Another prayer answered by Jehovah: All of the specifics I prayed for have been met. It's affordable, there's two rooms, a stove, and the lease is short. Of course it's like the WT study on Sunday pointed out... Jehovah will provide our necessities but what he provides might not be what we personally are inclined to like or want. Thus... we have moved to Wanhua. Or as the Mexicans refer to it... Tijuanhua. It is the ghetto. Taipei's entire homeless community lives here, and it surely deserves the description of slums. But! It's very affordable, so many of the young brothers and sisters who have moved here from other countries live in the same building as we do, which will be great. It's nice to know you have good neighbors.
The landlady: Our new landlady is a tiny, elderly, Taiwanese woman with dementia. She is not sister, but she refuses to rent her apartments to anyone but Witnesses. Hurdle number 1: Her dementia means that she doesn't always remember that you've already paid rent. So she carries a diary with her and we have to make sure she signs it whenever she picks up rent money. Hurdle number 2: She doesn't speak a single word of English, she doesn't even speak Chinese! She speaks Taiyi which is a very old language that the aborigines spoke here before Mandarin Chinese was ever adopted. So our interactions are more like a game of charades than actual conversation. But she is patient and seems to be very nice. She even took Melissa to the hospital and paid for the visit yesterday when Mel sliced her finger open.
The space: The apartment itself isn't very big, but the fact that we each have our own rooms makes a huge difference. My room is simply a small box with a little garment rack, Melissa's is a slightly larger box with a cupboard. And in traditional Taiwanese style nothing has been properly fixed or replaced probably ever. Walls are patched with the same faux wood laminate flooring as the actual floor... giving the illusion that some of the floor got put on bits of the walls. The stove vent has eroded, but instead of being replaced it has been rebuilt out of layers of tin foil. The whole place sort of makes you want to blast it with clorox bleach and bristle pads. It puts the 'home' in 'homely'.
But we're happy enough just having a place of our own. I will be grateful to finally get to unpack my suitcases and have a place to put groceries. And it will be the first time since I've been here that I won't be sleeping within arms length of another person. These are all comforts you take for granted until you have to live without them for 10 weeks. Not to mention the location is closer to my job and Melissa's KH.
The leftovers: It just so happens that a handful of our friends here are having to move back to America this weekend. We are very sad to see them go, as are they. But they have been very generous in giving Melissa and I two of their bicycles. So soon we will be picking those up and will be able to get around town for free!
It's not long before we will bid our sisters here farewell and occupy a new space. (Just as soon as we can find beds) And thus opens a new chapter of the adventure. I will try to remember to take some pictures of the new place later.
Until next time... (stay tuned for Melissa and Katy do the Philippines!)
No comments:
Post a Comment