A Quiet, simple Christmas

Hi all, Here are a few of the gifts and cards I received from the US and Taiwan. It was a very nice, quiet Christmas which I enjoyed. The Airey girls sent me a box containing homemade cookies (by Katie), hot chocolate, 100 candy canes, a CD of Christmas music, and decorations. The only place big enough to hold things was on my refrigerator/microwave. I made a bulletin board at school of several of the cards that I received. Thanks to all of you.

Gift of books to the students of Orchid Island

The students at Shengli Elementary School recently conducted a book drive to collect books for students living on Orchid Island (see map). Orchid (Lanyu) Island is off the southeast coast of Taiwan. Our students collected 4,000+ books for their peers on the island. So, a celebration was organized where top collectors were recognized. Mr. Huang, the principal of Shengli, recognized students and parent volunteers for their great efforts. You can also see that the school orchestra performed. The Orchid Island principal, who travelled to Tainan , was thrilled with the gift. Here is a website to find out more about the island and the aboriginal Yami people who live very traditionally there-- http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/travel_tour/journey_content.jsp?journey_id=113

Our top-rated dance group

Our dance group performed to High School Musical in the city-wide competition. Here they are preforming for the school. The students are (in picture #2, from the left) Anne, Deborah, Joseph, Eric and Eric. They worked very hard and we are so proud of them. Congratulations!!!

Christmas cards from the USA

I thought you'd like to see some of the Christmas cards our penpals sent from Indiana and Wisconsin. You'll even see one of the cards has a greeting in Chinese written to Jona.

Teaching English through Science

I thought you might like to see some pictures of my classes. In the top picture, you see Joseph who is one of my readers. We just finished "Dracula" and have started "A Christmas Carol." In the other pictures I am doing an English lesson using the Adopt-a-Tree material I use in my science education classes. The kids enjoyed getting outside to do something different in class.

A Lovely walk the day before Christmas in Taiwan

It was a wonderfully warm day on Saturday (Christmas Eve) so on a walk around Douliou we found lots of sites. First you see the facade of some buildings in Douliou which appear to be in the Baroque style. Next we walked throught a huge elementary school with a lovely park inside with bridges and ponds and clay pots (I have no idea what they are for but there were lots of them around the school). Next we came to an interesting temple with the Ying-Yang symbol on the building. Finally we found a park (yes, Rochelle, a park in Douliou) with these interesting statues.

A Phillipino Christmas Mass

We attended church on Christmas Eve in Douliou. The service was very upbeat and the congretation was very welcoming. We sang Silent Night with the guitar being played by the priest. The service was followed by a parade through the streets with Santa even showing up to join the festivities.