The Good Concert

In the early morning hours on the weekend of May 31^st, I, along with one hundred and fifty people boarded buses in Taipei and we made our way down to Sun Moon Lake. Although I had already vacationed there once, this return was for a unique and special reason. We were to be shown the work World Vision has accomplished for children in the Nantou region and to raise awareness of their needs with a large benefit concert.

The idea for the trip was proposed about six months prior, during one of my private lessons at World Vision Taiwan. My student of six months at the time told me they hold a concert, in conjunction with Starbucks Coffee, each year down in Sun Moon Lake. The concert was discussed periodically in our lessons over the following months until they extended to me an invitation to join them for the weekend. Delighted, and quite frankly flattered, I enthusiastically accepted.

My education, and my teaching, began on the bus ride there. Sitting with a man named Wilson, we started to engage in small talk. Not long thereafter, his heart was overcome with such happiness for the occasion, that he stood up before the entire bus and lead his fellow passengers in song. The song was a Mandarin Chinese version of the well known classic:

The more we get together, together, together

The more we get together, the happier we’ll be…

When he sat down, I turned to him and told him that there was an English version of that song as well. We spent the next few kilometers teaching one another this song in our own languages until we could sing with one another in both English and Mandarin.

Arriving at Sun Moon Lake, the day began with a presentation in a local church. Adjacent to the church was a dormitory recently built by World Vision to house indigenous students that can’t return back to their villages after schooling. We were given tours of this clean and impressive facility and met some of the young adults using this dormitory to help in their education.

The true delight of the weekend, however, came at the conclusion of this small presentation. We boarded our buses and the students directed us to their small villages deep within the mountains of central Taiwan. The trip took us though thick jungles and down dirt roads, over streams and around winding mountain passages. Finally, we arrived in the village which, although remarkably secluded was relatively modern.

We parked the cars and entered into the elementary school. For a community without a great deal of funds, it was heartwarming to watch the school principal hand to World Vision Taiwan a cheque for NT$6,000 to aid the victims of the earthquake in China. After this small ceremony, we were entertained by a small children’s choir, dressed in aboriginal robes, singing and dancing ancient indigenous melodies and steps. The loud cheers from the crowd at the end of this rare treat signaled the start of lunch. And what better ways to celebrate an indigenous community than with a pig roast. Waiting for us were not one, but two roasting wild boars along with hand-made bamboo rice, vegetables, muaji and corn. We feasted as the tribesmen did, among good company and abundant food, many years before.

One of the two suckling wild boars

Cracking open Bamboo Rice

The Great Feast

After lunch, we were given the opportunity to tour the school. On the way out of the dining hall, I was stopped by two mischievous young ones, Tom and Alan, who were very curious about me. As we sat down to chat in broken, but understandable English, more children started to gather round. Eventually, nearly thirty students were crowded around me; they interested in the first foreigner they had ever met. Some listened closely to the songs I sang for them, others asked me to share curious anecdotes about America. My favorites, however, were the ones who just sat their wide-eyed, gaping at and mystified by my strange and exotic blue eyes. Before long, I had a small audience, where I sang songs, answered simple questions and of course, performed a magic trick or two (which are always impressive no matter what language you speak).

After this transforming experience, we boarded the bus to several other locations on the tour. Unfortunately, heavy rain settled in and our trips to some gardens and farms had to be canceled. World Vision leaders decided it would be best to check in early at our hotel and freshen up before the concert that evening.

At six o’clock, we were cordially escorted to the rain location for the concert. As I had expected a small, quiet concert, I was floored by the scale and grandeur of the event. Lights, smoke machines, speakers, video equipment, screens: you name anything one might find at a professional concert for an A class performer and it was there at the concert that night. The evening’s spectacles included performances by popular local groups, testimonials by World Vision volunteers, aboriginal dances by young children and a speech by yours truly. That’s right. Toward the conclusion of the concert, a staff member asked me if I would go up on stage and share my feelings with the audience about the weekend. Reluctant at first, I changed my mind as I realized that it was no different from an oversized classroom. On the condition I would be given five minutes to think about what I was going to say, I agreed. In less than a minute’s time, however, I was walking up to the front of the audience set to make a speech.

I talked about the wonder and joy I witnessed that weekend and how proud I was to be teaching for such a special and thoughtful organization such as World Vision Taiwan. I talked about the melodic language exchange on the bus ride down; I mentioned the hearty meal I received at lunch; and most importantly, I shared with them the lesson I learned, albeit corny, that morning with the indigenous youngsters, “Children believe in two things: human compassion and magic. And that is exactly what this is- magic.”

The next morning, I rose early for lunch and then hit the town on my own. At this point the rain had all but moved away and in its place was a fine and warm sunny day. The view from our balcony provides a stunning comparison of the two days’ weather.

Saturday

Sunday

As I made my way down to the lake area, I remembered fondly the last time I was here. Although it was cold in December, the place hadn’t changed much. The building were still there, the mountains rolling in the distance. The lake even maintained its charming calm. Boats rolled gently in the water and I, at rest with the happiness of the location, let my stress and worry (of which there was already very little to begin with) evaporate with the morning sun.

As I continued down to water, I found the original location of the concert. It was a shame the outdoor concert had to be cancelled because this location was particularly stunning.

With the sun still greeting us warmly in the morning, we then made our way to an organic tea farm. During our penultimate stop before our return back to Taipei, we learned about the growing, harvesting, and fermenting process of tea. As we made our way up the short path to the farm, we walked among the newly budding tea leaves surrounding the old farm building.

At the farm, I noticed a large group of people huddling around a something to the side of the building. Most had passed right on by, either with disinterest or with a sudden shriek! My curiosity got the best of me and in the end, I found myself with the other folks looking at the largest spider many of us had ever seen!

The tea farm was an absolute joy! Broken into two groups, our group was first shown a movie and a short presentation about the tea farm. Although it was entirely in Chinese, I managed to understand some as someone who has gotten rather fluent in speaking about tea in Chinese. The rest was translated to me by a very kind and equally patient friend. When the presentation was finished, we were served fresh Organic Assam Black tea and Organic Assam Milk Tea brewed with water from a rushing mountain spring. The black tea was so good, it prompted me to purchase my own set of tea at the end. The milk tea, as well, proved to taste nothing like I have ever tasted before. There were hints of spices like cinnamon or nutmeg that put this tea into the number one spot of any tea I have ever tried in my life.

After the tea tasting, we were given a guided tour of the working farm. We wandered through galleries, open air rooms with massive drying machines and grinding machines set to prepare massive amounts of tea. I couldn’t help but feel at times I was back in Burgundy, touring the wine vineyards and cellars of some of the most famous French vignobles. Enjoy this short pictorial journey of my time at the farm.

And thus, with the fresh odor of dried tea leaves roasting in our nostrils, we made some purchases of fine organic tea, stopped for lunch at an unusual yet picturesque aboriginal stone park, and then headed home to Taipei. From your tea tasting, speech making, Sun Moon Lake raving, indigenous entertaining man from Taiwan, Michael.