Report: Elton Chen

The county of Taitung has a high population of Aboriginal people and some lack privileges as provided to some other students of the world. In our International Vision Outreach Program for Taitung Remote Areas Minority, we have come across many Aboriginal tribes that lack some of the privileges and access to education and cultures of this world. They did not have access to equipment and education as an average American would have. To help the Aboriginal tribes learn English and understand the world’s many cultures, we were sent there to help the children learn our daily language, English, and how to use “Google© Earth” to understand the Earth’s geography and the different countries and places in our world. In exchange, we learn their Aboriginal culture, languages, and rituals.
In our first day, we arrived at the Taitung airport which a bus picked us up and dropped all of us off at the privately owned Bed and Breakfast which Dr. Ryan Wang had grouped for all of the foreign members of the program. Later, all of the members of the programs went to the restaurant “Mibanai” which was to get us to warm up to the Aboriginal cuisine, because we might be eating foodstuffs similar to those we consume at the restaurant. The food was formulated to fit the taste buds of Taiwanese people. All the dishes were interesting and delicious, but not overwhelming. However, that was not the only reason to set up this meet up. All of the members and volunteers of this program have not Aboriginal food, but also to build a relationship with all the members of the program. Once everybody was introduced, the governor of the Taitung came to welcome us, because he was the one who funded our program. We thanked him for his support. After the meal at “Mibanai”, we were sent back to the Bed and Breakfast to retire.
The next day, we had our briefing for the program at NTTU that was laid before us. Dr. Ryan Wang, gave us objectives to teach the children of Lidao, Tein-Kuang, and Taimali, English and the American culture. We created name cards to help other members and the children we met an easier way to identify each other. We had lunch at NTTU and had some more Aboriginal food. A bus then came to transport all the members to the village of Lidao which was deep in the mountains. During the trip, we were given a tour by Ms. Mirian Hsu of NTTU of Taitung. We learned that Siddhartha fruit and Pineapples were a big crop of Taitung and Siddhartha Fruit was often exported to Japan, because of their sweet tooth.
We soon arrived at the village and we dropped our entire luggage at the Lidao Police Station Dormitory, and headed towards the Lidao Elementary School. There we cleaned up the classroom, kitchen, and the computer classroom. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare dinner so the kitchen staff made some noodles for us. We then had a meeting in a classroom to prepare for the next day. We were given tips on how to help the children: Using simple English to communicate with the children. The volunteers separated into two groups. Mr. Huang played guitar for us, Jenny and Cindy played recorder, and we all told jokes and sang after all the discussion was done. After the meeting was over we went back to the dormitories to retire. However, before we went to sleep the, all the volunteers, had some recreational card playing. We all went to sleep after playing cards.
On the third day, we had breakfast and we headed down to the elementary school. It was raining, because of the Morakot typhoon. Everybody, including the Aboriginal children went to the classroom for an introduction and informational meeting. All the members of the program identified there self. We them told all the children to give there own introduction. We told them if they did well on there introduction, they would receive candy. They were all very excited when we told them that we were the people of America. Some of the children sang a song for there introduction. One in particular had a very mature voice and sang perfectly in tune. The children were then separated into two groups. I was in group one which first went to the computer classroom to teach the children about the world’s geography and landmarks through the use of the software Google© Earth. They were also given a worksheet by Mr. Huang. I helped one of the children to use it. Some of them had a hard time finding the location due to their lack of knowledge of the world. However, they all grasped the geography of this world at the end of the session.
We switched classrooms with the other group. The second group was in the other classroom to draw a flag and find a mascot for their American football team. Team 2 was called Duma for the Duma black bear, native to Taiwan. All the children of Team Duma drew on the flag their name and many bears. Mr. Gin Liang supervised our group on our flag. He helped us get paint, markers, and other art supplies. We decided to go as Bunan for the Bunan tribe, which was the native tribe for Lidao. They were all very excited to paint, but unfortunately there was chaos within the classroom. They got paint on the floor and other places. They were very rowdy and everyone tried to paint it with there own way. The end result was quite messy but it had the spirit of all the children.
There was still time left to teach some team appreciation, so we taught them, “2, 4, 6, 8. Who do we appreciate? Bunan, Bunan, Bunan!” They all shouted very loud and they had no problem learning this. It had rhyme and rhythm to make it very easy to learn. It would make sense if one were to interpret the Aboriginal people as very poetic and musical people. We then taught them how to sing “Mary had a little lamb.” This was just a little bit harder. They had problems memorizing the lyrics, because of the English. However, the melody itself was very simple to understand and it was quite universal. We also rewarded those that were brave enough to sing with candy.
We later made a giant map with our group assigned to us. It did not have to be accurate but it had to be artistic. With the new found knowledge from Google© Earth, the children now understand more about the world’s geography. My group’s children, Tou Shen and Hao Wei, they thought each continent had a shape of a animal, so they drew the continents with a similarity to the animals. We had colored and added more objects and animals into the map. Later, we showed off all of our maps.
Subsequently, we headed across into the covered basketball court to play American Football. Playing on the grass was less possible due to the rain for the typhoon. They first had no clue on how to play American football. They used the football we supplied as makeshift basketballs and they tried do some lay-ups. We eventually taught them how to throw and catch a ball. They were all very skilled at sports, some immediately threw a perfect spiral. We played catch for about an hour before Dr. Ryan Wang came to teach all the children how to play the game. He went over some exercise drills with the children.
All of us went to the barbeque later and we had some dinner there. It was a new experience, since it was raining and a barbeque. The aboriginal children were very happy and excited for the meal and they sang and chanted songs that they all knew and they were full of energy and spirit. There were some Aboriginal dishes that we never tried before like the Salt grilled fish. The food was very delicious and the atmosphere was of top quality.
We had to leave early the next day. However, we still had time to give one last lesson and good bye to the children. Georgina and Jessica taught them “Mary had a little lamb.” They invited children up to sing with them, so that they would be rewarded with candy. The children did not sing perfectly, but it was great for those who have little contact to English. Later, Thomas and Jonathan taught the children “If you’re happy and you know it”. They had a hard time, but they got it down. We took some photos and we went down the treacherous path of the mountain.
The rest of the day was for relaxation. We went to a rice factory for a tour and then we headed to the teacher and worker hotel. We had McDonald that night at Taitung. It was the nearest restaurant to our hotel. We retired at our hotel by playing some card game with the other volunteers. On the next day, we had nothing to do, because the Morakot Typhoon was too great and we could not contact the children at Taimali. We went to the Darwan church, however, and greeted the pasture’s wife. Later we went to a 5 star restroom at the museum of Prehistory. After that we went to the beaches to see some driftwood that may cost to an upward price of 1 million dollars. The arcade and shopping centers next to the Hostel provided us with entertainment. All the American volunteers had steak at a steakhouse that night.
The next day, we went to the Darwan Church. This time we went there to volunteer. We went to the second floor, to the stage, to allow the children to split up into groups. The children played “rock, paper, scissors” to make a very equal division of children among the group.
Our group, group 1, went down stairs first where the DOC is located. The computer course was approximate towards the subjects we taught in Lidao. All the volunteers grouped up with a couple of children to teach them how to use Google© Earth. The only thing that was a little bit different was that the children had religious beliefs. Mr. Huang’s course also included the skills of locating Biblical locations. It would be logical to think that our time at Lidao has taught us that teaching the children songs would be very smart. So revisions of the computer course were made to the computer course. We gave children the skills of finding songs on Youtube©, since we were going to teach them some songs later: Merry had a little lamb. The volunteers were also expected to help the children to find Bible worship songs: “In Jesus we are one family”. It wasn’t very hard to teach the children these skills. The children have already taken the DOC for granted and know some essential knowledge of the computer.
Once all the children were done searching for all the information, we switched places with Group 2, which had an art session earlier. We went upstairs and helped the children draw out some biblical stories. The catch was to label some items in English to help them develop some skills and knowledge in the English language. Drawing wasn’t hard, but to tell them what to draw was quite the challenge. The children were excited to draw and started to draw to their heart’s content. The most biblical thing they drew was crosses. They started drawing random animals and objects. I did not object. I just labeled the things they drew. Even I drew some things with them.
We had a second chance to draw right after we were done drawing out the first poster. This time anything was fine, as long as you are happy. All the volunteers and I drew many random things. It was quite chaotic and unruly. Nevertheless, we finished. The Volunteers gathered upstairs to have lunch. We all had some bento. All the children gathered upstairs after we finished lunch. Because of the location we were in, we all sang bible worship songs. It was quite fun and exhilarating.
Dr. Ryan Wang and the pasture had something big for the volunteers. We sat down and saw the Christian teenagers do a play/skit about “Jonah and the Big Fish.” They did it quite hilariously to keep the audience captivated. There was a catch for having such an entertainment for all of us: The Volunteers had to set up the very same play with the children. It was trivial to complain about it, so we did it.
All of us came up with the idea to split up and set’s up props with the children. I had the role of Jonah, so I didn’t need to have any props. I made a beard characteristic to Jonah to fit my role later. I later helped the others with the props: painting and coloring. We practiced a bit to prepare for tomorrow play. Later the children went home, and we had our delicious, gourmet bento.
The night was for comforting the Morakot typhoon flood victims. All the members of the program gathered at the church. A bus came and took us to the refuge center, located at a local elementary school. At the refuge center all the Christian victims, volunteers, and Church members gathered and prayed. We prayed for an hour.
All the volunteers went to Family Mart to acquire essential goods and food. We later walked back to the home stay and then we slept.
Breakfast was served at the home stay the next morning. Everybody went to the church immediately after breakfast. We hustled to the second floor practicing the play. Once we were completely finished practicing we had lunch. Dr. Ryan Wang wanted to show us the damage made by the Morakot Typhoon by taking us to the flood site. The flood wiped away an entire village and valley. It was very startling to see an entire village vanish because a flood. Next we headed up down the road. The road was completely cut off because of the flood. The road was destroyed by the flood and it was quite dangerous to stand on the road, we may never know when it might break off. The road was the only road that leads into a small village. The people in the village cannot leave because of the broken road.
Later that day we went back to the church to assemble and do our play with the children. We ate dinner. The rice we had with the dinner was the rice bought at the rice factory earlier in our trip. The children came up to the second floor and practicing was commenced for the last time and then our assembly started.
We first had some more bible worship songs to break ice between people. Then we gathered to start our play. It went smoothly as practiced. Then Cindy and Jenny with the pianist played a Christian song on there recorder. We then gathered around to teach the children Mary had a little lamb and if your happy and you know it. Then we sang some Bible worship songs in Chinese, as if they were trying to teach us Chinese. The assembly finished and we had a photo session. We went back to the home stay and then we slept. We left the next day after staying at NTTU to get our certifications and writing our report.
The program was very nice; everything was coordinated, even though the Morakot typhoon disrupted our original schedule and plan that took Dr. Ryan Wang a relatively long amount of time. The children of Lidao were very adventurous and social. They showed more inner childhood and innocence than most other city children. They were very kind and at the same time very chaotic.
The children of Taimali behave more like the average child of Taiwan. They have easy access to a bustling city such as Taitung and they already know some basic knowledge of this world. Nevertheless, they still are very active and smart. It is just different to teach children with less experience with society then to those with more experience.
The biggest problem with the program, I think, is that all the children knew how to use the computer, in one way or another. They already have computers there and it is not a new experience for the children. Using Google© Earth to teach children is a good idea. The thing is that our program’s description was to break the Digital Divide for the aboriginal children. Both places we went to had a computer classroom. A truly divided place would be a place where computer access is nearly impossible without great travel. I observed the children’s skills with the computer and I saw that they already know how to download games, access websites, and install programs.
Teaching the children of Lidao the geography of the world is a big accomplishment. Knowing the image of the world may just increase some one’s vision of the world. Enlightenment is great and they will be able to understand more about the world and how things work. However, the children of Taimali already knew some basic geography of the world, so teaching them how to find the different continents of the world wasn’t quite as necessary, but it was still good to help them review where each continent is located.
English should probably be the biggest focus of this program. All the children, from Taimali and Lidao know little English. English may be a big tool for communication and connecting to the future. Chinese is a good tool for future communication and is probably going to be dominant in the future, but currently many countries have English as there official language. One way we tried to communicate with them was to speak to them in English very slowly so that they would understand and eventually kick it up until we can find a balanced way to speak to them. This however is difficult and the children’s skill in English varies. Teaching them songs in English was smart. Unfortunately, I do not believe they know the meaning of the song at all. Teaching them our culture was a good starter for teaching them English. Teaching them our culture will enable them to understand the different applications of it and how they might use English in the future. It should be a focus, but teaching it to them straight would be forcing the children.
In the International Vision Outreach Program for Taitung Remote Areas Minority I experienced many different ways of life and even a new experience of a massive typhoon that occurred coincidently with our program. The children learned a lot about our culture, the world, and computers. Even though it was the first time the program was ever established with Americans, but it went really well and I hope we learn from this year will be applied and revised next year.