Day 9: Kiddos!

Today was a day filled with laughter, learning, and small children. We arrived in Jianshi for a delicious dinner last night, and today has followed through. Breakfast was an assortment of local/indigenous foods. We started the day by going to the Jianshi elementary school, where we read and translated English books for a group of summer camp students and ate an American-style lunch (featuring Oreos, sandwiches, juice, and more). This area is the home of the aboriginal Atayal (Tayal) tribe, who were very welcoming to us! The students really enjoyed playing basketball and showing us around the school, and demonstrated many cultural items for us, such as thumb pianos, drums, and looms. 

In the afternoon, we returned to the school after a quick siesta in order to watch a performance by the older children! This included indigenous music and some performances of more Western instruments, including violin, viola, cello, and two bands! We were all especially impressed by the chorus and the fact that some of the students are going to perform in Los Angeles this January! Then we took a turn performing. Because we didn’t have a lot of time to practice, we chose something simple: the cha-cha slide. We had fun, as did the little kids, who danced with us! Afterward, we danced and sang together with the chorus, although I must confess that not everyone could figure out the words (including myself)  Dinner was an excellent spread of indigenous-style foods! The highlight was definitely the rice mix inside of bamboo, which we had to break open with a mallet, and the excellent sausages. It was really fun, and we were able to get a better understanding of the cuisine. 

As the evening ended, we went outside to tour the miniature indigenous village that the school has, as well as hear about the innovative program meant to educate children and preserve the local culture. It includes farming, mountain hiking, weaving (baskets and cloth), hunting, indigenous science, more traditional elements, and an increased amount of STEM education! 

Highlights of today definitely include the elementary school students, who not only wanted to learn English, but were super interested in showing us their culture. They also had a lot of energy! Several games of pickup basketball were played and managed to tire us all out. Not only did the kids learn many English words, we learned many Mandarin words! They were very patient with us, so we were able to communicate well, if not slowly overall. We also learned some phrases in Tayal Language, such as Luka, which translates to “cheer on”. We did a very cute cheer to go along with it. 

Some interesting side notes: the bugs are biting! Personally, I got 10 bites, and others got a fair few as well. Also, we played a game of knockout at the basketball court, and ended up needing to protect the kids from getting hit with the ball near the end, because they wanted to play too! When we got back to the hotel, there was a bigggg spider in one room, but it was successfully removed, albeit with a lot of shrieking. I think I can speak for most people when I say we are tired and ready for an early night! 

All the best, 

Karina

P.S. We saw another great dog!