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