Flying from Bali to Taiwan is like diving off the high diving board. We left a sunny exotic island in the Indian Ocean for another island teeming with millions of Taiwanese people all in a hurry in torrential downpours. Don't get me wrong. We are enjoying our time visiting with Nate and his lovely girlfriend Maria touring the island. Having two free Chinese translators is a good deal for us, although I think we overwhelm shy Marcia when we hotly debate issues in English and she cannot keep up. Must be tough for her as a country girl just learning English.
Nate's home of Jhongli is a dark little factory town where everything closes for Chinese New Year (this week). So we taxied on to Taipei, a huge international city with the world's most efficient light rain system. You can travel anywhere quickly for a couple of dollars on the train. We visited the National Palace Museum, where we saw jade carvings, and the Night Market where you can buy anything from highly padded red bras to matches at the shooting gallery until 3 AM. The food is varied and delicious, although I cannot get used to eating the national dish of pickled pigs' feet!
We are ready to return tomorrow to the Willamette Valley, where no one stares at us for having white skin and blue eyes. Even Chuck admits it (amazing!). So, Shien Nien Kwai Le (Happy New Year, in the Year of the Tiger....Grrrr....)!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
"Ketut and the Balinese Caste System"
Our English speaking taxi driver Ketut has taught us a lot about Baslinese castes and culture and the lessons are fascinating. Each Balinese person is born into a caste which is his/hers for life and is reflected by their birth name, with Wayan as Son no. 1 followed by Made (No. 2) and Nohman as No. 3. Our driver is the fourth son so his name is Ketut. For girls, the names are the same but prefixed by "Nee" as in Nee Wayan for No. 1 daughter. Therefore, when meeting a Balinese, one knows immediately their caste and birth order by hearing their name. This position determines how you address and speak with that person, using different terms of respect. Everyone here must know his/her place in the universe at all times.
Because of his position in his village, Ketut proudly plays the gamelon, a wooden xylophone, each Tuesday in his village orchestra while the women do Baliinese traditional dances. His wife, like all Balinese women, daily arranges and places floral and fruit offerings for the protection of their home and his taxi by the many Hindu gods. Although he works in a Japanese SUV for Western tourists, Ketut fully practices his Balinese heritage along with all other Balinese people. Yesterday, he proudly showed us his evenly filed front teeth, resulting from a "coming of age" practice at age l7. A "holy man" arrives at home and evenly files the front 6 teeth with a large metal file, interrupting eating for three days due to soreness. Yikes! As a dentist's daughter, this one custom seems ignorant and destructive to me regardless of its symbolism or meaning.
How refreshing to find a country which welcomes tourists warmly, embraces technology and modernity yet keeps a rich, indigenous culture alive and unspoiled. However barbaric some
practices may seem one cannot help but admire a culture which provides such a sense of unchanging belonging, beauty, and roots for its people. We can hope these people will preserve this mostly beautiful way of life in the face of progress.
Because of his position in his village, Ketut proudly plays the gamelon, a wooden xylophone, each Tuesday in his village orchestra while the women do Baliinese traditional dances. His wife, like all Balinese women, daily arranges and places floral and fruit offerings for the protection of their home and his taxi by the many Hindu gods. Although he works in a Japanese SUV for Western tourists, Ketut fully practices his Balinese heritage along with all other Balinese people. Yesterday, he proudly showed us his evenly filed front teeth, resulting from a "coming of age" practice at age l7. A "holy man" arrives at home and evenly files the front 6 teeth with a large metal file, interrupting eating for three days due to soreness. Yikes! As a dentist's daughter, this one custom seems ignorant and destructive to me regardless of its symbolism or meaning.
How refreshing to find a country which welcomes tourists warmly, embraces technology and modernity yet keeps a rich, indigenous culture alive and unspoiled. However barbaric some
practices may seem one cannot help but admire a culture which provides such a sense of unchanging belonging, beauty, and roots for its people. We can hope these people will preserve this mostly beautiful way of life in the face of progress.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
English Teachers for One Day
On Friday, Chuck and I had a truly cross cultural experience as "English teachers for one day." We volunteered to teach English to junior high students in our hotel owner's school where he teaches English. With over 500 kids, all students were neatly dressed in orange uniforms and the school was lovely with flowers and courtyards everywhere. We were ushered into the concrete classroom of 40 silent students and introduced, whereupon the teacher promptly left to answer his cell phone (can you believe it?) We fumbled around, discussing our country, drawing pictures, and talking about our family. We tried repeatedly to engage them but they mostly smiled silently at us. I found a workbook passage and read it to them. It started with "A mother took her daughter to mall to buy fashionable clothes" and the grammar went downhill from there. I asked the multiple choice questions and they answered correctly and in unison in English. Must be the conversation which is so hard!
Then Chuck tried topics of sports and ended up teaching them all to shout "Go Ducks!" in unison although we have no idea what they understood of that. How funny to have 40 rural Balinese teenagers cheering for an Oregon football team halfway around the world from Oregon!
We were struck by the dearth of supplies and materials with no visual aids, in such a nice school. The teacher leaves the room every time his cell phone rings! As a teacher, my heart goes out to these teachers and students trying to learn with no visuals or materials and workbooks written in terrible grammar. I think of all the wasted materials and technology we have in the US. We are indeed fortunate, taking so much for granted when Third World kids have so little.
Then Chuck tried topics of sports and ended up teaching them all to shout "Go Ducks!" in unison although we have no idea what they understood of that. How funny to have 40 rural Balinese teenagers cheering for an Oregon football team halfway around the world from Oregon!
We were struck by the dearth of supplies and materials with no visual aids, in such a nice school. The teacher leaves the room every time his cell phone rings! As a teacher, my heart goes out to these teachers and students trying to learn with no visuals or materials and workbooks written in terrible grammar. I think of all the wasted materials and technology we have in the US. We are indeed fortunate, taking so much for granted when Third World kids have so little.
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