On My Own in Taiwan

• Having just read David’s piece about first finding his way around Boston on his own to find his way to a concert reminds me of when I first arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Let me start at the beginning – it’s a very good place to start, I hear.
  

As I prepared for this journey, I was continually very optimistic. No thoughts of fear or trepidation occurred to me, as I set out to leave my hometown for two years, with expectations that I would not return for any reason during that time – unless I washed out and quit – which was inconceivable to me. It helped a lot that a friend of mine from University of Houston had preceded me there in the very city where I was headed and that my predecessor, Margie Escalera (Foster) had worked with the career missionary, Faye Pearson, with whom I would be working. It was also nice that my Uncle Edwin and Aunt Martha North had met Faye when Uncle Edwin was in Guam on a U.S.A.I.D. trip as an agricultural consultant in Guam. He had informed me that Faye was legendary and loved by many people and Margie had concurred – so there was little for me to fear as I prepared to leave. On the day of my departure, my mother was insistent that we get to the airport plenty early, so we spent the day making that transition. All went very smoothly, and I’m sure all my family was there to see me off. I gaily started to say my last goodbyes, when I was startled to see a tear in my Dad’s eye! Horrors! All of a sudden my reserves were blown and I immediately turned to run to the airplane doors – with my sister Patti, yelling, “Aren’t you going to tell us ‘goodbye’?” Oh! I turned around to them and flung them a kiss, yelling goodbye! They never knew what followed, but I blindly found my assigned seat and flung myself down – and I think I cried the whole way to Los Angeles! I knew my mom would miss me, but I had never thought my dad would miss me – why? I don’t know! His tears really touched me, but I don’t think I ever told anyone about it – at least not for many years. Everyone around me on the plane, I’m sure, wondered what was wrong with this young person boo-hooing quietly at her seat, but they could see that I didn’t want anyone to talk to me at that point. I finally got over my tears, at least by the time we touched down in LA.
I met other Journeymen in Los Angeles to head toward our varied destinations with stops in Hawaii and Tokyo on the way. Three of us were headed to Taiwan, one to Korea and one to Guam.
In Honolulu, we rented a car and rode around and around the city, having little idea of what we were seeing. The best part of the visit was when we just settled on the beach and enjoyed the natural beauty surrounding us. It was a wonderful place, our first step on this wonderland adventure.
In Tokyo, we flew in on the last flight of the day, with a free hotel for the night because we were scheduled to fly out on the first flight out the next day. The three of us headed to Taiwan were scheduled to fly aboard the official airlines of Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific, but we ran into problems when we arrived – though Margaret’s flight was still booked, Jenny and I were told that our reservations had been bumped because we had not confirmed them 48 hours ahead – though we had not been there 48 hours ahead and could not have been expected to do so. The end result was that we were given seats in the first class section - a memorable once-in-a-lifetime experience – they began serving the meal as soon as we were in the air – with real silver and real cloth napkins and several courses that completed just before we were to land in Taipei. What a treat! What seemed like it might be a terrible thing for two of us ended up being the best trip we would ever experience together, probably.
In Taipei, I was anxious to meet my supervisor, Faye Pearson, about whom I had heard so many good things. At one point, a couple of women, one who was very nicely dressed and very ladylike, came to join the journeymen. I wondered who these fashionable ladies were, with no idea that the very ladylike person was Faye herself. She wasn’t as I had expected – more refined and sophisticated than I supposed a veteran missionary would be. After a few days of orientation in Taipei, I traveled with Faye on to Kaohsiung, where everything had been made ready for me – with an apartment of my very own. The apartment was several blocks from Faye’s apartment. Faye made me welcome to stay at her apartment for as long as I needed to help me make the transition of living on my own. The biggest transition that I can remember was trying to cross the big street that was between my apartment and hers – to me it seemed like trying to cross a 6 lane highway, but it may not have been that dramatic – it just seemed so to me when I first arrived. However, in due time, I got very used to crossing that street and it no longer bothered me. I never was very good about taking buses though – I was always afraid that I would get on one and would get so lost and never be able to find my way back. I know that there were times that I would take certain buses to go to my schools, but I wasn’t very adventurous to just take buses anywhere at all. I was pretty careful to only take buses I was very familiar with when I did so. At least that’s the way I remember it now.
Another memory of that trip I made between our apartments over the years was the red glow of the family altars that glowed from the homes of people on my way through the neighborhoods. It always made me rather sad to think of those people who served gods made by human hands, gods who could not see or move or understand the human heart or human needs. Isaiah 40 in stark reality.
Another early memory of that initial time in Taiwan was the time that I was sleeping soundly in my apartment only to be awakened at about 5 a.m. with truckloads of rocks being emptied at a construction site nearby. I was shocked and amazed that anyone would think that 5 a.m. was suitable to be making so much noise!!!!! Another thing that amazed me was that following a typhoon that hit the island – the very next day – the farmers were out replanting their crops. They didn’t wait for any government agency to make way for them – they just did what they had to do. Another unforgettable memory was the day I came upon an accident scene, just after a big dump truck had struck and killed a child on a bicycle – it was terrible! I wasn’t driving that day, which probably made it even more memorable, because I could see it so clearly. So sad! Faye did allow me to drive her car sometimes. One day I was driving with one of my students in the car. He asked, “Did you learn to drive here?” - I think because I drove like the taxi drivers there – perhaps a bit recklessly? When I returned to the States, one of the habits I had accrued while driving in Taiwan was to honk before I reached any intersection, particularly one where a car was stopped. When I approached the intersection of Bowie Street and Olive Street, just a few blocks from my parents’ home in Jasper, TX, I saw the car stopped at the stop sign. Olive Street cars had the right of way, but just in case, I honked before I got to the intersection so the car at the stop sign would know I was coming. My sister, a senior in high school, promptly asked me if I knew that person in the car. I said no, but I wanted them to know I was coming. She quickly informed me, “We only honk here IF we know the person!” I had just embarrassed her royally!

Hey, son, this one could almost count for two!!!! It’s 1450 words!