Apparently I'm not American......

On Monday morning Rainy and I were assigned to go out into the community together with Sho Wei. When we met up with Sho Wei she was extremely confused. She could not understand that both Rainy and I were American because we had different colors of hair. She pointed at Rainy’s bright blonde hair and said “American”. Then she pointed to my hair and said “Just like us (pointing toward herself). How can you both be American?”. Rainy and I tried over and over to explain to her that we all come from different ancestry and that Americans are all different colors but she just flat out couldn’t understand it. I thought it was interesting because all of the Taiwanese look the same (well have the exact same hair color and skin color) and they really can’t comprehend that other countries have a mix of hair colors and skin colors. Taiwan is all that they know and many of the people have never gone anywhere else and never will. We are the only American’s that a lot of these people have ever met and we are the only American’s that they will EVER meet. The only thing they know about America is what they see on t.v. So it was just an interesting experience to really see their view of the world. American’s rarely come to Taiwan and when they do they only go to the tourists spots like Kenting and Taipei. American’s NEVER come to Tainan because they have no reason to….which explains why we are such a spectacle here! Ha ha

Also, it’s surprising how many people know about the Mormon church here. I haven’t talked to a single person yet that doesn’t…..but I really think it’s because of what I just said. American’s really have no reason to come to Tainan……but missionaries do all of the time. You can see them riding down the street on bikes. I’m sure that at times, LDS missionaries are the only American’s in certain cities here in Taiwan and that’s probably why they’re so well known!

Anyways, when we arrived at our first patient’s house there was a huge blue tarp canopy outside the house with lanterns hanging off of it. Immediately Sho Wei and Dr. Wu tensed up and started talking harshly. In Taiwan, when someone dies the household sets up the blue canopy to warn others that spirits are about. It is considered unlucky and others avoid going there. Sho wei and Dr. Wu were concerned that it was our patient. We rushed inside to find out. It wasn’t our patient but it was his wife. She was a perfectly healthy woman with no problems but while walking to Chi Mei Medical Center for an appointment she had a heart attack and died. Our patient was devastated. He refused to talk and stared straight into nothing without saying a word. The caregiver said that he and his wife were so in love. They held hands every day and told each other how much they loved each other over and over. He viewed the accident as a bad omen for western medicine because she died on her way to the hospital. He refused to have his blood taken and refused all care. I find it so interesting how strongly these people believe in their Gods and Spirits and how strongly they believe that their lives are affected by them.

(The family thought it was so funny that Rainy was taller than him because he's considered very tall in Taiwan. The man is completely immobile but they got him out of bed and put him in a chair just to take a picture with us).

My first Christian patient!

Vietnamese Caregiver

My last patient of the day was an adorable man with soft eyes. He had a spinal cord injury about ten years ago and has been paralyzed ever since and cannot speak. He has depression d/t his condition and his wife said that he is always mean and grumpy. I walked up to him and knelt down , looked him in the eye and said “A-kong, jo en dou!” (Grandfather, you are very handsome). His eyes lit up, his mouth burst into a grin, and he reached up and cupped my face in his hands. It was so touching! His wife was ecstatic that I got him to smile. He was grinning the entire time that we were there. It was such a fun experience. I wish I had a picture of him but he refused because he was too embarrassed of his condition. His wife gave me a pound bag of green beans and a huge bag of fifteen bananas! (When we showed up his wife was washing their dishes outside..count your blessings...and the other picture is of the bananas here....kinda weird)
Before we went home Sho Wei wanted to buy me some more food (she knows I love food but I had a huge lunch earlier so I was completely stuffed). She took me to this little day market bought me some Wintermelon tea and asked if I wanted to try pig intestine soup. I told her no and that I was afraid to try it. She said if I hadn’t tried it before then I have to now so she bought me a huge bowl of it to take home! Ha ha needless to say….it’s still in the bag at my apt…uneaten.
Monday night after everything we went to get some Cua Bing at the same place that we always go. When we got there, there were two men standing there (one who was always there and one whom we had never seen). The old man we knew brought the other man to us and introduced him. He spoke English! He proceeded to tell us that the old man and him have been friends for thirty years and that the old man always talks about the Americans that come to his restaurant. The old man wanted his friend to meet us so the friend showed up at the restaurant that morning and stayed until 10pm (when we got there) just waiting for us! He waited at the shop for hours just to meet us (and he didn’t even know for sure if we’d show up or not!) It was so cute and he was so excited to meet us! They ended up giving us TONS of cua bing for free and TONS of this mango jelly ( don’t know what it’s called)!