12/15/12 was our first day out in the door to door volunteer bible education work (field service). Yay!
Sam had hand written a brief presentation in 汉语拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn) for the magazine offer for the month of December. I decided to just wing it :) Hànyǔ Pīnyīn is an official system to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script, it is based off of other forms of romanization. It was developed in the 1950's in China. Taiwan actually has a few of their own phonetic systems, but I think they have adopted Hànyǔ Pīnyīn as well.
Sam took this photo while walking...all the sides streets, so far, basically look like alleyways. The territory is flat, which is nice, but almost every home is an apartment with about 5 floors and 10 small sets of stairs. I would say that about every other door, we were able to get in and knock on each door. If we could not get in then we used the intercoms. For this rainy time of year, getting in and walking up and down the flights of stairs was nice. However, I think that in the summer time this would be very brutal for a 外国 人(Wàiguó rén). It was very warm and humid that day and there was no occasional cool breeze to offer some relief, so I can just imagine what it would feel like in the summer...
Our Taiwanese brothers and sisters are smart! The brother taking the lead would direct us so that after we would finish a completed cubic block or two we all in the exact same location. Then...we would take a break to just hang out, chit chat, or play with a neighbor's dog. At, first, I was a bit taken back by this. I was thinking what are we doing? and won't the people in the neighborhood get upset at us? But, this is one of many cultural differences that is a wonderful thing. The neighbors weren't the least bit irritated, they even joined in on our comradery sometimes...haha!
After we finished the territory for that morning, we ate at this lovely Italian restaurant (yep Italian). It is behind us with the yellow sign and no the people that own it are not Italian. It was delicious and honestly the first meal I actually enjoyed! We have gone again after field service and I ordered the exact same thing so that I didn't spoil my wonderful memory of yummy food I recognize and like. No offense intended to anyone who appreciates Taiwanese cuisine.
We joined Charlie and Sandy for afternoon field service in a nearby park.
The first tract (the Family Tract) has a kite on it, which I don't recall the one we use in the states having a kite in the scene. Also, I personally have never even seen the second tract. Have you? I believe it discusses fate. 很有意思(Hěnyǒu Yìsi) or interesting.
We bumped into a sister (on my right) having a bible study with her student (on Sam's left) in the park. This sister goes to our congregation and her bible student attends every Sunday meeting, as well.
Foot Stone Path...ouch!
This gentleman and his wife were walking up and down this path as if they were walking on fluffy down pillows. Many locals go to the parks to walk these paths several times each day. The gentleman actually insisted that Sam walk with him back and forth on the entire path. Sam cannot resist a challenge so he did. It was quite comical to watch.
I offered him a tract.
I loved it when the friends would sit on random people's scooters at break time...
ReplyDeleteThose stone foot paths are brutal! They hurt even with shoes on.