Puxin: Sights, Sounds, and Smells

Hi Everyone,

So it's been a few days since we've arrived here in Taiwan. We are settling in well with the Chens. We had our orientation a few days ago upon arrival and have had a chance to see some of the students we hope to connect with after the school year starts. Today we had more of a chance to walk around town and explore a little bit, so we wanted to take this chance to share a little about this place we call home for the next half a year.

Sights: Puxin is a small sized town in Taiwan with around 35 000 people and several surrounding villages. It's closest bigger-city neighbour is YuanLin, so if you'd like to google it, you can probably find Puxin on its left somewhere on the map. It's got a typical main street with shops that line both sides, and then residential houses scattered about.

Main street stroll

Corner store beside where we live

A ride into the surrounding village

Sounds: We are situated on a rather heavily used street, so besides the overbearing stench of the stinky tofu stall a few houses away the next thing you'll notice is the constant din of traffic and the shrill of the passing moped. Still, it's nothing like what traffic is like in Hong Kong (thank goodness) and you can easily find your way across the street, though it would be wise to walk in a predictable manner so you don't get hit by the oncoming scooter!

putt-putt-putt-putt

The school across from our place

Smells: If you take a stroll along main street, the predominant aroma will be of boiling oil and fried goods (donuts, chicken, mushrooms, tofu, potatoes... I don't know how Taiwanese are so creative in finding all these different things to fry). But the other smell to notice is the incense as you pass by the different temples in town. This month in particular is interesting- it's ghost month in the Chinese calendar. Tradition states that the spirits of the dead come out to visit families, so to appease them and ease their suffering, it is important to leave offerings of food, drinks, and money out for them to use. Yesterday was the last day of Ghost month, so many families took the opportunity to send the spirits off with offerings and incense.

If you see a temple, you'll likely smell the incense

A store-front offering to the ghosts leaving town

What's next: The students at the nearby highschool start classes in September, so the next week or two will help us gauge our ministry priorities and what our schedule looks like. We hope to have an after-school hangout centre for them to relax. We will also have a Mid-Autumn Festival BBQ for them, so we are praying that event kickstarts a steady group of students coming to visit.

Personally, we will start our first begin our language learning this coming Thursday. We're already trying to practice our by speaking with students and watching Meteor Garden. I'm also trying to write down all the new words I encounter throughout the day on sheets of paper so I see them more often, but Mich doesn't like the papers so she has them on her phone.

 It's been a positive start so far. We're happy to be here and happy to be learning lots!

Blessings!