Monday, June 23, 2008

2nd Anniversary of Living in Taiwan....a walk down memory lane

Already half way through the year! Wow

This month marks our 2nd anniversary of living in Taiwan. It is hard to believe that 2 years ago we left our home in South Africa and boarded a plane (or 4) for Taiwan.

It seems like just yesterday that Jason and I were talking about the possibility of moving to Taiwan for a season (Kinmen actually, which is a lovely little island between Taiwan and China). It was actually my ex-boyfriend Jimmy who suggested we look into it, as he was living there and saw great opportunity for teachers. So I started researching on the internet, and finally one night I said to J, “why don’t we do it?”. Now that came as a BIG surprise to Jason, as I had always told him I was not going to travel until the kids were older and out on their own, and then the two of us could travel the world together like the elderly couple Jason and I met while on our way back from Mauritius in 2000. They had sold up everything and just traveled around the world. So when I said to Jason it was maybe a good idea he was thrilled! It took about 8 weeks or so to pack up our home, get tickets and things sorted and then Jason was on his way.

Our new journey begins…. Part 1

Jason left in April, 2 months before myself and the kids, and he ended up living in Kinmen with Jimmy, sharing a room for the 2 months! LOL Can you imagine my ex-boyfriend and my husband sharing the same room….would love to have been a fly on the wall! LOL

The boys and I left in June, and boy was that a trip to remember!

I had organized with the airline that I had extra baggage allowance, because for those who know me well, know I can’t pack lightly – and I was planning on going for a year – and my mom can tell you how many times I packed and repacked my luggage!!! So, finally the day came and it was time to leave. The boys each had their own suitcase on wheels and a backpack with snacks and toys and things to occupy them (which by the way were never even opened the whole trip!)LOL

I had my BIG suitcase and another suitcase with homeschool supplies and my scrapbooking stuff. So I had 5 suitcases, three backpacks, my handbag, laptop backpack that I had bought for Jason as he had bought a laptop in Kinmen and wanted a bag for it, and in the bag was a bottle of Amarula as a gift for a family in Kinmen, and I had a guitar….not forgetting 3 kids too….do you have a picture in your mind yet???

The journey……Part 2

I was constantly counting bags and kids and making sure I always had 5 suitcases and 3 kids and not 5 kids and 3 suitcases! LOL

Funny thing is that when leaving Durban airport, I already forgot my handbag in the x-ray machine!!! I heard my family who were waving goodbye shouting for me and motioning to me and then I realized I had left my handbag….I knew then it was going to be a long journey.

Our first flight was from Durban to Johannesburg, a short flight and we were all so excited!

Our next flight was from Johannesburg to Singapore, about a 10 hour flight. This flight was fun….. When booking the tickets I noticed that Singapore airlines have these neat little tv screens on the backs of all the seats, and they had kids video games….Great I thought, that will keep the kids busy the whole flight – NOT! But it sure did keep me busy.

The journey…..Part 3

I had 2 of the boys sitting in front of me and Keanu-Storm was sitting next to me behind the 2 boys. The problem was that every time the boys hit the wrong button and the game went off, I would have to get up and restart the game….so almost the entire trip I was getting up and down, to a point where an elderly gentleman actually asked me if I was going to be sitting at all during the flight!

Then to top it off, none of the boys slept at the same time, they kind of slept in relays! I think I managed to get about a total of 2 hours sleep! LOL Then we have Willow-River, who doesn’t travel too well, and ended up getting air sick and

so I was up and down the aisle with him to the toilet a couple of times and not to mention his ear ache…he suffers terribly with his ears when he flies….

Arriving in Taiwan…..

Finally we arrive in Singapore, at around 7:30am, and had airport assistance who took us through to our next flight (to Taiwan). When we landed in Taipei the airport assistance I had asked for ended up being someone telling me “At the top, turn left – Immigration – then get baggage at number 5”….,so much for assistance! Anyway, we finally get through, and get our baggage. Jason was there at the airport waiting for us and it was so good to see him again after 2 months. This was the first time we had been away from each other, so it was good to be with him again.

Typhoon hits…no flights to Kinmen

We then had to get on a airport shuttle bus and go to another airport (about a one hour drive), to catch a plane to Kinmen island, only to arrive at the airport and find out all flights had been cancelled to Kinmen due to a typhoon….

So we were preparing to stay in the airport for the night, when Jason decided to call our family (a brother of a cousin by marriage, who happens to live in Taipei), and he offered to fetch us for the night and we spent the night at his apartment. We left all of our luggage in a locker at the airport – I was not going to be lugging all that lot around for the night.

Michael was very kind and took us out for dinner, although having traveled for so long and having hardly any sleep, I was really looking forward to going to bed, but we went for dinner first, and then headed to Michaels for the night. The next morning he had to teach, so we ended up catching the MRT (underground train) to the airport – thankfully we had left our luggage at the airport!

We eventually arrive at the airport and book an available flight for later that afternoon (4:25 pm) and then finally we are on our way to Kinmen!

Keanu-Storm slept the whole flight and Talis-Rain and Willow-River didn’t stop talking the whole flight!

During our journey Talis-Rain always says whenever we take off “I’m a riding cowboy!” – too cute!

We arrived in Kinmen (after a 50 minute flight) and were met at the airport by….yes, Jimmy, and he took us to our new home….

Life in Kinmen

We stayed with a family, Tapushi and Sumati and their 2 little boys, Fufalong and Amarita. There was also another family, Alan and Una and their 3 girls, CC, Cherry and Jen Jen. There was also another lady, Supraba.

They are completely vegetarian and organic – no eggs, onions, garlic or preservatives either!

So dinner was very interesting….rice (at least the boys ate that), tofu (chili or powdered), seaweed, white carrot, mango and sweet potato dish and a few other things I don’t really know what they were.

Things that were new to us were:

1) not flushing the toilet paper – you put it in a bin

2) taking your shoes off before entering a home

3) the shower is actually the whole bathroom – there is a drain in the middle of the bathroom and the bathroom is tiled from floor to ceiling – I love it – it makes cleaning the bathroom so quick and simple

We lived with them for the 2 months we lived on Kinmen island. The school where Jason was teaching wasn’t doing too well, so we decided that it was the end of the school term, so it would be a good time to look for a new job. Being a small island, there wasn’t much work available, so Jason decided to head to Taiwan and look for a job in Taiwan.

On the day that Jason left, it was one of the worst days of my life!

The worst day of my life!

When we came back from taking Jason to the airport, I noticed Keanu-Storm’s eye was a little pink (I thought he may be getting pink eye), and he was also not feeling too good, so I had him stay in the room with me and he slept next to me on the bed while I was writing my journal, then he woke up and Talis-Rain came in and they started playing together when I noticed Keanu-Storm was lying on the floor with his back to me. I asked Talis-Rain if Stormy was sleeping and he said “No, mom, his eyes are open, but he has white stuff coming out his mouth”. I jumped up and ran to him and when I saw him, his face was going blue and his eyes were glazed and he had white foam coming out of his mouth! I screamed for Tapushi and he grabbed him and ran for the car. We sped to the hospital, and while on the way, Keanu-Storm started coming around although he was still “out of it”. We got to the hospital, and they put him on a drip and started doing tests.

The results

The doctor said what most likely happened is that because we had the aircon on in our room (it was VERY hot, so it was on at about 18 degrees celcius or so), and because he had a fever, it caused some kind of shutdown – I later did some research and found that this type of thing is common in children under 5 years old, and can happen once and never again. He also mentioned that he may also have Thallasemia, where his red blood cells are very small and don’t carry enough oxygen.

Later that afternoon he was released and his brothers were very happy to see him arrive back home, and to date he has not had another episode like this again. (although I am still weary of airconditioners, and just have fans in my apartment).

The following day, we were boarding a plane to take us to our new home in Donggang, Taiwan.

Moving to Donggang, Taiwan

We stayed in a hotel for the first 2 weeks or so (the hotel belonged to Jason’s new boss’s family). We then found ourselves a little apartment. The only snag we had was that it was unfurnished and all we had were the suitcases we had arrived with.

The boss’s dad lent us a tv – which was great and then we slowly built up our little home.

We arrived in Donggang in August 2007, and it was around this time I made contact with Deana (Morninglight Children’s Home), and told her we were interested in adopting. I had contacted many orphanages and agencies, and was told the same thing all the time, that they only worked with Americans and they do not do independent adoptions.

Deana and I emailed each other back and forth and then in February she sent an email about Asia-Faith and within 2 weeks, Asia-Faith was home with us!

We lived there for a year, and when Jason’s contract was coming to an end, he asked me if I would consider moving to another part of the island? I was not too keen (I don’t like change too much), but Jason said do we want our whole experience of Taiwan to be Donggang, or do we want to experience other parts of the island… he had a point.

Fleeing a typhoon and going east!

Before we left South Africa and while researching, we had looked into going to Yilan/Ilan however, teaching jobs were hard to come by because most foreigners wanted to be on this part of the island.

So we decided to look into opportunities there. Jason went by bus and had a few interviews and then he landed a job. He left earlier again, about 8 weeks again, and this time he took the scooter all the way along the coast (a two day trip). He found us our apartment and got things set up.

The kids and I followed a few weeks later….actually a pending typhoon got us to move out quickly, since we had a typhoon earlier and our little town was flooded, so we wanted to get out while we still could!

We took a taxi to Kaohsiung and juts before getting to the station Asia-Faith (who was sitting on my lap), through up all over me! Just what I needed. I also realized that our cat (who was in her carrier basket), had been put into he boot of the car and I was hoping she was still alive after the hours drive! She turned out to be ok…. We then caught the High Speed Rail and I was so happy to see Jason’s face when we arrived in Taipei. We then caught another taxi to Loudong, to where we would be staying, with a friend, Sam, while waiting for Mark (who was the tenant of the apartment we were moving to ), to leave back to Canada.

Finally it was time to move in…

Move to Ilan and a trip to Hong Kong

We moved into a furnished apartment (we bought all furniture, bedding, linen, a scooter and a car from Mark – the guy who left), so we are pretty well set up.

We live very close to the sports park, and it is a great place to ride bicycles or just to go play or kick a ball or whatever.

Shortly after moving to Ilan, we had to do a visa run to Hong Kong because of our visa expiring - paperwork was held up with getting it renewed – but they wouldn’t listen to reason and we were told we had to leave.

Fortunately Rory, Jason’s nephew was also living here in Ilan and he and his friend Stuart offered to look after Asia-Faith since she couldn’t leave the country.

We ended up spending the night in the airport – the boys thought it was a great adventure. Rory and Stuart did very well with Asia-Faith (even though when we got home we noticed her nappy had been put on the wrong way! LOL)

Ilan has turned out to be a VERY wet place…..I think it rains here more than anywhere else in the world – or very close at least! LOL

The earthquakes here are also something we will Never get used to….

Ganglions

Jason had an op a few months ago…. He had a “ganglion” on the back of his foot… then I could not believe it, but I then got one on my wrist!!! How is that …weird I thought! LOL So I went and had mine removed a few weeks ago, and to say it was painful is an understatement! I think because mine was right on the “bend” of the wrist, it was more sensitive….so more painful! At least I got out of washing dishes for a few days.

ADOPTION UPDATE & DOODLEBUG TOO

Our little foster baby, Doodlebug (also known as Declan), is still with us. He came to us when he was just 13 days old, and is now 3 months old. He is such a little cutie pie, especially now that he is becoming more alert and smiling and cooing….he is too precious. His adoptive parents are hoping to be arriving in July to fetch him….he sure will be missed, but he will at least be with his forever family!

Our adoption journey feels like it is never going to end! LOL

The judge requested more documents from us which we got, only to then find out they still needed more! So we got these too, had them translated and delivered to court this last Monday (16th), so we are hoping that now this is all the judge needs and that he will sign our final decree already!!!

Then our next step will be orgainising her South African citizenship and SA passport! The fun never ends! LOL

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME, AND YOU CAN THANK ME FOR MINE

So our experience here in Taiwan has been interesting, enlightening, frustrating at times too, (with the language difference), stressful (when you are not sure sometimes whether you still have a job, and if no job you have to leave the country – and with Asia-Faith’s adoption not finalized, this makes it difficult as we cannot leave without her!), and also being away from family and friends is also really hard. Still it has been 2 years so far worth of memories that we will always treasure in our minds and in our hearts!

Well, this has been long, but this has been our life for the last 2 years, some highlights, some lowlights, some snippets, and some tidbits!

I hope you have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane as much as I have, and we hope to hear from all of you real soon….we LOVE to hear from our family and friends back home!

And in case you want to email us:

Starr purplepixiestarr@hotmail.com

Jason jagabags@hotmail.com


~* Peace and Love *~