A Typical Day for the Housing Coordinators

 Follow us on our trip to Guangfu, Hualien.

It's 8:00 am. The serene mountains east of Taipei are always stunning, especially in the early morning with the mists and low hanging clouds creating an iconic panoramic view as we cruise along the highway.

We are on our way to Guangfu to close out an empty missionary apartment.

It's only 126 miles to Guangfu, but it'll take 4 hours to get there. It's shorter now than when we first came to Taiwan. Now there are 24 kilometers made up of a series of 15 tunnels, somewhat straightening out the winding, narrow mountainous roads to Hualien and points south, including Guangfu.

The tunnels are rather hypnotic, kilometer after kilometer of stripes and lights passing our view.

The drive includes an 18 kilometer-long freeway-bridge through the remote parts of Yilan County. We pass over small towns intermixed with rice paddies which are filed to the brim with water - ready for the first planting which will occur in a few weeks.

Fortunately for adventurous travelers, some of the mountainous roads are still part of the beautiful and amazing trip to the east coast of Taiwan. 

Hualien County is beautiful, but it's the drive that's amazing!

We arrive in Guangfu around 12:30 pm. Guangfu is a small sleepy town. The missionary "apartment" here is actually a three story five bedroom house. It's been empty for some time. It'll take a lot of work to get it cleaned up and ready to turn over to the landlord. We change into work clothes and get to work.

The van gets full to the brim with mattresses, desks, chairs, boxes, bags, fans, a microwave, heaters, and several bags of garbage. 

The house is cold and damp, with peeling paint, cement walls, and interesting former occupants. When the elders lived there, they caught this lovely lady.

A huntsman spider - generally harmless, but huge

Fortunately for us, the only resident we found was a former resident..... a mold-covered dried up gecko.

The toilets were typical of ones found in many places throughout Taiwan. Though they appear like Western toilets, their function-ability is not quite the same. These signs are seen less and less, but are still quite common throughout the country. A trash can is always nearby to collect used  items.....

A not-too-bad nights sleep on a rock hard mattress in the cold, damp house, and we're ready to finish up and meet with the landlord.

Thank you to an amazing local senior couple who came to help with the translation needs. They are serving not far from here and have done amazing work bringing several families to Christ in this part of the vineyard.

Then it's time to welcome the landlord and complete negotiations. If everything goes well, we get the full deposit back.

Landlord checking the contract, bills, and keys

Today was one of those days. All is well.

The senior couple invites us to lunch. We go to the Li Chuan Aquafarm - home of the "world's best freshwater clams." We dine on clams, water lotus greens, and sweet and sour red snapper. The clams and red snapper are harvested right there at the aquafarm. Talk about fresh!

For 100 Kuai (about $3.57 US dollars) you can load up a container with as many fresh clams as you can find to take home for dinner. Children love the adventure of digging through the muddy water to find each clam.

Or playing with the fish.

After lunch, we stop off at the Hualien Elders apartment to swap dryers so they can have one that works, fix a washing machine leak, and encourage a thorough apartment cleaning (!!).

Hualien coastline

Then comes the arduous, but beautiful,
drive back home, and the unloading of the stuffed van into the mission storage area. The mattresses, dryer, desks, chairs, bags, garbage, heaters, etc. all come back out and are tucked away in their proper places.

It's been a long two days but a great trek. 

We work behind-the-scenes here at the mission, and are grateful for the opportunity to support the marvelous work the young missionaries do in the forefront. 

After all this work, it's time for a great P-day activity!  Next blog!

Rice Planting in Yilan

Taking a break from our busy missionary schedule, we scheduled a trip to our favorite farm in Yilan:

While snacking on strawberries and new potatoes which we helped plant last fall,  (check out that blog post here: http://coffeysmission.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-day-at-local-farm-in-yilan.html) Cousin Zhang prepares an amazing lunch from her kitchen around the back of the house.

Resting under the passion fruit canopy, we listen to the honking of geese and cackling of chickens in our latest adventure on the farm – an escape from the busy city life in Taipei.

Now it’s rice planting season – so we were back to experience farm life once again – wallowing deep in the rich clay soil of Yilan’s rice paddies. 

Cousin Zhang picked us up from the bus station and whisked us off to the previously planted rice paddy.

Through one of our senior sister missionaries as a translator, Cousin
Zhang filled us in on the how-to’s of the job at hand –

Thick socks protected our feet as we took a handful of rice seedlings and took our first steps into the quagmire. Dark gray sticky mud swirled around our calves and sucked us in – making steps difficult at first. We had to straddle the rows of seedlings and find areas where the row was bare.

Cousin Zhang explained – snails are a natural part of the environment and snack on the tender organic shoots. (who wouldn’t?!) While the seedlings are initially planted by machine, as they grow up the snails take their fair share. Our job was to replant where there were bare spots.

Collected snails would soon become duck food.They crunched beneath our thick socks as we sloughed through the dark gray mud.

One of our senior sister missionaries planting rice seedlings 

Lunch is ready. Cousin Zhang and her friend present home grown vegetables with a delicious noodle dish, along with some hearty seafood. Dessert? Passion fruit, freshly plucked from the overhead canopy.  

One of the dogs expresses sheer contentment with 

a little scratching on the head.

So if you’re heading to Taipei anytime, after the coronavirus settles down of course, make a day trip out to Yilan. A little farm life is good for the soul.  Check out her Facebook page for more about farm opportunities: https://www.facebook.com/casamia.joe/
卡莎&蝦蝦開心農場+廚房 -粉絲

The Hualien Experience

Bananas and papaya trees spring up seemingly randomly in every crook and cranny, while rice paddies are neatly tucked in between houses and earthen ridges. Palm trees are interspersed among thick tropical foliage. I wish I knew the name of every plant (there’s an app for that!)

We were on our way to Hualien to open an apartment and take a van full of furniture to outfit the new place. The trip down winding mountain roads was amazing in our 12 passenger mission van. The trip takes over 3 hours one way. 

Thick forested mountains on one side of the road - ocean views on the other.

The beautiful Hualien coastline and Pacific Ocean

After delivering the furniture, signing the contract and buying needed supplies for the sisters, we enjoyed a meal of dumplings with the office elders.

Apartment contract signing

Bafang Dumplings - amazing!

We finally pulled into the Hualien Holo Hostel Hotel where the Elders had kindly made arrangements for us to stay the night. They would stay with the missionaries serving in the area in their local apartment. They spoke to the person at the front desk, (no English here), got us set up, then left.

International "signatures" from
hostel visitors

The gentleman took us up two flights of stairs to our room. I was curious what a Hualien hostel might look like.

Our hostel room

My only requirement had been airconditioning – and it had a very good one in the corner of the room. I knew I’d be okay.

The room was very clean – even came with basic extras like a hair dryer, shampoo, bath gel and WiFi.

The room even came with a Gideon’s New Testament, vertical Chinese in the front, opening from left to right as in standard old style books, and English in the back.

We were exhausted. The mattress on the floor had about 675 very prominent springs and it seemed that 653 of them ended up massaging my back all night long. I woke up sore, but I wake up sore every morning these days! Lol Nevertheless, I had slept like a rock.

The sign above the toilet read, “Please do not throw tissue paper into the toilet bowl. P.S. Our toilet is not as powerful as you think.” So I left the toilet paper in the trash can instead of flushing it away, feeling a bit awkward but wanting to comply. I’ve seen that before in some areas, but still it seemed awkward.

At least they had toilet paper. And a garbage can. I was grateful.

The view from the window greeted our morning.

Now we’re off again, heading back up and down the winding mountain road overlooking the steep cliffs on the Pacific Ocean, heading back to Taipei. Elder Coffey is driving. Glad it's him and not me!

Click here for a test drive: Drive from Hualien to Taipei

The message on the wall of our room sums up the Hualien experience, English and all. 

It's amazing to see these servants of the Lord, in all corners of the island, bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone they meet. They are determined, faithful, hard working, and dedicated. It's an honor to serve among them. May we all find ourselves farther down the road toward eternal life each day. 

It’s another very good day!

Villages along the Hualien highway

Village stacked up on the hillside

A cheerful elementary school!

The "chop" stamp - making it official.