To Tainan and Back again.

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go visit Juanita ( a friend of Gramma Ardron) in Tainan for a few days. Juanita is the director of the Ray of Hope, a crisis pregnancy centre. I didn't know Juanita before I went down, but I was so blessed to be able to meet her and spend some time watching as she shared with the people around. I only stayed for 3 days, but I had a great time!

I arrived in Tainan by rail, my first time spending any length of time on a train (unless of course you count the train at Heritage Park...) so it was certainly an adventure! Especially since the train system isn't set up as well as I thought it should be for the very small number of passengers who could not read Chinese. But I managed!

I spent a little time going through the ROH thriftshop but didn't buy anything (aren't you proud Sarah :-) because I didn't have room in my suitcase. These ladies are some of the woman who work there, it was fun to get to know them a little bit. The girl in the middle is the Mama to one of the babies that has been here so it was neat to meet her!

Juanita had a friend who had a scooter accident so we went and visited her in the hospital. Taiwan hospitals aren't anything like what we have at home! Here, the families have to take care of the patients themselves (keeping clean, feeding . . . ), the nurses only help with the medical neccessities. It was a little shocking to my North American upbringing, but so have a lot of things here! This lady was riding her scooter and got hit by a car and when she got up to complain to the driver her drove over her foot and drove off.

I have to admit that of all the food I've been crazing Subway was my #1. I was so happy that there was one ing Tainan. Juanita was a little surprised that of all the resteraunt choices I had, I would pick something like that, but it made me very happy. And it tasted just like home!

Juanita spoke at Morrison Academy, a boarding school for American kids and ABC's (American born Chinese) so I tagged along for that. It was neat to hear her share her testimoney with so many kids and how they responded to her. I was so grateful that she allowed me to be her little assistant for the day and tag along from classroom to classroom.

When we got back, instead of relaxing in her apartment after a very long day on her feet, Juanita suggested we go to the night market! So of course we did. Its a neat place to wander around but after 9 it got so busy we could not even walk anymore! But thats ok, because by that time we were both ready to go home :-)