"After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth."~Genesis 8:6-11

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

垃圾车 Garbage Trucks

Day 3.

Today we talked about culture shock.
There are 4 stages.
1) Fun- The excitement and adventure of experiencing new people, things and opportunities.
2) Flight- Disorientation brings the urge to avoid everything and everyone that is different.
3) Fight- The temptation to judge people and things that are different as bad or foolish.
4) Fit- Creative interaction with the new culture that includes a willingness to understand and embrace.

Keeping that in mind, yesterday, a few of us were at lunch and as we were chatting I heard an ice cream truck passing by.  It was playing a recognizable, upbeat tune in high-pitched bell tones and had a colorful picture of children holding hands (seen above).  When I said that I didn't know they had ice cream trucks in Taiwan, the girl next to me spat in my face as she burst out laughing. It was a dump truck.  Apparently that's what all their garbage trucks are like.


Their ice cream cones (which I went off in search for after being wildly misled by the happy music) are all at least this big.

They keep their shoes outside the apartment so everyone wears slippers inside all the time.  I haven't paid more than $2 for a meal yet, and everywhere I go people wave at me because they love foreigners.

Maybe I'm just being naive, but I don't see how I could have culture shock when so many of the differences are just so awesome.  Or maybe I'll just be stuck in stage 1 for a while. :)

One of the things we did learn about, however, was the traditional religion in Taiwan.  It's a mix of Taoism, Buddhism, and ancestor and ghost worship.  There is lots of idol worship that oftentimes involves self-inflicting pain.

Please pray that the small amount of Christians who are in Taiwan will desire to share their faith and the truth in Gods word with the people they love who are surrounding them in Taiwan.  Pray for the Holy Spirit's  guidance, wisdom and strength in this place.


Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. MomMarch 28, 2012 at 6:43 AM

    Okay so like the girl next to you, I almost spat on my computer when I read about the garbage truck! Haha so funny as we are on spring break and an ice cream truck came by yesterday and Tommy and Julianna got ice cream. Good to see things are the same all over the world. Also - I remember in India last year, all the garbage trucks were very brightly painted (and also said PLEASE HONK) haha. Praying for you every day sweet girl.

    Love you, Mom

    "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall directy thy paths."

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)