Quarantine - Week 1

We're halfway through our quarantine, and to be honest, it hasn't been so bad. In fact, in many ways it has been a blessing. We were really kind of looking forward to it after the rush to get here, knowing that we would need the time to get over our jet lag, study our Chinese and establish new routines.  Whether we still feel this way at the end of two weeks has yet to be seen.

 Our apartment is lovely and is completely stocked with everything we need, including two weeks worth of food and other necessities. The couple over housing, Brother and Sister Coffey have thought of everything. They even left us a nice fruit basket with a note to welcome us. The basket had kiwi, and a dragon fruit, which I have seen but never eaten, so I cut that up today and made a fruit salad along with the kiwis, pears, and oranges that were here as well. Needless to say, we're eating well. 

     

The apartment is temporary, just until our permanent apartment receives some minor renovations. It has a large master bedroom with an ensuite (and a bidet, no less! I'm 56 years old and have never really tried one! Can you believe that?), a smaller guest bedroom which makes for a nice office for Rick, a living room, and a dining/study area. 

                                                                                                             

   

Our first day here was made memorable by two visits, which have been the only two sets of visitors we've had all week. 

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1) We had a visit from President Peterson, who kindly brought us two Taiwanese street food favorites, a zhuā bìng (zhuā meaning grab and bìng meaning pancake). It's a flaky, layered pancake (more like a croissant) with green scallions that are usually served rolled with other ingredients such as egg, ham, or cheese. To wash it down, he also brought us a boba (or bubble) fruit drink with tapioca pearls in it. Taiwan is the undisputed boba capital of the world. It made us feel like we were really here in Taipei, at long last. 

2) Our second visit was from the Taipei police department. Less than 24 hours in the country and we were already in trouble with the law! So, here's the story... 

Taiwan is very serious about its Covid19 prevention strategies,

as they should be. Apparently, they are very good at it and have one of the lowest rates of Covid cases in the world. The first line of defense is carefully screening anyone before they enter the country and then requiring a two-week, carefully monitored quarantine upon arrival. The monitoring is done by policemen, much like the ones in the photo, who keep track of our phone and get texts from us twice a day as we report our temperatures. The system works well as long as the phone that they are monitoring is working well. However, unbeknownst to us, the SIM card we were given for our phone wasn't working, so the police came to our door twice that first day to see if we were where we should be. I have to tell you, Taiwanese people- even the police- are the NICEST people we have ever met. Our caseworker, Claudia was always so pleasant, even as she helped us figure out the problem while we got a new SIM card from the mission president. The officers who showed up at the door were just as pleasant and polite. Everyone we have met so far, from the customs agents to the cab driver, has been the same. 

So, besides starting on our life of crime in Taiwan, we have also been busy keeping in touch with family and friends back home. Thank heavens for technology! Every morning I look forward to my call with our grandkids. We talk about their day and then I read a bedtime story from a book that we both have in front of us. The book we're reading right now is The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. Yesterday morning (their evening), we played games instead of reading. We played a What is Missing? game where I put several items on a tray. It's a memory game where they have to guess which item is missing after I remove it. We then played a game of charades. I would hold up a piece of paper with an action written on it. Ander would read it and whisper it to his younger brother. They would act it out to see if they could get Poppop to guess it. Then we switched sides and Ander wrote things down for me to act out and his Daddy to guess. The last game we played was called Rainbow Race where I would call out a color and all of us would run to find three items in that color. It was fun to show them some of the things we have around our apartment. I'm hoping to come up with more FaceTime friendly games for the future. I know Pictionary would work well. If you have other ideas, I would love to hear them.

Having time to read the scriptures, study Chinese, write in our journals, pray, and read books is another added blessing to be in quarantine. We've also been watching some missionary safety training videos as well as catching up on the weekly missionary devotionals. There are so many amazing resources for missionaries, and we are filling our spiritual reservoirs. 

A new hobby for us has been to figure out how to read the instructions on the food containers and on the appliances. When we arrived there was already food stocked and a menu planned with a list of ingredients for the various menu options. The only problem was that the instructions on the packaging were all in Chinese, so I quickly learned to rely on Google searches and my Pleco app, which can read and translate Chinese characters. The photos show Rick playing detective and using the app to figure out the microwave and the remote for the air conditioning. As a result, I decided to put together a list of cooking instructions for all of the incoming missionaries and emailed it to the housing coordinators. Hopefully, it will help some of the younger elders and sisters who don't have such easy access to Google and Pleco. 

                 

Quarantine has been an unusual experience. Sometimes I feel like I'm Jimmy Stewart's character in the movie Rear Window, except without the dead dog, of course. I watch the comings and goings of our neighbors as they go about their days, hanging laundry, riding their scooter or car, eating at the restaurant on the corner, or walking to work. I listen to the quiet rumble of traffic, the patter of rain, the occasional bird song, and the playful laughter of children on the playground below me. Today is one of the few sunny days that we have had and I'm watching the sun dance across the buildings, casting shadows against a brilliant blue sky with familiar white clouds drifting by. Slowing down has given me a perspective on this new city that I might not have seen and I'm grateful for that. The anticipation of this waiting and watching is exciting. 

 

"For a long time, I've walked through this world with the desire, like in Rear Window, to look into other people's lives because I know that there is a way in which I am the same as so many of the strangers that I see."     Will Oldham