17/09/2009 by paul.

Well it’s ten o’clock in the evening and we’ve just finished doing things. Its still 30+ ̊ C, but today has been really sunny!

This morning we headed off to the PCT offices, which is the main office for the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan. It was a good morning chatting to various people on national committees here in Taiwan. I spent sometime in the Youth Office, being introduced to their ecumenical exchange program and mission work in Taiwan. After watching a couple of dvd’s about the history of Taiwan and the PCT we headed out for lunch to celebrate Carys’ birthday (the English language secretary). This time lunch consisted of rice with pork, bamboo shoots, a hakka seafood dish (mainly octopus I’m told), a pork dish, some green vegetables, and then soup! We stopped off for sorbet in another place before heading back to the office for birthday cake! This afternoon was more chilled out, before Bible study tonight. We looked Nehemiah 5, well I did, and, I’m told that is what everyone else was looking at two. Hsinet lead the study and he translated the main gist of it for me afterwards. He was talking about how leaders need to lead by example, and not just tell others what to do. Seems like a good idea to me…

Not sure what tomorrow has in store yet - I’m sure I’ll found out soon though.

Hope you are all well.

P
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17/09/2009 by paul.

When I got married to the lovely Jo, I knew there would be many things that would change in my life, and that I would be introduced to new things. One of these things is the game of Mah Jong. We’re not talking about a strange matching tile thing that you get with Windows, we are talking about a tactical game that is played over four rounds which is a cross-breed between Gin Rummy and dominoes. The tiles used look like this….

On the second row of tiles from the bottom you can see the characters for counting. These ‘character tiles’ used in the game are the same figures used for counting in Taiwan, China and other places. I asked Hsinte about Mah Jong. It is not really played in Taiwan because of its Chinese roots. During Chinese rule, gambling was forbidden, however, Mah Jong was allowed, despite the vast amounts of money that are often played for. So at the same time as Taiwanese people were arrested for gambling Chinese people were allowed to play Mah Jong. If this ‘double standard’ was not sufficient, Hsinte also told me about ‘political Mah Jong’. Bribery and corruption, like gambling were against the law, but Mah Jong was legal. So if you wished to bribe someone you would play Mah Jong, and play in such a way as to loose and in effect hand your money over to the opposition. Legal bribery - great….

I think I might now have a different image in my mind when I sit down to play Mah Jong with my inlaws on Boxing Day!

Hope you all have a wonderful day - there’ll be more about mine shortly.

P
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