God's Race

"...Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1

 

I just ran my first half-marathon a couple days ago. You wouldn’t believe I used to hate running, but I did! Back when we lived in the States, my mom had to practically drag me to go running with her. She didn’t always take me, but when she did, I would always complain, “But I have too much homework!” or “I’m tired,” and “Do I have to go?”

When we moved here to Taiwan, my mom recruited some people from church and formed a running group. Soon, they dubbed themselves the New Life International SDA Runners. They ran every Sunday and Thursday evening along-side the river.

One Sabbath (Saturday) evening, my mom told us that we had to go running with them the next morning. I was reluctant, but I went. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it! It was actually fun! Probably because we usually stop for tea on the way back. Sometimes, we jokingly call ourselves the “tea runners.” Lol.  After that, I would run with them periodically.

This year, I officially became part of the running club and got my own T-shirt. My goal was to run a half marathon. I had a difficult time though because I wasn’t allowed to run like half of the time! As I mentioned in the previous post, due to my allergies, my mom wouldn’t let me run unless I was a certain weight because she was worried about me losing weight (which was completely understandable but I still didn’t like it). Thankfully, every time I was allowed to run, I ran just fine.

Soon, the day of the ½ marathon arrived. Some of us were nervous, some excited, and I was a little of both. I was super excited, but we had heard that it was uphill. Turns out it was uphill, right up a mountain!

The starting (and ending point) was at a track. As we jumped out of the van, we could feel the excitement in the air. Tons of people were milling around and stretching.
To our great amusement, someone on the stage started leading some excerices moves, but it was more of a dance then an exercise. It was hilarious to watch.
 Soon it was time for the race to begin. Everyone assembled on the track and the countdown began!

 "...Shi, Jio, Ba, Qi, Liu, Wu, Si, San, Er, Yi!" The alarm went off and we started our race. 

"Yeah! We're doing it! We're running!" My mom shouted gleefully as we rounded the bend and started running up. We ran up hill after hill, right up the mountain. 

Panting, I asked my mom, "Are you sure this results in good health? Not in broken legs and collapsed lungs?"

"Well, I guess it's a good things health care is so cheap here." She smirked.

"Oh, thanks a lot." I laughed. 

We continued trudging upward. It was treacherous! During all our training, we only ran on flat roads. We were not prepared to run straight up a mountain!" 

"Jia yo! Jia yo!" People would shout and encourage us as they passed out sports drinks and water at the stations along the way.

At one point, we saw our fastest runner, Benjamin, on his way back. 

"You're almost there! (to the half way point)" he encouraged us as we cheered him. Finally, we forced our legs up the last hill and made it to the half-way point where they gave us a scrunchy to prove we made it. Then, we headed back.

"At least all those uphills will be downhills on the way back." I gasped between breaths.

Those down hills were straight down, though, and it started to bother some of our groups' knees, especially, Inah. We were getting close to the end and us girls wanted to finish together so we were were determined to stick together. 
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" Danielle complained.
"We got this! We can do it!" my mom encouraged. 
"O, God, help us finish." someone else said muttered. 
"Oh, I don't think I can run anymore, my knees really hurt." cried Inah.

 "Come on, Inah! You can do it! Just a little longer! We're almost there! "I encouraged as I grabbed her hand.Yes, we were almost there. Almost! Soon we saw friends cheering us on as we the finish line came into sight. We ran, hand in hand, and stopped together over the finish line. 
"We did it!" I shouted. I walked over and received my medal and proudly put it around my neck. 
Benjamin had already made with Marcy a little behind. Soon, the two remaining boys brought up the rear, including my dad. 

Next of course was picture time! After taking pictures we slowly lowered ourselves onto the ground and drank lots of water and rested our weary limbs. 
The were some people talking loudly in Chinese on the microphones on the stage but I was concentrated on resting my tired legs. 
All of a sudden, Shin looked up and told me, "That's your name!" 
"What?"
Then I heard them announce my friend's name. (Apparently they mispronounced my name so bad that I didn't even recognize it, haha!) 
Bewildered, we walked over to the stage area. They kind of lined us up, me in front of Danielle, and they asked where we were from and how to pronounce our names. We had absolutely no clue what was happening as they said something in microphone and read our running numbers. Finally, Shin translated: We were the third and fourth fastest runners in our category! We couldn't believe it! 
Before we had really processed this information, they ushered us on the platform and announced our name to every one (along with a bunch of Chinese). Then, two guys came and shook our hands, gave us a plaque (!!!) and a gift. I was thrilled! My first marathon I had placed third fastest in my category, received a plaque (even if it is in Chinese), got a running shirt, and medal to boot! I thanked God for how He had blessed me. 

The fact that all of us made it without any major injuries was a miracle. God was really working. My mom, just the day before could hardly walk! She had injured her food and it hurt so bad she didn't come to church. God healed her thought and she was able to run a half marathon the next morning without any difficulties. Inah also has a really hard time with running uphill, but she made it! Benjamin had brand-new running shoes that he was worried about blistering and hurting his feet, but they didn't. My dad and Danielle were really nervous about it as well, and they did just fine! God was definitely running with us. 

During the race, God brought a verse to mind: Acts 20:24, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace."

I finished my physical race, the half marathon, but I still have another race to run and task to complete: to tell everyone of God's amazing love and grace. Will you join me in this race?

"So... I can... eat again?!"

"We got your allergy tests back." my dad said as he glanced at me through the front mirror.
Instantly my heart did flip-flops and a cold chill of nervousness rushed over my body. Before I could respond, my dad told me he wouldn't tell me the results until we got to the house and he had showed and talked it over with my mom.

Okay, so maybe I should back-track a little:
 As you may know from a previous post, I became allergic to a LOT of things. I took the test in February and it said I was allergic to: Dairy (the highest), wheat, soy, gluten, rice, sunflower seed, papaya, orange, almonds, buckwheat, wheat, eggs, walnuts, peanuts, and tea. Yep, basically everything. Anyway, since then I have tried to completely avoid any of those foods. Do you know how hard that is? Indescribably difficult. Besides the difficulty of finding gluten free, dairy free, nut free, rice free, ect., did you know that almost everything is cooked in soy oil (and here, sunflower oil) or has soy lectin in it? Most Gluten-free products are made with rice, but I couldn't eat that either. On top of that, all the labels here are in Chinese, of course! These eight months I just had to eat at home, bring my own food everywhere, or/and just watch others eat. That is difficult in Taiwan where everyone eats out.  I kind of got used to people eating yummy food that I couldn't in front of me, but it was still hard.
A couple months ago we found out more about my allergies. I will try and explain the best I can: I got this bacteria called Candida (yeast) that ate holes in my stomach lining. This resulted in all my food going into my bloodstream. This made my body react to the food as an allergy. 
So, while we were in the states, we got a bunch of pro-biotics and other "stuff" to heal my gut. I also started juicing once a month.
Because of all this, I was doing a lot better; only breaking out in hives every now and then. But suddenly, I started getting them more frequently and we couldn't understand why. We were worried I was gaining new allergies (which kind of freaked us out).  About this time, we found out that Candida grows on sugar.
My parents decided to put me on an extreme diet for a month and then I would get retested. The diet consisted of: raw vegetables, quinoa, the few nuts and oil I could eat (and seasonings and stuff). I couldn't have sugar, fruit, or carbs (except for a cup of beans a day so I didn't shrivel into a twig :p). In fact, my mom was constantly worried about me losing weight; especially since we run a lot (training for a 1/2 marathon). I wasn't allowed to run and had to walk if I was under 108 lbs / 48 kg (which was the case a lot of the time; but I was still able to keep up when I could run, thankfully).

That last month was horrible. I had such intense cravings for anything sweet (an apple sounded heavenly). I mostly ate salad and nuts.  "And I thought my old diet was bad" I remember thinking to myself. I survived and God helped through. After the month was finally up, we went back to the clinic where I got my blood taken and was told I would get the results in two weeks.
Another thing we decided to do was have an anointing service for me. It was really special. After church, (a couple days before my re-testing)  the elders laid their hands on me, prayed, and anointed me. I felt peace in my heart. I knew that we had done everything we could and that it was in God's hands now. I knew many people were praying for me.

Two agonizingly-long weeks later, my dad told me he got my results, as I mentioned in the beginning.  My dad pulled up to our house, and we all hopped out of the car. I went to my room and my parents to theirs.
"O, God," I prayed. "I'm so nervous! What if I'm still allergic to everything? What will I do? It's so hard to eat and live like this. Please let the report be good. I know You can. I have believe in You, 'Help my unbelief." Most importantly though, let Your will be done."
I decided that even if the results were bad, I would just see it as God's will for me and I would survive. He could help through.
Eventually, my parents called me into their room. I could hardly bear the suspense as I slowly walked into their bedroom. I braced myself, as I waited for them to tell me the news.
"Your allergies are so much better! There are only a few things on here and you have no more high allergies!"
I sighed with relief and plopped onto their bed. "Thank-you, God!" I whispered.
My mom then proceeded to explain that I still need to be gluten-free, and mostly vegan but there were so many more things I could eat!
"So, I can like, almost eat like a normal person again?!"
"Yes!"
I don't know why, but my eyes started filling.
"I'm just... so overwhelmed! I can.. I can eat again!" I laughed through my misting eyes.
"Yes, you can eat again, Enjoli. You just have to be careful to rotate everything and only eat these certain things sparingly and you should be fine" my mom repeated as she and my dad gave me a hug.
Walking into the kitchen, I turned to my parents, "I just can't believe it! I can eat again! But I forgot how to eat... You're going to have to teach me how to eat like a normal person again!" I laughed.
That night I hardly slept a wink, thinking about food, haha! I am definitely more thankful for food than I ever have been in my life. I will never take food for granted again. I repeatedly thanked God for answering my prayer that night. How good, loving, and kind our God is!

Flooded!

"I found another drip!" I hollered to my dad as I examined the water dripping onto the floor with my flashlight.
My dad shook his head as he scrounged around the kitchen for another pot. "Every time I turn around, there's another leak!"
We were in another Typhoon with no electricity, and water was seeping through our ceiling. This typhoon wasn't as strong as the previous one, yet for some reason our house was leaking water everywhere! We had an assortment of pots, pans, towels, and rags all over the floor.
"Maybe you should go up to the apartment above and see what's happening." my mom suggested.
The wind subsided for a moment, my dad quickly ran upstairs. Even though the wind wasn't too strong, we all still prayed that he'd be safe as he went upstairs to talk to our neighbors.
Finally, he stepped in the door. "They're not home."
"No wonder our house is leaking everywhere. They probably have a window open letting all the water in their apartment." my mom sighed as we all sat on the couch in the living room. We were at a loss of what to do.
I flashed my light around the room, staring at the many brown streaks of water, the puddles everywhere, and the ceiling in the dining room. We were all starting to get quite worried about it. The ceiling was starting to droop and water was almost pouring out of it. It look like it could collapse at any moment.
Finally, my parents broke the silence.
"Well, you girls can probably go to bed. We're going to have to get up on the hour to empty all these pots and trash bins so our house doesn't completely flood."
We said another prayer together, then tried to get some sleep.
Being a light sleeper, knowing that the ceiling could collapse, and random drops of water on my face made it very difficult to sleep.
"Just keep us safe, Lord." I prayed.
It was a crazy night. I woke up many times during the night. Once I woke up to a huge 'CRASH!' I stepped over the small lake forming in front of my door to find out what had happened.
"The Chandelier fell and broke." my dad explained. He was sweeping the glass up. I noticed that the ceiling was lower, and there were even more drips and leaks everywhere.

Finally, morning came bringing the beautiful sunlight. We thanked God for keeping us safe and that the ceiling hadn't collapsed on us. The typhoon was gone! The sun was out! But our house was flooded...
My mom walked over to school in the morning and recruited some help. We didn't know what to do. We were worried about water damage and we knew we needed to pack our stuff. But where would we stay? Would we permanently move out?
The owner of the apartment above us came and found his whole floor covered in about 2-3 inches of water, which explained our situation. His and our apartments were the only ones damaged though.
The school found us a hotel so we packed some stuff and moved into the hotel and stayed in it for about a week.
The owner of our house came to look at it and talked with us.
"Yes, yes, this needs to be fixed. But this is not too bad, and we can just paint over this..." she said as she observed our home.
We knew that it was not safe to live in anymore, especially since our landlord didn't want to even make all the necessary repairs. So, we had less than a week to find a house.
What a crazy week it was! We all had to still go to school on top of trying to find a house, and packing our stuff at our old apartment.
Towards the end of the week, my dad found this super nice, big apartment that was owned by a former staff of our school.
I don't know why, but I just had this distinct feeling that it was all going to work out and that God would give us this apartment.
So, Saturday night we went to look at it. It was huge, beautiful, and in the perfect location! Long story short, the land-owner was super kind and generous, loaned us furniture from her own storage, and we were moving in four days later!

No one else that we knew were really affected by the typhoon, so why were we the unlucky ones to have our house flood? Well, maybe God just wanted us to move so we could have a nicer, bigger house closer to the city. Now we can do more outreach activities in our home. Plus, God taught me something. Many times when bad things happen to us in life, we are tempted to get all upset, blame God, and get all stressed out. But, God is in charge and He can handle anything. We weren't too stressed because we knew God was in control and he would work everything out for good, and He did!

Chop! Chop!

Okay everyone, I actually did it. I, Enjoli Canfield, have cut my hair! Haha! Maybe some of you who don't know me are thinking, "Okay... so you cut your hair... why is that so significant?" Well, if you do know me, you know that I have (had) extremely long hair (about an inch past my waist) and hadn't cut it for 6 1/2 years. That's a long time. I almost thought I would never cut it.
So how did I decide to do it? My family has been telling me and teasing me about cutting my hair for the last year or two. Whenever they mentioned it I would quickly say no and hold my hair protectively.  I couldn't help but notice that my hair was starting to look really dead on the ends though. It was getting a little annoying and my hair was breaking and splitting a lot. My hair looked longer and healthier a year or two before. I also prayed about it ('cause why not? He cares about every hair on our head, right?) and realized a few things. First, I cared too much about my hair and realized that my hair was kind of a security thing to me.

Anyways, it was about time to cut it and I knew it. My mom scheduled an appointment for me. So, the time came. I was a little nervous, but mostly kind of excited. The guy was amazed at how my long my hair was and couldn't believe it when we told them I hadn't cut it for 6 1/2 years.
"6 and a 1/2 years! Really? Wow" he exclaimed while examining my hair.
Then he asked how much I wanted. We told him I just needed to cut all the dead off so my hair could be healthy again.
He put the apron-thing over me and had me stand up (because of how long it was) as he cut the biggest chunk off. My parents even brought the video camera for the occasion! :p Then he started to chop it off. I stood absolutely still, and a little tense as I felt the scissors pulling and cutting my hair. It felt so high up! The next moment, he was done cutting the basics (he still needed to touch up). I looked in the mirror.
"How do you feel?" my mom asked.
I stared in the mirror while running my fingers through my hair. "I can't beleive I cut it! It's so... so... short!"
"It's not that short." she answered.
"It just feels so short. But I'm still glad I'm cutting it."
After that, he put me back into the seat and cut some minimal layers and brushed things up.
"He's cutting more off?" I thought to myself. "Well, I trust he knows what's he's doing." 
Now, where I went for my hair cut is kind of on the fancy side. They really like to pamper you. After he finished cutting my hair, he took me to wash my hair. He led me to this quiet, dimly lit room, and set me down in the reclined chair over the washing bowl. He put a cooling mask over my eyes, told me to relax, then started massaging and scrubbing my head. It felt amazing. He also put some sort of cooling (Like peppermint) stuff in my hair, and then laid a warm towel over my face and under my neck for a few minutes.
After the washing ordeal was over he took me back and dried my hair. Finally, I was done.

Before...

After!

"What do you think?" he asked me.
I kind of stared at myself in the mirror in astonishment.
"I'ts so short! Well, not really, I mean it's so much shorter. But, I really like it! In fact, I love it! Thanks so much!"
He smiled, satisfied with his work and said, "You are so beautiful!"
He handed me the ponytail of my hair to keep. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to keep it, but my Dad was already taking it. 
I was ecstatic about my hair cut. Everything was a new experience for the next couple of days. It was surprising how easy it was to wash and brush!
So, yep, I have officially cut my hair! I really like it and think it's really pretty, but of course I know that what's most important is that my inside is pretty. It's like the new me, and I want to make sure I'm pretty inside (and out!) :D

Typhoon!!!

"Ah, no big deal." That's how most Taiwanese respond to the news of a coming Typhoon. If fact, that's what my thoughts were when I heard of it. The reasoning being that most typhoons are just a bit of wind and lots of rain. We had experienced two typhoons already and that's exactly how it was. In fact, there had been one a couple weeks previously that wasn't scary at all and I loved it because it meant no school! What my point is, I wasn't expecting to go through the biggest typhoon I had ever been in (including the ones when I lived in the Philippines).
"Have you heard of the coming typhoon this weekend?" Jeff asked me as I was helping one of the other teachers, Melissa, set up and clean her classroom.
I paused my sweeping, "Oh really?"
"Yep, it's supposed to be pretty big, but my guess is that it won't be much bigger than the one we had just a couple weeks ago.
"Yeah, probably."
When I got home, I went looking for my dad, "Daddy! Did you know a typhoon is coming this Friday?"
"Yeah, I heard about it. Let's look online for the typhoon news."
We found out that Typhoon Souledor was coming straight towards us in Taipei. The news also confirmed that it was going to be a very strong one and that all business were to be closed Friday afternoon and all day Sabbath (Saturday).
That night, we went out to eat at a fancy restaurant with the TAAS staff (and families).  I was even able to get a plateful of food!
I turned to my friend sitting beside me and asked, "Did you hear about the typhoon? It's supposed to be pretty big!"
"No, not really."
I told her some statistics that we found online.
"Really? Huh. I wonder it will actually be as bad as they say." she commented.
I wondered too.
Friday, my dad sent out an emailing saying that church would be canceled because of the typhoon. Many thought that canceling church was a good idea, while others thought it was kind of silly.
"Well, I guess we'll find out this evening" my dad told us.
My dad, Carolyn, and I went to pick my mom up from the school around noon. It was pretty cloudy and quite windy.
When we got home we made sure to charge all the laptops and freeze some water bottles.
Sure enough, that evening it started to pour and the wind picked up speed. It wasn't too bad though. The eye of the storm was supposed to hit us about midnight. After watching it for a little, we turned off the lights and went to bed.

The view out our living room window, Sabbath Morning

After we went to bed, the typhoon continued to increase at alarming speed and intensity. Most of the night I was only half asleep, half listening to the howling craziness outside.
At about 2-3 in the morning, a giant crash woke Carolyn and I up.
"Wow! What was that!" I exclaimed and rushed to the window. I stared awestruck at the sight before me. "Wow" was all I could say. Carolyn soon joined me at my side.
We were in the eye of the storm and the I had never seen such strong wind in my life! It was absolutely crazy!

Outside my bedroom window

"It sounds like a roaring ocean out there!" I whispered as I watched the trees swaying dangerously from side to side, rain pelting the earth, a waterfall cascading down the steps out my window, and debris flying all around. We found out that the crashing sound came from a a huge tree that had fallen right next to my window and room. There was banging metallic noises coming from a septic tank outside too.

The septic tank and tree that fell right outside my window

My parents came out of their room and we shone the flashlight outside the windows and looked around. It was just crazy.
"Well, this is definitely the biggest typhoon we have ever been in" we all agreed. Soon, we went back to our bedrooms, hoping to get some sleep before sunrise.
In the morning it was still storming out pretty bad. Not quite as bad, but bad enough! There was so much rain in the swirling wind that the whole sky would white out.
We just sat on the couches, eating our breakfast as we watched the craziness outside. Soon we decided to have 'church.' We watched a sermon by David Asscheric and sang some songs.
"The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide, a shelter in the time of storm; We find in God a safe retreat, a shelter in the time of storm. Might Rock in a weary land, Cooling shade on the burning sand Faithful guide for the pilgrim band - a shelter in the time of storm" we sang. (I thought it was an appropriate song to sing during that time. ;) )

The typhoon gradually calmed in the afternoon and finally it was safe to go outside. It was incredible how much damage it had done! The pool was really scary looking. It was a creepy green color and had a chair, a piece of roofing, and lots of tree branches and leaves in it. Fallen trees were everywhere. All the banana trees were broken, the basketball court fence was down, and worst of all, we had a shattered car window! Another car close by had completely lost two windows and all the glass went flying at high speed towards our car, breaking one of ours.

The fallen plants and basketball court

The shattered window

The glass inside our car

That night was a very hot and humid night. We still didn't have power.
The next day I walked over to the school to see how they fared. When I walked in the gate I was surprised! Almost all the teachers were outside working, moving piles upon piles of leaves that carpeted the roads. We all pitched in the worked and cleared the roads by evening leaving us with half of the ball field covered in a ginormous pile of leaves, branches, and debris. In fact, we went three full days before the power came back on!


 
The school's power turned on that night, but ours was still off. It wasn't until the next night that we got power back. (Making it a total of 3 full days without power!)
It turned on at about 3:30 am.
"Enjoli!" Carolyn called my name.
"Hmm?" I mumbled as I woke up and turned to her.
"The fan's on! That means we have power again!"
"Awesome!" "Thank-you God." I whispered as I went back to sleep.
I'm so glad God kept us safe during the typhoon and pray for those who were less fortunate than ourselves.

Summer School Fun

"Ms. Enjoli! Ms. Enjoli! Come and get me!" shrieks of laughter followed as I chased the kids around the gym.
"Wow, I really love these kids. Sometimes they can be difficult and exasperating, but I think it's worth it." I smiled to myself.
This Summer, Carolyn and I were TA's (Teacher's Assistances) at TAAS' summer school. I was put with my mom in first and second grade, and Carolyn with Mr. Johnston in third grade (probably the most difficult class). My basic job was to lead my kids to each of their classes, and help them and the teachers with whatever they needed.

First on the schedule was chapel in the Gym.
"I am a C, I am a C-h, I am a c-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n, Amen!..." They sang as loud as they could. They never tired of that song. Some of them would even try to spell all the letters with me, but it got difficult when the song got faster and faster, haha! We sang some others songs such as I've Got a River of Life, Peace Like a River, Lord I lift Your Name on High, Jesus loves is a Bubbling Over, and our theme song; God is so Good. There are four verses to that song, so we added one every week.
After singing some songs, we would have a story. Some teachers told lesson stories, while others told Bible stories and had them act it out. When it was my mom's week, she told the story of Joseph, and each group acted out a scene from his life. The kids did a great job and I think they learned a lot.
After the closing prayer, all fourteen of my first and second graders would line up behind me and we would walk to the classroom where we had English Class.
 During this class, we mostly taught them names of objects and simple, conversational English. We played learning games, watched fun learning songs and videos, read stories, colored pictures, and even did some easy worksheets. Some of the time I actually went down and helped Jeff (One of the other teachers) with the 6th and 7th graders during English. That was fun too. I (as well as they) thought it was hilarious when we did timed tongue twisters with them.
After lunch I would take them to their classes; first was Outdoors, second was Cooking, third was PE, and last was my Mom's Travel Class.
"Okay, throw your trash away from lunch and come line up!" I announced as I went and stood by the door.
Shoes scuffled around the room as they hurried to throw their trash away, grab their backpacks, and line up behind me.
"Okay, who's my line leader today?" I asked.
"Joy!' Came the unanimous response.
I led Joy to the front.
"Are you guys ready to go to Outdoor class? Good. Lets make a straight line and be super quiet!" I smiled as I then led them to the next room.
During Outdoor class, Mr. Johnston taught them about different animals and insects that live in the area. After a powerpoint of pictures along with a short description of the different parts of that particular type of animal, he would hand out some papers. I would go around and help the kids color their pictures and label the different body parts. Then, always to the excitement of the children, we would go outside looking for those animals and/or insects.
Soon, it would be time for cooking class with Ms. Machado.
"Everyone line up and wash your hands. Make sure you don't touch anything afterwards!" She would tell the kids as they came in for class.
During this time, the kids would help cook and make a different receipe everyday. The food they made would usually be what they ate for snack later on.
P.E. class was probably most of my kids' favorite class.
I felt bad for one of the girls, TingTing, who had a broken arm during the whole summer school. Part of the P.E. time I would stand on the side with her, but I also helped and joined in many of the games as well. The kids' two favorites were "River, Bank" and what they called, "Lions and Zebras." To play the first, Jeff would shout either River or Bank (the names of the two sides of the line.) So, they would jump over the line, then back, depending on which he said.
"River! Bank. River. Bank! Bank! Oh, I saw you, Hudson, come and judge with me." He called.
The latter game I mentioned is the equivalent of Rainbow tag, but the person in the middle (me) was called the Lion and the rest were called zebras.
"Lion, Lion! What color makes you hungry!" they would gleefully shout.
"Hmm... The color YELLOW makes me hungry!" I answered.
Squeals of laughter followed as the kids wearing yellow would dash across the Gym trying to avoid getting captured by the 'Lion.'
"Drink lots of water!" I called as they gathered their belongings to head back to our final class. Most of them were already downing their water with the remains trickling down their chin.

 Their final class was Travel Class. It was always so nice to walk into the air-conditioned room after romping around outside in the humid, sticky heat. Everyone cooled off quickly, sweat ceased from dripping off the boys' hair, and they all became excited about the new country they were visiting! Each day, we would visit a new country, learn about it, watch a video about some tourist attractions there, and make a craft on something important to that country. They would also receive a stamp in their homemade passport.
"Today we are visiting California!" my mom exclaimed one day. "Do you know where California is or tell me what continent its in?"
Hands shot into the air.
"Okay, Ryan," my mom said, "Can you show us on the map."
Jumping out of his seat, he ran to the board and pointed at a colored region.
"No, that's Africa. Let me give you a hint, it's in the United States of America. Where is California?" she asked.
Soon, he found and pointed it out.
Afterwards, she showed a fun video of some of the tourist attractions there as well as famous national parks. The craft that day was making Redwood Trees.
After they finished and everything was cleaned up, they ate their snack which they had made in Cooking Class.

The last hour of the day was "Fun Time," which consisted of us entertaining the kids outside. About fifteen minutes before the vans came to pick the children up, Jeff and I would gather all the kids into the gym and sing some fun songs with them. "Silly Songs with Enjoli" He liked to call it. Soon, the vans would come and take all the children home and we were free to go home.
Every Friday (with the exception of one because of a Typhoon) was a field trip day. The first Friday we went to a pottery place. The kids had lots of fun painting their own cups and later playing with the molds on the machine. I didn't know what to draw on mine and finally decided on a simple wreath of flowers along the top of the cup.
Another Friday we went to a Butterfly Conservatory. We did all sorts of fun stuff.
"Wow! There are so many butterflies!" I exclaimed when we walked past the bushes loaded with the beautiful insects. I tried to avoid them flying in my face though.

 "Teacher Enjoli! Teacher Enjoli!" one of the kids called as she pulled on my arm and pointed ahead. There was a HUGE spider. Just then our tour guide directed our attention to it and started talking in Chinese to them. Later, we made a craft that flies up in the sky (maybe like a helicopter thing? I don't really know how to explain it.) We also went through an obstacle course with the kids.
"Scary, teacher!" Some of them whined as the clung to my arm.

 "Oh, it's not that scary. It's just like a spider web and we get to climb over it. I'll go with you, don't worry." I smiled at them as they squirmed and clung to my arm. Once I got them on the 'web,' they were fine. Then, we looked at some other insects and even made cotton candy! (I can eat that, haha!)

Another field trip we went to a chocolate factory. I helped the kids as they made decorative chocolates and such. It looked really good!
"Here, do you want some?" our tour guide asked as he gave me a chocolate.
"Oh, uh, sorry but I'm allergic to dairy." I kindly rejected.
"Oh really? That's too bad. I think we have some dark chocolate with no milk in it though." So later he gave me a few small squares of dark chocolate. Sure, it was a little bitter but it was the first time I had eaten chocolate in a long time and it was amazing! :)
The last field trip we took was to a water park! Of course, the kids had an absolute blast! They like to climb on Jeff and I's shoulders and we would shoot them in the air. They also like to 'capture' me. Thankfully it wasn't too big of a hassle to get all the kids out, changed, and into the buses.
I learned a lot from helping at Summer School. First of all, I got another chance to teach, especially when my mom was sick the last week. I ended up having to teach English Class by myself quite a few times. But, I think that most importantly, I began to understand more of how God sees His children and how every child is beautiful, amazing, and unique in their own way.
Like the first week of school, (without realizing it) I had labeled and categorized most of my kids. You know, these kids are really good and obedient, these ones are trouble makers, those kids are difficult to teach and are really slow, ect.. But I quickly learned that I shouldn't be so quick to categorize people.
For example, we had one 'trouble maker' named Star. He didn't like to speak English and didn't have a problem with saying no to teachers. I found out later though that he is a really sweet boy and he actually decided to become best buddies with me and became a leech! During fun time, or on field trips he clung to me and made me laugh at the silly little things he would tell me.
I ended up become very close to most of my kids and at the end of the four weeks I was very reluctant to say good-bye. I had learned to value and love each and everyone of them.
"I kind of wish I could just start my career now and have these kids as my students." I remarked to my mom one day.
 I'm so glad I could have another great experience teaching God's precious children.

Touring the City with Carolyn

"So what's the big plan for today?" I asked my mom as I finished my last spoonful of mango, banana, and dragon fruit smoothie with granola sprinkled on top.
"Well, I thought we would go to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and watch the changing of the guards as well as many other things if we have time."

Just then, Shin came in and told us we would have to hurry and leave if we didn't want to miss it.
We hoped in the car and drove down to the Memorial, ran up the many steps, and waited with the throng of people. We were just in time! A few minutes later, the change of guards came slowly marching in. It was quite impressive and somewhat long. I thought it was amazing how synced they all were. Every time they stomped or hit the ground with their gun, it sounded like only one person was doing it. Smiling to myself, I noted that their marching rituals almost looked like they were dancing, haha!
It was sweltering hot under the sun and extremely bright, but we wanted pictures of the impressive Memorial afterwards. Plus, Carolyn had never been there before. (We took Carolyn back with us from the States. She's been here a few weeks and will be here for a couple more, so we have been trying to show her everything. It's a good excuse for us to go see things we haven't too!)
Afterwards, we decided to go somewhere that had been recommended by a friend the day before.
"You should really go to the cat city." Jeff had told me.
"Cat city?"
"Haha! Well, it's actually called 'Monkey City' but it's full of cats! There are cats everywhere; cat shrines, and stores full of everything cat. If you like cats, that's the place to go. I have no idea why it's called Monkey town. It has nothing to do with monkeys, and everything to do with cats." he explained.
So, we followed his suggestion.

 "Wow! This place really is full of cats!" I exclaimed as we hopped out of the car and looked around. There were many stray cats laying around. The cool thing was that they weren't really stray because the locals take care of them and tourists could buy a handful of food to feed them as well.
After walking around and buying some cat souvenirs and post cards, we headed off to our next adventure.

We drove to another town, but the road was very windy and we didn't feel too well. It wore off quickly though and we had a lot of fun. This town was known for their lanterns. They have these huge paper lanterns that you buy. You can write or paint anything you want on them, then they start the fire in the middle, and you get to watch them soar up into the sky. It was cool seeing everyone painting their lantern and sending them all off in the middle of the railroad (I'm serious, that's where they did it!)

About half way through painting and drawing on our lantern, it started to pour. Everyone scrambled for cover with their lanterns. It was perfect timing too, because as soon as everyone had cleared the track, a train came through. Thankfully, the rain let up for a few minutes and we were able to send up our lantern. As soon as we sent ours up though, it started to pour again! We had fun running through the pelting rain back to the car.

After we drove back to Taipei, we took Carolyn to the underground mall. It is a large mall under the MRT at Taipei Main Station. We took her to Krispy Kreams, bought some fresh fruit (Mango, guava, wax apples), looked at Chinese dresses and hair things, and many other shops. It was a fun-filled (and busy) day!

One afternoon, Carolyn and I decided to go to the Shilin Night Market together to look around and go to the famous Toilet Restuarant. The first time I had been there was my birthday and it was a lot of fun so, I wanted to take her there. When we got there, Carolyn ordered the poo poo ice-cream (of course!) and I ordered a strawberry Ice. The problem was, our waiter didn't know any English whatsoever! I tried to tell her "No milk," but she just tilted her head and said, "Mik?" Then, I remembered something! I remembered Shin teaching my mom how to say "no milk" in Chinese a long time ago.
"Buyow Nioni" I told the lady (That's the best I know how to spell so you know how it sounds).
"Oh, oh! ok." The lady said.
I silently thanked God that He had reminded me of that so I could eat my Ice without having to worry about having an allergic reaction.
After eating our delicious ice-cream, we walked around the night market.
These are just a few of the fun things we've been doing.