AID: Prepping for the Opening Ceremony
Our first assignment as we readied for classes was to prepare an opening ceremony. Meaning, we had to hold some sort of performance in front of the school children, the principal and whichever staff, and possibly, the local political candidate (!).
With only a couple days before our performance, we scrounged for ideas. Skit? Okay, what’s our theme? Traveling? Where? Asia? Taiwan?
I thought back to the skit I did the year before as part of ICLP. In it, we traveled to many different places, meeting fairy tale people and encountering different ethnic cultures. We thought we could do the same using America as our basis. From there, we thought of what places and things about America we wanted to present to the kids. Looking at our team member’s backgrounds, we saw how we were from the 3 most famous states in the US: California, Texas and New York. Out of this, we chose to visit Hawaii, Texas, New York, California and back to Taiwan. From hanging out with some Taiwanese friends, I knew that Spongebob Squarepants was all the rage in Taiwan, even among the college population, and figured these country kids would be the same.
So there we had our skit: Using Spongebob characters, we would have a skit where we went through America, using lines, and dances , to pave the way.
After grinding out our skit, we proposed it to our 3 munchkins and asked them what they thought. The response: Spongebob was cheesy, too kiddish for them, and uncool.
We were shocked and humbled.
Technology. Projector and two laptops, one running the slideshow, the other running audio linked to a karaoke system. ^^
In a final executive decision, we decided we had no time to think of new lines and a new script and decided to go for it anyway.
And so we began practicing dances.
In total, our skit had SIX dances. A hula dance (Hawaii), a line/square dance (Texas), a Broadway ballet (New York), We’re All In This Together (Disney, California), and 撑腰 (Taiwan) which we partially learned during training camp.
The characters, and work, was split up this way:
Jen: Sandy, Hula (painting guru)
Kenneth: Spongebob, Line/Square dance
Lisa: Squidward, Ballet (dancing experience)
Me: Mr. Krabs, We’re all in this together and Line/Square, audio splicing
Amy: Pirate/Narrator, Chengyao dance (Chinese translator)
Eric: Patrick, PPT
Jen and Amy helping me paint my claws
Kenneth working on his Spongebob costume
Lisa and her paper-mache Squidward nose
Eric with his pink-painted cone hat for Patrick Star
Me, in all my Krabbiness
You’ll see us in our full costumes in the next post!
and now, some historic videos.. the making-of:
Character Intros:
Midnight, the night before our performance:
And last but not least, here’s a practice run of our We’re All In This Together Dance. Enjoy and I’ll try not to melt from shame 
AID: Getting Settled
Our school, Wufeng Middle School. 五峰国中！
We had a few days to settle into the school before starting classes. First on our list was meeting our basic needs: Food. “Zhuren/主任“ (the superintent, which I will refer to as Zhuren from now on, because it’s awkward calling him superintendent) took us out to explore a bit of the village. We saw a student, (Big Jack) who we wouldn’t get to really meet until we started class a few days later.
Everyone was absolutely starving, as we felt like we hadn’t had good food in ages. Jiantan’s food was like gruel, and it was difficult to subsist on snack food. I, normally one who eats (fairly) healthy and avoids snacking, would succumb to having a diet of chips and cookies for the duration of our stay.
During our meal, besides our ever-present mosquitoes, we were also visited by a wonderfully large praying mantis. We could never forget that we were on the mountain-side.
At the end of our meal, we stocked up our drinks and snacks at the local convenience store. Not a Seven (7-11) but it worked for our purposes. As you can see above, Lisa got really aggressive with buying drinks. She thought we’d never come back again and had to prepare our bomb shelter.
Actually we just made her hold all our drinks and took the picture…
A view of the surrounding village
Here’s another one.
And another. I’d like to take this opportunity to explain a part of what being a photographer means. It means there’s stuff you don’t participate in and also, as in the instance above, left behind in the dust. So thank your local photographer dammit. 
AID: Arrival at the school Pt.2
I know, my blogging speed is incredibly slow. To compensate for how this is months upon months late, I’ll add pt.2 now.
After we finally settled in, we immediately made the girl’s place our hangout. With the lush living room and comfortable sofas, and most importantly, internet, it quickly became our go-to spot. Save showers, laundry runs, and sleep, that apartment became our haven.
At first, the 3 munchkins tried to stay in the place with us, but we were exhausted and chased them out, claiming we had to hold a meeting and they couldn’t be present.
I forgot if we held the meeting or not. Hah?
Anyway, the previous posts’ title picture is of our dinner time. Actually, the food can sometimes be really good. The guys hung out on the stairwell, while the girls retreated to their place. The cafeteria was inhabited with swarms of mosquitoes, and going to the stairwell offered a better grub-eating spot.
The kids went off to play computer games, and we went back to ‘base’ and rested.
Later that night, we heard a knock.
Us: OMG it’s the kids we can’t handle them right now what do we dooooo
Amy (manly): I’ll get it
(opens door)
Tim (with only a towel around him): o.O
Amy: What do you want?!
Tim: Um..is Jennifer there?
Amy: We’re having a meeting! Leave!
Tim: uh.. we’re naked
(Allen pops out): Hey! (Sees Amy) Oh..
Amy: 你们要跑操场吗？You guys want to run laps around the track?
Tim and Allen : No!
(Jen comes up): AWww they’re soooo cute
(We all come up) What the heck..
Anyway, the kids all showed up (Ron stayed a bit further behind) wrapped only in a towel claiming they were naked and tried to freak us out. But Amy intimidated them and reclaimed lost ground for us
Amy is a very special character. At once both our best Mandarin speaker and worst English speaker, she definitely left many Amy-moments with us. I will dedicate a post to her in the future.
The next day, we had an encounter with another of those 4-inch large spiders. But this time, the kids weren’t around, and I busted out the broom. Instead of narrating, I’ll let you watch the video. Cheers!
http://www.facebook.com/v/10100173849850313
AID: Arrival at the School Pt. 1
I thought about throwing up my special picture on top, but decided to keep it kosher.
In case you were wondering, I’m NOT in Taiwan, this stuff occurred back in July, but as I am incredibly slow in updating my blog, here it is. Now. Months due.
So when we left our training camp back in Danshui, we all got into a van and prepared for a long car ride to our new isolated living spot up in the mountains with the aboriginal native indian kids of Taiwan. When we got into the car, the school’s superintendent “主任“ greeted us. We’ve heard of how the aboriginals LOVE to drink, and he quickly addressed that. Note, you’re not allowed to drink as a AID program policy.
Our conversation went somewhere along these lines–
Superintendent: So, how old are you guys?
(Cute) Us: 21-22, we just graduated from college
Superintendent: Oh. Hmm.
Us: ?
Superintendent: So I’m much older than you guys
Us: …
Superintendent: and my vision is bad
Us: ??
Superintendent: like, really bad
Us: ???
Superintendent: So if there’s anything you guys do, I won’t be able to see
Us: !!!
Superintendent: But oh, the kids have good eyesight. Don’t let them see you. They’ll out drink you.
Well, wasn’t a problem for me as I’m not fond of drinking, but I just found it hilarious
An introduction to our first day has to include our first experience with the kids.
Stepping off the van, feeling dizzy from the numerous curves going up, the superintendent suddenly called out for 3 boys to help us with our luggage. And like out of nowhere, 3 boys showed up, acting really polite and grabbing our luggage.
I knew, from working in ImpACT that first impression was incredibly important. Just like how a substitute teacher walks in and the students all judge the teacher, so we had to be strong. Tough so they don’t walk over us, but still friendly enough to make friends with them.
Upon seeing the kids, our girl members cried out, “ooohh they’re sooo cuteee!!”
That was the first mistake.
The guy teachers lived up on the 2nd floor, in teacher dorms (2 to each room, I roomed with Eric, and Kenneth roomed with soldier boy) and the girls lived in the lavish principal’s suite, complete with a kitchen and living room.
As us guy teachers finished throwing our stuff into our rooms, we went back down the stairs to check up on the girls. Still unpacking and exploring their castle.
Then a scream.
Cockroach!!! (high pitch trill)
2nd mistake.
The 3 hoodlums run in, take care of it, threaten the girls, fail to threaten the guys, and throw the carcass outside.
“Cockroach no problem! Nothing to be scared of!”, they say.
We grab the kids and head outside, letting the girls finish their unpacking. I knew that if we continued to show fear towards insects and bugs, then we’d have no end of it during out class time.
So I tell them I’m not scared of the cockroaches, and they begin to test me.
“What about snakes? Are you scared of snakes?”
Thanks to IB104, I was actually fairly comfortable with snakes
“No, they’re cool! Do you have them around here?”
“Yeah! Really? You aren’t scared??”
“Nope.”
“Go in that alley, there’s a BIG snake in there!”
hmm. I looked at the narrow alley with overgrown weeds. Looked like a plausible nesting spot to me.
“Oh really? That’s nice.”
“Go check it out if you aren’t scared!”
“Look, I’m not scared of snakes, but I’m not gonna go provoking it by hunting for it”
“Just go already!”
At this point, I thought the game was up. But I was saved. By a blood-curdling scream.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH” ” SPIDERRRRRRRRRR”
All of us dash back into the girl’s dorm, wondering what in the world was going on.
They point to their bedroom, and I walk cautiously through the doorway, looking for a spider.
“Above you!”
As I turn around, a few feet from my face, up in the corner above the doorway was a spider 4in. wide.
I stared.
“Oh….”
As I continued staring at it, trying to figure out what to do, the kids ran in, saw the spider, and crawled up on the furniture to get at the spider.
As one boy flicked the spider from its behind onto the ground, another boy immediately ran up and smacked it with the broom.
I was impressed. These kids just fearlessly took care of the biggest spider I’d ever seen in my life, and I could only watch.
These kids, our heroes. Above, Allen and Ting (Tim)
Ron Artest
Spider
Pt2 and later events soon!
