Jeffrey’s Journey

I’ve been spending the last few days hanging out with my uncle. It’s great and all, as uncle’s usually are. While it’s clear that he is still an elder, the relationship between uncle and nephew is given more slack to be cooler than a father and more like a friend. With that said, I am dying for some interaction with people under, lets be generous and say, 35. While we have a good relationship, I don’t know if listening to people in their mid-forties and fifties singing Taiwanese Karaoke for hours on end is my idea of a good time, and Buddha help you if they suck at singing but they are too intoxicated to care. Shudder.

Yesterday we drove 2 hours to have lunch. The lunch around two hours and right after lunch we immediately drove 1.5 hours to have dinner, which was a few more hours of sitting on your ass. Then another 2 hours back home. In between there was more driving to people’s houses. I think this was probably one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever been a part of. It’s the equivalent of driving my fat ass to Vegas, eating two buffets back to back, then driving home. If you can’t feel your ass grow several inches by just reading this paragraph, you are not appreciating what I’ve gone through.

However, something happened during that dinner that is worth mentioning. We first arrived at the restaurant and waited for the majority of the other adults to get there. Not everyone was present when we decided to start eating because one group would be arriving late. In the group is the grandpa, who is sick. He has a hole in his throat which is connected to a tube that leads to a machine that looks like a blender. In the middle of the meal, he arrived with a girl, roughly the same age as I. It became pretty obvious that she was the hired help. Her duty is to live with the family and take care of the grandpa, who cannot speak and needs help to move around. She doesn’t eat until she was given permission. She feeds the grandpa. She doesn’t speak to anyone the whole time. She is from Indonesia and sending money home.

Constantly, out of nowhere during my trip, I’m reminded of how fortunate I am. I’ve had the liberty to decide what my dreams are and I’ve had the means to chase after them, if I wished, whatever they may be. By far, the lifestyle most of us live is above par when you look at the rest of the world. Here’s a girl who’s working in one of the most unglamorous jobs in the world, in a different part of the world from her family, that of which her legal status is probably not very legal at all, and at the same time living in fear that the authorities will discover her, thereby affecting her family’s livelihood back home. And she’s roughly the same age as I.

There are many people from Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines who go overseas (in South East Asia) to earn a better wage and send the money they’ve earned back home to their families. Most of the jobs they take up, according to what I’ve seen, are caretakers, housekeepers, and construction workers. Many of them are illegal and are totally dependent on the people they work for, and therefore abuse isn’t uncommon. This isn’t to say the girl described was abused, but just that I am in awe of her.

Back in Taiwan again! New Cell Phone number: 09-5223-3840

 I’ve been living on a mountain near Taipei, Taiwan with the family. It’s a bit cramp and there’s the usual family lectures; there’s no internet, a temperamental shower, and it’s a bit far from ‘civilization,’ but I’ve been able to relax. I’m averaging over 12 hours of sleep every day.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice this earlier, but Taiwan is crawling with HOT HOT girls, so much so, I often walk down the street with my eyes popping out and violating all sorts of social rules with my drawn out stares.

Since coming to Taiwan, I met up with an old  college friend (am I really old enough where I can use that phrase now???) to catch up.