Formosa - Flowers I

The flowers here are spectacular. We've visitied two orchid greenhouses, where the orchids are like completely different species of plant than what we have. In Tennessee, I'm happy just to keep one flower bud - or maybe, just to keep the orchid alive.

Chang Kai-Chek

We recently visited the burial grounds of Chiang Kai Shek, nationalist leader of the Republic of China from the 1920s until the mid 1970s. Public sentiment seems to vary about the legacy of Chiang Kai Shek, nevertheless, here at his favorite vacation home in Cahu, which has been converted to a grand public park and grounds, his persona is presented colorfully and diversely. The hats and prints suggest a pop culture phenomenon, while the multiple-times daily changing of the guard at the location of his tomb suggest an historical significance akin to the eternal flame at Arlington Cemetary. We'll visit the memorial grounds in Taipei this week, which was originally named the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, recently changed to National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall, and then, more recently, changed back again. I was told at the Cahu
site that he was often depicted in statue in a sitting position because of the allusion to Abraham Lincoln - and apparently at the Memorial Hall, this is no different. (Picture above taken from Wikipedia - showing the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall statue.)

Gao Yi Elementary School

We had the privilege of driving two hours one way up very windy, narrow mountain roads to the Gao Yi Elementary School. This school literally sits on a mountainside. The students are native Aborigines of Taiwan. At the school, they are required to study Mandarin, English and their native Aboriginal language.

Local Rotary clubs recently helped the school obtain computers for use in the classroom. Their newest project is to provide solar hot water heaters for the school. This is a public school but apparently with limited resources. Interestingly, because of the difficulty in travel for these students, about 80% actually live at the school and only go home on weekends.

I learned that they do not have a library. I spoke with local Rotarians about the possibility of teaming with them to secure a RI matching grant to provide a library or other needed matters for this school.

We videoed the native dance performed by the children, but the clip is to large to download here.







This is a line of rubber boots worn by the students who helped prepare and serve lunch.

This shows a wild pig who wandered onto the small campus while we there there. The California GSE Team was not bashful about visiting with the pig. The Tennessee GSE Team declined.

Not the Icecream Man...

People

Our hosts have been incredible giving and hospitable, and their interest in photograping us is flattery of the most genuine form. The montage of people that we've met, from those families who have opened up their home to the business owners and local leaders that we've met, is remarkable. In some cases these montages take unusual form, such as my growing collection of photos of people photographing us.

Those above, in order,

1. March 22 - Bryan, the brother of Copper and one of the finest families I've ever had the pleasure of staying with (on a morning bike ride on the 17 km Hsinchu bike path). (He and Copper gave me a great collection of photos that both of them took of me during my 4 day visit at their home).

2. March 23 - after our approx 25 km ride (rare opportunity to travel other than by car) on same Hsinchu Bike Path. We were exhausted - but it was good.

3. March 22 - Phillip and 2 others after making rice noodles at the Rice Noodle Factory.

4. March 17 - 3 friends at a beautiful Miaoli B&B.

5. March 30 - in the mountains of La La Mountain. (La La means beautiful in Taiwanese.)

A Long Bike Ride

It was a gorgeous day for a bike ride along the beach! We were thankful for the sun on our faces and the exercise! I've never riden a bike this far before...we rode about 28km roundtrip(started a few km from the beginning), so it was an accomplishment for sure!

Food I

The culture and ritual of food is rich. Some of the simple things (from the top):

1. Soup is almost standard with every meal, and it's generally served at the end. Soup is usually a simple dish, with broth and some kind of fairly whole meat. In this case a whole chicken.

2. Mwa Ji - they make a lot of things out of rice. This pre-meal snack is rice, pulverized to form a sticky ball, which is served in one lump and cut up into smaller bite-sized pieces by using the chop sticks as make shift scissors. Then the individual morsels are rolled in a sugary/powdery mixture and eaten with chopsticks, one by one. This is a traditional Hakka (historic ethnicity of the island) treat that is similar to subtly sweet partially cooked bread dough (soft and chewy).

3. Greens have been one of my favorites, consistently. Like soup, greens are an almost given at any meal, served in some form or fashion, but usually very simply prepared, presumably cooked in a wok with oil, garlic, and possible a small amount of other ingredients. But usually just greens. (From what I can tell they use a wide variety of greens for these dishes, including kohlrabi, spinach, cabbage, and others.)

4. Lobo Gao - a square patty of minced white carrot. (I suspect that what they call white carrot might actually be Daikon Radish, but I haven't dug into that any more to see if I'm right. perhaps there really is something that is a white carrot that grows here.) Not sure how this dish is prepared (maybe steamed and then quickly pan fried), but it's a delicious treat. Our first experience with Lobo Gao was at Modern and Smiley's house on day 1, for breakfast. I've had it for a non-breakfast too, later, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.