese throw a party, it HAS to involve superfluous amounts of food and music, so we arrived to find a giant pig being cooked on a spit. When I was a little boy I always wanted to go to a feast where they ate pig on a spit where the pig still looked like a pig (you know the ones where they put the apple in the pig's mouth?) cos I had seen it in medieval movies. Well we finally got our chance to eat the giant pig and they also had baskets and baskets of real fresh turkey!!! Yummo! It was like Christmas dinner one month early! We ate and ate and ate and then afterwards they hired a 4 piece brass band to play some classical music (NB: No violins, Steph and Ange!) which was really high quality... it sounded a lot better than the Parkes Shire Town Band! Then during the evening we were introduced to the Norwegian missionaries who founded Puli Christian Hospital 50 years ago. They were a lovely Christian couple who met here in Puli. He is a jack of all trades and she is a doctor and they have spent most of their lives here serving the people and telling them about God's love for them. All the people in Puli call them "Mother" and "Father" because of what they did for Puli, and the Taiwanese government gave them this special award because of the pioneering work they did amongst the aboriginal people here.

Aowanda
Wow! On Saturday, Helen and Jesse took us to Aowanda National Park along with 2 of their uni friends from med school (Daniel and Jack), a nurse named Amy and her 3 year old nephew (Jackie). We left really early and drove for hours till we reached this amazing national park. Aowanda is home to heaps of maple trees which cover the mountains, so it felt like we were in an American national park (from what I've seen of American national parks on TV). We walked up and up the mountain and I was awestruck by the majesty of the creation around us. I don't know how one can not believe in a Creator after seeing the beauty there! The mountains in Taiwan make the Blue Mountains in Australia look really really small! They were so huge and the air was so clear up there! I could have stayed up there all day! As we walked we stopped off at a log cabin kiosk and ate this bamboo rice (they shove rice into a hollowed bamboo shaft and then cook it - its really nice!) then continued up to the summit. At the top I felt like yodeling but thought it would be inappropriate and would only serve to have more people staring at me (as it is, little kids keeping pointing calling me an American in Mandarin - which we find really funny cos they don't know we can understand them).We had a great day and took lots of photos but we also got to chat to the resident doctors who so kindly took us with them. As we were walking along Helen stopped and prayed to a temple/shrine thingy and so Jade and Pete had a great conversation with her, asking her what she was doing and why. They then got to explain that they were Christian, but unfortunately I don't think it got any further. Keep praying that we might have opportunities to speak to them about Jesus!On the way back we stopped off at the 'highest' Starbucks Coffee shop in all of Asia (apparently it's famous for being so high up) and then we headed back in Amy's car.

Return of the Taichung
On Sunday morning we didn't go to church because one of our medical student mates from Sydney (Mark Woo) lives in Taichung and really really wanted to show us around (and he even swapped his day off to show us the city) so we went to Taichung for some sightseeing.
As per usual, the first stop off was for food! Mark took us to this HUGE buffet at this classy restaurant which was so amazing! We ate for almost 2 hours! Pete kept eating plate after plate pausing only briefly to see what else he could consume. The food was excellent and Mark's family were very hospitable and we felt very humbled again.
Then after lunch we went to see the 2 hospitals that Mark's father runs. The first one was a 200 bed community hospital which had a lot of patients on permanent ventilation. In Australia, we don't like to keep people on life support for very long and most people are content to 'turn-off' the machine after a certain time. But in Taiwan, the concept of turning off the life-support is abhorrent and so there are wards full of people in a semi-comatose state being kept alive by machines for years and years until their bodies give up. It was really sad to see all these people with no real hope stuck on these machines indefinitely. The second hospital we went to was a new psychiatric hospital in the city. Apparently Taiwan has a high rate of mental illness and psychotic episodes. But due to the stigma of mental illness in Taiwanese society, no one likes having an 'institution' so close to the city and so the hospital is very controversial. However, once looking inside, it appears that they treat their patients a lot better than we treat our psychiatric patients in Sydney.
After the tours of the hospitals, Mark and his mum and sister took us to the jewelry market cos Jade wanted to look at some stuff. It was really cool seeing all the people shopping and bartering and I managed to buy a painting and Mark's mum bargained with the lady to knock it down to 66% of the original price! How cool was that!
Then we headed off to the Taichung Night markets to do some serious retail therapy! Taiwan is famous for its cheap nite markets where you can buy almost anything! We walked for hours through the stalls and there's no easy way to describe it. Basically its about as crowded and noisy as the Parkes Show (or the Royal Easter Show) but it goes on and on for ages! And there's so many people crammed in to shop and music blaring and lights flashing and you have to hang on to all your belongings very tightly.I managed to buy this cool camouflage bandana for $2 AUS and a nice hat for $6 AUS. There was so much stuff there that I would 'like' to have bought, but I had to remind myself that I didn't 'need' a lot of what was there.Then after having eaten and walked and shopped till we dropped, we hopped on the bus and headed back to the quiet town on Puli.

Wushe
This morning Pete and I got shoved into a bus and packed off to a small mountain village called Wushe for the morning. We went with the gynecologist and his nurse and basically went to a small community medical centre that services the aboriginal people here. It was actually quite fun, cos no patients came so we just walked around and talked all morning then came home again. Apparently this week we have been assigned to go up to the mountain villages all week and tomorrow night I will stay the night up there. It's actually cold up there so maybe I will finally get to wear my beanie! Yay!

Anyway, I have more to write than time permits, but would love to hear what's happening back home and what you have been learning at church etc. (cos I don't get that much out of church here cos I can't understand it)

May God continue to mould us all into the likeness of His Son!

Jimbo

Day 14 - 25% down, 75% to go...

Hi everyone!

I'll try to make this one short (sorry about the extreme lengths of the other blogs, but I thinks it's therapeutic for me to write all this down so years later I can remember what it was like). How is everyone is Australia? I hope that for those of you studying, that your exams are going well and that you are maintaining a certain level of sanity (and in the case of my flatmates, a certain level of cleanliness - have you washed the dishes yet this week boys?). I am now almost 25% of the way through my trip here and it's gone so fast!

Weather
You can tell I've hit the bottom of the barrel of things to write about when I start top talk about the weather. But I'm going to tell you about the weather anyway! For the past 2 weeks it has been really hot and humid and this came as a bit of a shock because we were expecting a nice winter and so packed lots of warm clothes and relatively few summer-type clothes. It has been so hot that we would regularly have an afternoon nap (to both escape the heat and catch up on our card-playing-induced sleep deprivation) and the mozzies (don't worry! Taiwan is one of the few Asian countries that has non-malarial mosquitoes) have been turning our legs into connect-the-dots puzzles. However in the past 24 hours the weather has decided it's time for winter and this morning when I woke up it was freezing! Finally, I think winter is coming and I can't wait!

Pay TV
Taiwanese people love their pay TV and it has infiltrated its way even out to the remote town of Puli. Our new accommodation has over 50 channels on a large screen TV and so at night we will often sit around and watch the English movies with Chinese subtitles. The other night they screened 'Zoolander' which was great because we all loved that movie and so we sat around laughing ourselves silly until it was time for bed ("What is this? A school for ants? It needs to be at least... THREE times bigger!")
Interspersed with the movies are these Taiwanese commercials which we love watching due to the fact that we cannot understand what they are advertising! We have great fun watching the comical antics in the ads and then we try to imagine or make up our own words to the ad to describe what's going on. One of our favourite ads involves this guy on a scooter who calls 3 girls and we think it might be about a pizza?

Shueli
Yesterday we finished hospital early and one of the resident doctors (Dr Lin) took us for a drive to Shueli which is a small town about 1 hour away from Puli. We went to this ice cream factory where you can buy ice creams for $0.20 (what a bargain!) and so we sat there and ate lots of ice cream. The view from the ice cream shop looked out over the valley in which the town was situated and in the distance the huge mountains rose out of the ground.Then he took us to this small food shop in the town which sold this 'famous food' which consisted of pork balls encased in sweet potato. It was not too bad, but not something I would regularly eat!Then we drove to a nearby train station which was disused after World War II. It was in the mountains next to a lumber mill and I think it used to supply timber. We got to walk around the little village and it was really quite quaint!
Dr Lin was very kind in taking us out to show us around, but his driving was quite scary! As we drove around blind mountain bends he would often cross onto the other side of the road and drive around the bend on the wrong side! Pete asked him if he had ever had a 'near-miss' and Dr Lin emphatically said "No!" but we suspect that what constitutes a near miss in Australia is vastly different from what constitutes a near miss in Taiwan.

Medicine
The other day on the ward round, it struck me that in one year's time I will be a doctor (God willing)! The last 5 years have gone by so quickly it seems like 1st year was only last week. I'm learning a lot here in Puli about medicine and its helping me 'sharpen' my skills (particularly in respiratory medicine). Dr Nathan keeps me busy by giving me an assignment each day to do. So far this week I have done 2 Powerpoint presentations to the doctors (one case presentation and one journal literature review), researched the management strategies for our hyponatraemic patient and started researching another thoracic problem for another patient. Each ward round can last up to 4 and a half hours and by lunchtime I'm almost ready to pass out from hunger (I don't know how I'm going to survive my internship). We worked out the other day that the doctors here get paid very little and the senior nurses get paid less per hour than I used to get paid washing dishes at Pizza Hut!

Christian stuff
Well this morning was Bible study with the doctors and Pastor Tsai (? I think that's his name?) and we sang another song ("In His time" in Taiwanese) and then the pastor spoke for about 20 minutes on Psalm 5. I know it's only been 2 weeks, but I get the impression that some elements of Christianity here are influenced by the religious culture around them. Since we have been here I haven't heard Jesus ('Yesu' in Taiwanese) mentioned once in a sermon or Bible study, which maybe is just because I haven't been able to understand what they are saying; or perhaps it is because they tend to focus on Old Testament passages. Man, I wish I could understand what they are saying!
I have been reminded as we have read about the cross, that the concept of Jesus dying in our place is both profoundly amazing and important, and yet profoundly offensive to our human ideals. The message of the cross IS foolishness to those perishing because in the gospel, we hear of the all powerful God lowering and humbling himself to become a frail man who willingly allowed himself to die a humiliating death to take our punishment. I think this is offensive to us in Australia, but especially in Taiwan where the concept of 'not losing face' (i.e. retaining one's honour and dignity and prestige) is highly valued and the notion of God 'losing face' by becoming human and dying a humiliating death is abhorrent. Keep praying for the people here, that they would know and understand the 'mystery' of God that has been revealed to us through Jesus!
In Psalm 5:11 the psalmist talks about the joy that comes from loving and trusting in God. Today, Dr Nathan asked me after the Bible study "Do you experience this joy here in Puli?" and my answer was a definite "Yes!" No matter where I am, or what happens, I have Jesus... and in Romans 8 we learn that NOTHING can separate us from God's love! God has given all of us as Christians so much to rejoice about in Jesus! So let's thanks Him daily and tell others about what He has done!

I have posted a lot of pictures in the email account and most of them are really big! If you wanna see a few nice shots of Puli, go to picture number 245, 189, 211, 202 (me and Pete at this traditional clothes washing place) and 235 (all of us at the railway station) and if you want to see what an eathquake can do to your house, look at pics 236 and 237.

Well I should sign off now and go get some lunch. I hope you all have a great weekend and as you go to church this weekend, try to remember just how much God has given you and how in Christ he has made one body of believers who are scattered all over the world! I miss you all heaps and thank God for all of you!

God bless,
Jimbo

Day 10 - Tea, Taichung and Tidbits

Gday mates!
(Sorry. I had to say that... I was feeling so patriotic)

Food
For those of you who know me well, you will be accustomed to my 'fussiness' when it comes to food. In particular, I have a strong aversion to seafood. However, this kind of dietary selection is not compatible with the typical Taiwanese diet and so I have in the last 10 days made some radical changes into which foods I will begrudgingly 'allow' to consumed (not saying that I will eat them once I'm back in Australia!). On the weekend I ate wasabi (yes that really hot spicy Japanese stuff that Budweiser used in a famous TV commercial), tofu (they have a special kind of bean curd here called 'smelly tofu' which as its name suggest, emits a pungent odour that assaults your olfactory senses), fish (I poured so much salt on it to kill the taste) and salmon eggs (just the thought of that brings back bad memories now). We calculated last night, that out of 10 nights in Taiwan we had been 'taken out' for dinner by people for 8 of those evenings. The hospitality here is really indescribable; you have to experience it for yourself to understand it.
However, I have found my solace in the local 7-11 which sells me a 600mL Coca Cola for $25 NTD (which is $1 AUS). They also have hot dogs for a dollar and large packets of M&M's which I have on 'special occasions' (like the end of the week!)

7-11
That reminds me! I haven't told you guys yet about 7-11. Now in Australia, we have a few 7-11 convenience stores which are scattered around Sydney and other large cities. In Taiwan, 7-11 is EVERYWHERE! (and I mean everywhere!) In Puli (which is a small town) we have at least 12 of these stores on the main street and in places like Taipei they are on every street corner. They have saturated the market and apparently in Taiwan, they don't use the term "24/7" to refer to "anytime"... they use the term "7/11". So in Puli, you would say the doctor is on-call, "7/11". How bizarre!

Taichung
On our first proper weekend in Taiwan, we went to the nearby city called Taichung (which I think means 'centre of Taiwan'??) Taichung is a city of 2 million people and home to Taiwan's best pearl tea (this tea with milk and gelatinous globs and it's cold). Peter L the hospital computer guy arranged for us to catch a bus with one of the other hospital workers (Michelle) who lived in Taichung and he sent his 13 year old son (Edward) along with us to show us around Taichung. When we got to Taichung, Michelle took us to this amazing restaurant where we had another HUGE lunch and we sat in this lovely old wooden building which overlooked an internal pond which was full of giant colourful fish which you could feed. The food was amazing and the tea certainly lived up to its reputation as being the best in Taiwan.
Then we went to a science museum in Taichung for the afternoon where we walked around and walked through this dinosaur gift shop and acted like a bunch of tourists aided by our local guide, Edward. We bumped into a Westerner at the museum and it turned out he was a missionary kid who had been living in Taiwan for 15 years so we had a good chat to him and he gave us his contact details.
Then we headed back to Puli on the bus and got Edward to teach us some more Mandarin as we traveled.

Church in Taiwan
Joyce (the pastor's daughter) picked us up for church on Sunday morning and we went to Puli Presbyterian Church to fellowship. The church itself is made up mainly of older people and we saw only a few children. Joyce told us that a lot of the young people in Puli leave town to go to university (a lot like Parkes back home) and so the church here struggles to reach out to younger families. The church meeting itself was very similar to what I had grown up with at Parkes Baptist. We sang a few hymns (including "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty the King of Creation" in Taiwanese! I recognized the tune so just sung in English) then had a Bible reading and sermon. None of us understood what was being said in the sermon, but the preacher was certainly very animated as he talked.
The Bible reading was from Hebrews 11, talking about how Abraham left his 'home' in Paran to go to a land God would give him. The writer of Hebrews uses this to show how they considered themselves aliens and foreigners in their 'homeland' because God had promised them a home elsewhere. As I read this passage I was truck by its relevance for us today. Even though I am a foreigner in Taiwan, I have a home in heaven that is where I truly should long to be. This also means that when I am in Australia I am a foreigner too! My home is not in this world according to the Bible. It is with Christ! This encouraged me greatly. To be reminded that I am no more a foreigner in Taiwan than I already was in Australia. I don't know about you, but I think it's so easy to become a 'citizen' of this world and get caught up with the things of this world. Pray that we would all be setting our minds on things above. On God's plans and his purposes in this world!
After church, Michael (the 2nd in charge of the hospital) and Grace (his wife) took us out for lunch (again! Is anyone noting a recurring theme with eating out?) and then Grace showed us the Foundation where she works. The QIF Foundation was set up after the earthquake to help provide services to the community in Puli (like elderly rehab and after school care etc.) by the Christians. It has been amazing to hear how selfless the missionaries were as they struggled night and day in both providing for people's material needs, but also how they fought to tell people the great news of Jesus.
Keep praying for Puli! Apparently because of its scenery/geography, many people believe it to be a centre of 'spiritual' activity in Buddhist/Taoist thinking, so although there are quite a few churches in town, there are 300 (that's THREE HUNDRED) temples to false gods in a town of 60,000. People here need to know about the one true and living God!

Accomodation
As you may recall, we were living in a house that Peter L arranged for us once we arrived in Puli. Pete C and Jade and I were very happy there and it was really great because we were living in the community and it was a truly 'authentic' experience of life in Taiwan. However, there were some downsides to the place and Grace (Michael's wife) offered for us to move into one of the Foundation's rehab/respite houses near the hospital. So last night we packed our stuff and said goodbye to our little house. It was kinda sad cos we had made it 'our home' and we didn't want to appear rude to Peter L (especially as he had put in so much effort to get us that house) but he assured us he was happy for us wherever we lived. So now I have a big room with my own sink and bathroom and I am living next door to an elderly Japanese man who is having some respite. The new place is a lot quieter than our old place (which is good for sleeping) and closer to the hospital, but it feels more isolated from the community. I will put up some photos of our new place soon once we settle in.

My traveling companions
Many of you may be wondering who I am over here with; so I'll briefly fill you in (also because Jade was upset I hadn't really mentioned her in the blog so far):

Pete Chong
Pete is one of my best mates and he and I study medicine together at UNSW although I should probably not use the word 'study' because Pete is notorious for not turning up to hospital on time. Pete is a Christian and he and I have become good mates through our med Bible studies and also because we are exam 'study buddies' (no one else will study with us because we get too easily distracted). Pete recently got married in August this year (to Jade) where I was one of his groomsmen and he goes to Pennant Hills Baptist Church (go the Baptists!) Pete likes to arm-wrestle and work on his abdominal muscle strength and is constantly on the lookout for places to do chin up exercises. He also spends time each morning waxing his hair, as opposed to me who spends time each morning finding my hair. Pete also is good at beating primary school kids at basketball (I think his height may help him there) and calling them "punks". Because Pete is of Asian descent he oftenhas little old ladies in Puli talking to him and he just has to shrug his shoulders and mutter "Wor schwor yin wen" (which is Mandarin for "I speak English")

Jade Chong
Jade is funnily enough related to Pete (hence the similar surname). They got married earlier this year and Jade works as a physiotherapist in the western bit of Sydney (past Anzac Parade). Jade is our resident linguistic expert (her Mandarin is much better than mine and Pete's) and she is often to be heard commenting people or asking where you can buy vegetables. Each day Jade takes us through some stretches to work on our muscle groups (I think it's a physiotherapist thing - but it's fun!) and sometimes she likes to laugh at strange things (like when we saw this elderly man walk into a 7-11 store with a hospital drip still attached to him, she wouldn't stop laughing - I guess it was pretty bizarre!) Jade also showed me how to wash my clothes by hand so I'll be indebted to her for that. Unlike Pete, Jade and I don't have people assuming we can speak Mandarin. Instead everywhere we go, we get stared at as though we have 3 heads or something. It's definitely not easy if you're self conscious (like I am)!

Homesickness
Well, someone mentioned that I haven't said much about missing you guys at home and they were wondering if I was homesick. I'll have to admit I was a bit homesick at first but now I'm settled and feeling comfortable here. I do miss you guys though and can't wait till I get home to catch up with each one of you and find out how you all are, etc. etc. etc. But in the meantime, please keep sending those emails! They have been really encouraging and I've been less homesick because of them.

A special hello to all the people back home in sunny Parkes and may God bless you all!

Jimbo

Day 7

Ni hao! (Hi)
Well it's now been almost a week and I think I am finally beginning to feel settled here. Life here is so different and yet so similar to Australia.

Elections
Yes, just like in Australia, they have elections in Taiwan too! Apparently there is a local government one next month and just like in Australia the candidates have plastered their photos on giant billboards all over the telegraph poles. However, they haven't yet caught on to using TV ads here. Instead the local candidates employ people with trucks to drive around with megaphones on their trucks blaring out their election promises and playing catchy jingles. At first we thought it was Mr Whippy in Taiwan but we soon realized that Mr Whippy does not visit most people at 5am when they are asleep. That's right! At 5am this truck drives past our house blasting out these election promises in Mandarin.

School
Our house is just down the road from a local primary school and so on our way to hospital each morning, Pete and I watch all the kiddies being dropped off by their parents at 7am. Apparently school starts at 7am and in a rather ingenious design, they get the children to clean the school from 7am to 8am armed with brooms and the like. Apparently school runs from 7am till 5pm here so I am very glad that I grew up in Australia...

Doctor Day
This may sound a bit strange but in Taiwan they celebrate 'Doctor Day' in November (which Pete and I agree should be picked up in Australia) so on Wednesday night we were taken out for dinner with the surgical staff (doctors and nurses and administrators) They took us out to this really fancy restaurant where they served us 10 (TEN) courses ranging from pigeon wings to pancakes to soups to this weird desert that looked like frogs eggs but were really yummy. The hospital bosses were very generous and made sure we were well fed (and gave us all the leftovers too!) and we got to meet two of the GP trainee doctors (Helen and JC). Once dinner was over, the restaurant was transformed into a karaoke bar with everyone from the nurses to the surgeons getting up and singing along. Most of them were really good singers, but a few of them would have made the Australian Idol outtakes!

Hospital
The great thing about medicine is that generally it is the same wherever you go in the world. So thankfully in hospital I feel so much more at home because it is such a familiar environment and the same 'hierarchy' that exists in Australia exists here in Taiwan. We start ward rounds at 7:30am sharp (which is too early for my liking) and we have 2 floors patients to see before we head to the ICU to see some more patients there and then we head to the tuberculosis (TB) isolation ward to finish off. Originally the TB ward was set up to isolate anyone who contracted SARS, but apparently this hospital only ever had one suspected case of SARS so it now serves to isolate the TB patients. When you walk in you have to wear a special N-95 mask and the doors open and close with a pressurized 'whooshing' sound so you feel like you are in a high security lab form a movie or something. TB is so prevalent here, which is in stark contrast to Australia where it's only really found in migrant populations.
It turns out that my first patient from Tuesday actually had a foreign body in her pelvis which when they investigated they incidentally found a large tumour so now she has become an 'interesting' case and I have been given the 'privilege' of presenting her as a case discussion to the doctors next Monday. Most days Pete and I finish hospital by lunchtime and then we head home and have a nap (it's hard work waking up at 6:30 [note: sarcasm]) so we have the afternoons to ourselves.

'Earthshakes'
Taiwan experiences 200 earthquakes a year. 99.9999% are minor and do no damage but apparently a few years ago here in Puli they experienced a major earthquake that killed 200 locals and destroyed much of the town. People here live in fear of another one and many people who once showered for 10 minutes will only shower for 3 minutes in case another earthquake strikes. Last Monday and Wednesday night there were 2 earthquakes off the coast of Taipei measuring about 6 on the Richter scale. However, neither Pete, Jade or I noticed anything and it wasn't until yesterday when the doctors asked us "Didn't you feel the earthquake?" that we realized what had happened. Although it's rare for there to be a serious earthquake, please pray that we will be kept safe from harm whilst here and that the people here would find freedom from this fear of death as they come to know Jesus.

Language
In Genesis, God frustrates the languages of mankind at the tower of Babel and since then languages have been a source of frustration to all. Mandarin is a hard language to learn, not only because of the new vocabulary, but also because of 'tones'. Each one word can be said in 4 different ways by altering the pitch of your voice which means you have to not only remember which word you want to say but you also have to remember how to say the word properly so that you don't call your mother a horse or something similar.
So far, I have been learning a lot, but the volume of new words and phrases is starting to overwhelm me. Pray that God would help me to persevere in learning the language as I find it really easy to just stick with English (especially in hospital where the doctors speak English to us).

Christian stuff
Today at the start of the morning we had Bible study with the doctors before ward rounds. One of the local pastors came and read from Psalm 37. Pete and I didn't really understand much of it (speaking in tongues is unedifying unless there is an interpreter - 1 Corinthians 14:1-19) but I think he was talking about the history of the hospital and the testimony that the missionaries gave in setting up the hospital for the people here. Out of the whole 30 minutes I think he only spent about 2 minutes actually in the Scriptures; let's hope we get to hear some more of the Bible taught when we go to church on Sunday! Then at the end of the morning devotion/Bible study, we sang a hymn together in Mandarin. Pete and I had no idea what it was about as we sung, but afterwards Dr Nathan explained that it was about how God is faithful and our strength in times in trouble (I think). Apparently that's how the missionaries used to learn the language many years ago...by singing in Taiwanese and translating European hymns into Taiwanese. Maybe Pete, Jade and I should start translating our Christian songs into Mandarin to help us learn the language?
The 3 of us have been continuing to read the Bible and pray at night together in 'ACME church' (Australian Chong & Mittelstadt Evangelical Church) and I have been really encouraged by the Christian doctors here too. We are all looking forward to going to church on Sunday for the first time and meeting more of the Christians here.
Please pray for our friends Helen and JC (the GP trainees) who will be here for the next month (as part of their rotation) as we hope to invite them over for a meal and talk to them about Jesus if we can. Thank God for His faithfulness to his promises. That he sent Jesus to rescue us and that he will return one day soon to rule forever. Pray that we would never forget this and that we would live our lives in a way that pleases him.

Thanks to all of you who have emailed or posted a reply here on the blog. It's been so encouraging to hear from you all back home and it helps keep me sane each day. I have put some photos in the Gmail account but apologise that I haven't had time to shoot more pictures (we are planning to make a short movie of our 'home' here on the weekend so I might put the digital video up next week).

Keep running the race with perseverance!

God bless,
Jimbo

Day 4

Hi all,
WOW! What an amazing last 4 days I have had! I don't know where to begin but here goes...

Day 1
Arrived in Taipei at 10pm after another brilliant flight with Singapore Airlines (I can't recommend them enough!) and was picked up by my friend from Sydney (Julia) and her family. They asked if I was hungry and I mentioned that I was a little bit peckish so they took me out for steamboat (for those of you who don't know what steamboat is; you get a pot of water and all your food and cook it... We ate so much for 'supper' that I couldn't finish it all!) Then we went back to Julia's place where I stayed the night in Taipei.
Now Taipei is nothing like Sydney! Firstly they drive on the right hand side of the road and instead of obeying the traffic lights they are more like "recommendations" which no one follows. Also, only half the people in Taiwan drive cars... Most people instead ride motorised scooters/motorbikes everywhere which causes all sorts of traffic chaos (and pedestrians cross the road at their own risk).
Julia's family were extremely hospitable and drove me to the hotel and packed me lunch and lent me some money until I could find a bank... I am completely blown away by how generous everyone (whether Christian or not) is.

Day 2
Met Pete and Jade (my med buddy and his wife) at their hotel in Taipei early Sunday morning and then we bravely made a dash across town in taxis (did I mention you don't 'have' to wear your seatbelt in Taiwan?) to catch the midday bus to Puli. We almost missed it but thanks to Pete and Jade's Taiwanese friend Vivian, we got on the right bus and the bus driver was kind enough to shout at us and jump up and down when it was our stop in Puli. On the way to Puli I was amazed at the beautiful scenery that god has made here. Everything is so lush and green with gorgeous green mountains dotted with plam trees. Despite this amazing creation, the cities are very smoggy and not well organised but that adds to the feel of the place.
When we got to pull, Vivian had called ahead and we were met at the bus stop by one of the hospital workers named Peter . Peter came and drove us from the bus station to our temporary accommodation (this little house with a bathroom, 2 bunk beds and a table). We were so amazed by Peter's generosity towards us. Here we were in the middle of Taiwan and having no idea what to do and Peter took us out for dinner with his wife and friend and then took us shopping for food and necessities then he looked at our accommodation and said "That's not good enough!" and arranged some new accommodation for us!
Eating out in Taiwan seems to be a national pastime. All we do in our spare time here is go out and eat with people from the hospital who have been so generous in showing us around. We went to this majestic place called Sun-Moon Lake which funnily enough looks like a sun and moon. It was so quiet and peaceful and reminded me just how great our God is!
Pete and Jade and I settled in for our first nite at Puli and gave thanks to God for his many blessings to us!

Day 3
We were driven to hospital by Peter the next morning (even though it was a 5 min walk!) and he bought us breakfast ("please, no more food!" haha!) which consisted of these amazing dumplings (about 30 dumplings for $3AUS) and we went to hospital where we were greeted by the doctors and administration staff. Many of the staff here (including Peter) speak English so we have been feeling more comfortable about that!
The admin staff were so keen to meet us that the hospital administrator took us out for lunch to eat some Western food (which was still pretty Taiwanese!) and we had lunch with him (Michael) and his assistant (Spencer) and another admin girl (Joyce) They are all Christians and have made us feel so welcome and we plan to visit their churches over the coming weeks. Joyce's dad is one of the pastor's here but has suffered a stroke recently so please pray for them that he would be restored to good health soon for the church's sake.
Then in the afternoon we met another Christian doctor called Nathan (who is my supervisor here) He took us to the city (Taichung) on the coast for a medical respiratory meeting for specialists and then drove us home. We were able to talk to him about how he became a Christian and he told us how very recently his elderly mother came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior! Praise God!!!! I was really amazed to hear his passion for his parents who didn't know Jesus.
However from our chats with people, it seems that Christians here feel quite 'swamped' by the 'spirituality' around them. People here follow a from of Taoism mixed with Buddhism so they basically worship their ancestors and not our Lord Jesus. It is so sad to see these people living their lives in rejection of the one true and living God and I would ask that you would pray for the Christians here; that they would be encouraged to stand firm in the gospel and that Jesus name would be honoured here as people come to repent and believe!
That nite, we got back and Peter had arranged a new place for us... A 2 storey house with about 5 bedrooms and heaps of space! We were gobsmacked! He had even come and cleaned the house for us and gotten his wife to buy us crockery and cutlery etc. We felt so humbled by all this and then he outdid himself again and took us out for dinner. This time however he felt we could use some Western food so we went to MaiTung Low (I've probably not written that correctly) which you may know in English as "McDonald's" Tell you what, a Big Mac never tasted so good! Also I got to drink Coca-Cola! Man it was heavenly! Tastes the same as in Australia and was a welcome relief after all the tea we have been drinking (yes Mum, I AM drinking tea! It's more accessible than water because you have to boil water then cool it).
Then we went back to our new 'home' and settled in. After Pete and Jade played 'Renovation Rescue' with the place and moved the furniture around (and then back to its original configuration) we had our first meeting of A.C.M.E. Now what is ACME I hear you ask? Well ACME stands for Australian Chong & Mittelstadt Evangelical Church; which is our way of saying "Bible study time". We are reading thru the Briefing notes this month on the Atonement using the book of Mark. Thank God for Jesus! In the midst of all this craziness that we had been going thru, God reminded us of his Son and how much he loved us. Pray that we would continue to encourage each other of this truth all the more as we see His day approaching!

Day 4
After a nice warm shower (the other showers we had been using scalded the skin or were sub-zero in temperature) Pete and I raced off to hospital this morning to do some medicine. I got to admit a patient from the ER and take a full history via a translator then do a full examination and present the case to my doctor. He was impressed that I picked up a pleural rub (don't worry if you don't know what that is!) and so I felt happy.

Anyway, it's getting dark now so I'm gonna finish today's entry!

To sum up, God has been very good to us and we are so thankful to Him!
Please pray for Peter the hospital guy who has been very kind to us. He is not a Christian but we have struck up a great friendship with him (he used to study in Wollongong). Pray that we might have more opportunities to talk to him further about Jesus.

Missing everyone in Australia! Thanks to all of you who posted comments on the blog! I've been reading them all!

Will put up some photos into the email account very soon!

God bless!
Jimbo 9/11/04

Brief blog from Singapore...

Hi all,
Well I made it to Singapore ok and found one of those free internet thingys which is great! Man, having never left the country before I was really anxious about flying and all that stuff... but it was SO much fun! It's so amazing just to see how even the scenery is so vastly different to everything I've ever known! HUGE river systems (with water in them!) and heaps of palm trees. God is definitely very creative! Anyway, I'll keep this short and blog again once I'm settled into the hospital in Taiwan. Missing all you guys already!
Jimbo
P.S. Jeanne recommended I ride the 'travellators' at Singapore Airport...hehe... I did! It was so much fun! Especially as no one was around I just kept riding themfor 10 minutes! Haha!

Every saga has a beginning...

Hi everyone,

This is my first blog entry for my trip to Taiwan 2004. Wow! I can't believe it's happened so quickly. In 3 days time I will be boarding a 747 to Singapore to start my first trip overseas! Yay! I must admit that I am more than a little bit nervous at the moment ... I am in the 'flight' 'fight' and 'fright' modes of the sympathetic nervous system all at once! (for those med students who may be reading)

I'm excited because of the many cool opportunites that lie ahead... only my Father in heaven knows the cool things in store over the next 2 months!
I'm nervous because although many of you have commented on how well I seem to fit into Asian culture I have only ever done that whilst in the comfort of my own territory. Once in a land where I am the foreigner, I think I will struggle with this a lot more. My Mandarin/Taiwanese learning has not been happening and so I'm going to go and buy a phrasebook tomorrow in the city.

The reason I set up a blog was because usually what happens is when people go overseas they email EVERYONE they know with epic emails that usually take 3 cups fo coffee/tea/Coca-cola to read about the amusing little anecdotes. Now PLEASE don't hear me wrong, I luv those emails and have nothing against them... but in the interest of saving everyone from MY boring rantings about life, I decided to make this whole thing a passive thing... so if you wanna hear about my travels, then visit this website frequently; but if you'd rather go and study/watch-paint-dry/calculate-the-number-of-days-till-Star-Wars-III-comes-out, then feel free not to logon and I wont be offended at all! I WILL still send some emails to certain people eg. Mum and Dad, my sisters, my flatmates (reminding them of the rent that's due or when to throw out that milk thats been in the fridge for 3 weeks) but just don't be offended if I don't email you... it's purely a time thingy... but you will increase your chance of getting an email if you send me one first! I will still be using my usual email address (jamesmitt@hotmail.com) while overseas.

In addition to writing this blog, I hope to share some pictures of my travels in Taiwan online but cos I don't wanna use up too much webspace here I am gonna set up a Gmail account which you can all look at. The URL is www.gmail.com and the Username is "jimbointaiwan" and the Password is "pulihospital". Please feel free to look at the pics and stuff BUT DO NOT DELETE or modify the pics cos they are there for everyone (including me when I get back!)

However, despite all this I must start this blog/journal of my travels by giving thanks to God. I haven't even left the country yet and already I have SO much to thank God for!
1) For saving me and loving me even when I was a sinner and his enemy! (thats the most amazing thing ever!!!)
2) For providing the finances for me to go overseas when I wasn't sure if it was possible (he answers prayers in mysterious ways!).
3) For sorting out the problems I had with the visa department (I tried going as a tourist but they rejected it and we had to call around and email people and it wasn't looking good... but it forced me to trust Him and rely on Him for ALL things...both big and small! And he was generous and provided what I needed!)
4) For allowing me to go with my best mate Pete and his wife Jade. These guys are gonna be so much fun to go to Taiwan with and I'm proud to call them my friends!
5) For allowing me to go to a Christian hospital and see how medicine and ministry work together overseas and to think more about how I can be involved in furthering the kingdom for Jesus!

Well anyway, this blog is getting quite long... but just to let you all know, I will be updating this blog on a regular basis (maybe twice a week??) with news/stories/cries-of-help/prayer-requests/thanksgiving-points/etc. so stay tuned for more!

May God bless all of you guys and gals out there! I've been so encouraged by my brothers and sisters who have been praying for me and encouraging me and helping me prepare for this trip...even just by asking me how it's been going. I'm gonna miss you guys all so much and can't WAIT to come home (even though I haven't left!) in January and tell you all the cool stuff!

God bless,
Jimbo