Leaving Lanyu

Leaving paradise is never easy, but my time here is about over. From one perspective, we didn't do very much - there were no kids around expecting us to give English lessons or to lead bible study; there were no houses to be built or reconstruction projects to help with; there weren't even that many people to spread the gospel to, as 70% of the population was already Christian. We did help with church mailings, got to help out with activities with kids for a couple days (including conducting a random skit on traffic safety), and help paint the church walls, but these all felt like things that were fairly inconsequential, we were fairly certain we left no life-changing impact on the people of Lanyu.

However, after further reflection, it seems sometimes it's not so much what you can do and offer to others, but what you are able to digest, absorb, and learn, especially in a foreign setting. It's perhaps a more selfish perspective, and a little cliche, but oftentimes those who try to seek out and enrich the lives of others find their lives enriched the most. Hey, what can I say, trying to help others is very therapeutic in of itself. Anyhow, I just wanted to reiterate that this place is absolutely gorgeous - the weather, though hot, is bearable, and the high humidity is balanced with lots of strong, cooling wind currents. There's flying fish to eat almost everyday, along with fruit and seafood unique to the island. We've gotten to go swimming by corral reefs, along sandy beaches, in cold springs, and in shipdocks. The people here are kind and friendly, and they speak very good Mandarin as well as Taiwanese, though retaining their own language. It's familiar enough to be like home, yet different enough to retain its allure.

Final thoughts:

1) The sun in Lanyu is scorching. And since I've been out running/swimming/diving/snorkeling/playing basketball every single day, people have started to ask me if I'm one of the aborigines due to the color of my skin.

2) Being blessed with nice weather, beaches everywhere, amazing scenery, etc, really makes everyone... well not exactly lazy, but very easygoing. The culture here is very laid back, the police have nothing to do but to go out and play in the water, fish for food, etc. If we didn't get to accomplish what we set out to do today, it's okay - there's tomorrow, and it looks exactly like today, with beautiful weather, lots of free time, and nothing pressing at hand.

3) The people are much more reliant on God due to their close relationship with the land and nature. This reliance sometimes seems much more of an abstraction in New York - we don't have to catch or hunt for our food, or depend on good weather to ensure supplies from boats and planes can come through.

4) Some of my minor health issues have largely gone away. I think it must've been mostly the stress of the job and not sleeping enough. I sleep a lot more now, though not always 8 hours still. Yet with nothing lurking in the back of my mind, I've been able to enjoy myself thoroughly without having to think ahead about anything at all. Sometimes I feel I could live here forever...

5) I've gotten ridiculously efficient, so much more than I was before I started working at Opera. The pastor here wanted us to help type up about 150 addresses to put on envelopes and mail out - between using copy and paste techniques, typing quickly, using the keypad, etc, I blew away the others on the trip as well - most of them are still in college. Having been trained on the art of getting things done extremely quickly for the past 3 years has really helped.

Here's some final pictures:

Here I am with the evangelist who invited us to come:

Michael is posed with Jay's sister and Jay's sister's random friend:

Jay and Yo-Yo on the boat:

Driving off...

The ocean never looked so blue...

Completing the Circuit

Oh and an update on running - so I finished my circuit around the island, yay! We ended up living in 4 of the 6 villages so that helped in terms of changing the starting location. In the last two days, I realized I still had a ton of road to cover, and so I really got to it. Here are the pictures from my run (over 2 hours, though I stopped to take pictures regularly) around the southern tip of the island:

It was a cloudy day for once in Lanyu, which helped keep things cool even late morning:

View of Small Lanyu island (小蘭嶼) from the dock. 小蘭嶼 is uninhabited and used for target practice by the Taiwanese military.

View of the dock:

There's a nuclear waste facility on the southern part of the island as well. Apparently in the 1970s, the Taiwanese government tricked the illiterate governor of Lanyu into signing over some land for this purpose - the unfortunate governor thought the land was to be developed as a national park. Protests occured in the 90s, and the islanders blockaded the port to prevent further shipments of nuclear waste from coming in, but nothing yet has been done to remove the waste thus far. Here is the entrance to the facility:

Curious enough, a fairly nice residence seems to be next to the facility as well:

Some older, unoccupied buildings are next door:

The road around the southern tip is more treacherous and may be subject to falling rocks. My first time in the area was on motorbike at night, and it was downright scary. You still can't help but be in awe as you pass by:

After completing my journey, I had no energy to continue on to the village. Luckily, I managed to hitchike with a nice lady on a motorbike. She brought me to Dongqing even though she was only going to Yeyin.

Here is the excursion across the northwestern area (probably the most windy part of the island), which happened later that afternoon:

Interesting (and perhaps unfortunate) graffiti:

Large caves were accessible for exploration but I had no time:

The road and the mountain bends in strange ways:

Just on the run around the southern tip, the clouds and fog threatened to invade the landscape:

The port at Yeyou:

The only gas station on the island:

One more major bend to cover...

The airstrip... And airport...

Passing by a map of Lanyu on the road...

By the time I got back, I was soaked - I was sweating, and it was raining outside...

The next day, I went up the mountains once more to take some final pictures. These are all shots of the western side of the island, of the villages Yuuren and Hongtou:

Animals

Besides people, there are a number of creatures on the island. Most notably, the villagers have herds of goat, and they often let them roam about, especially in the mornings. As a result, I see them almost every time I go running, as well as their omnipresent droppings and the flies that come with them.






This was the reason why this basketball court was rather gross to play on:




Other than goats, some families raise pigs, which do their part by making leftovers and perishable garbage disappear more quickly. Pigs are more like wild hogs, and they are actually quite furry, though sometimes a bit tempermental.




There are also roosters in villages, and they tend to crow not just in the morning, but also during inappropriate times such as in the afternoon, especially when one is trying to nap. However, they tend to walk around as if they were ignorant and blameless of such irresponsible behavior:



There are also lizards, which of course can be found outdoors, but also sometimes on the walls inside houses (houses in Lanyu tend to be very open - lots of open windows, decks, etc, and generally are very easy for random creatures to come in). Apparently they're good for catching insects so they're always welcome indoors.


We've also seen miniature owls at night (though no pictures are available) and went on an excursion to catch salamanders, crabs, snails, etc. In fact, there is a dish made from cooked snails where you're supposed to break the tail of the shell off before you can suck the tasty snail body out (no suction force can be created inside a rigid shell given only one opening). For whatever reason, in the book "Song of Orchid Island", which is about an American visiting Lanyu in the 1970s, the American had extreme difficulty with this (it took him like a month or something before he could apply enough suction force to successfully suck his meal). Certainly it took a little bit of practice, but it wasn't that hard.

Lanyu Update

So today we finally got to do a bit of work - we helped paint one of the church walls. It's been fairly unstructured and disorganized of a missions trip, but in general, that's just the lifestyle people tend to live here. When you have nice weather, great scenery, and fewer ambitions, people tend to just sit back in their pavillions and enjoy the passage of time, watching the movement of the tide on the beach, feeling the gentle breeze tickle their feet, and dissolving themselves in the present moment. In general, people are late to do what they set out to do by at least a few hours, such as was the case with painting today.

We were scheduled to help out late morning, but since we could not locate the paint brushes, and no one had the motivation to make a concerted effort to find them, everyone hung out in pavillion until late afternoon, just chatting and enjoying the day. Not that it was just us that was lazy; the pastor and church elders were in no hurry either, and we spent the majority of the day in pleasant conversation and taking pictures of a picture book, which turned out surprisingly well. See below:

Pictures from the book:

However, we finally did get around to painting that wall, though the fumes were most unpleasant. Here are some pictures:

Here's what an actual traditional boat looks like:

Also, early in the morning, I finally got someone else to run with me! Yao Yi came out with me as a way to apologize after he and Michael ditched me (I meant conveniently forgot I existed) last night in their motorbike ride around the island:

That was nice, but here's what I missed when they went out riding:







After the ride, they joined in to help me out with the kids - we had a program for some Lanyu kids and kids from Taiwan for a few days. However, as in typical Lanyu fashion, the boat was broken and it took a day to repair, so they lost a day waiting in Taiwan. Anyhow, some pictures from that:

Orientation:

Swimming by the shore:

Games & Activities with the kids: