Taiwanese Aboriginal Students

With aboriginal students at a school in Taitung (Tai-dong). Most of the kids here in this picture are from the Paiwan group. You can see that they look very different from the average Chinese (or Han people).


Jason and some more students at the same school in Taitung. Jason is part Ami (pronounced Ah-May). The Ami are the largest aboriginal group in Taiwan. They are centered in eastern Taiwan, especially around Hualien. The girl on Jason's right is also Ami. Further to the south here in Taitung, there are more people from the Paiwan group. They have darker skin color and are more Polynesian in appearance.


See what I mean by darker skin color? Check out the girl in the lower right corner. Yes, she speaks Chinese. No, this is not some Pacific island like Fiji or Samoa. It is Taiwan. I love seeing this kind of ethnic diversity here. It makes me feel that Taiwan's not such a mono-cultural society after all.

Vietnam

Fruit or drinks anyone? Curbside service in Hanoi: Phil plays the part of a banana vendor while Liz orders a drink at the window.


Liz shows off one of the reasons why she wanted to come back to Hanoi - to shop for more traditional Vietnamese ao dais. And if she dresses like this, it's no wonder some people mistake her for a local. In fact, some do try to speak to her in Vietnamese. I(Phil), of course, don't have that problem. People there (especially cyclo and motor-bike drivers) have no trouble spotting me as a tourist. In the Old Quarter of Hanoi, it seemed I had to say "No thank you" to ride offers several times every minute.


Liz also enjoys the good food and balcony seating available in many of the local restaurants.


The French colonial charm of Hanoi is nice too. This can be seen in the architecture of many buildings. Here Liz poses on the front steps of the Opera House.


With a group of young school girls next to the "McCain memorial". It marks the spot where Senator John McCain was shot down and captured at Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake in 1967. He parachuted into the water and was plucked out by a group of fishermen.

Liz and Liz

Hey, who's the beautiful lady on TV? If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were having a tele-conference with each other here. It does look like they're making eye contact with each other.

Liz is happy that she finally gets to see one of her "Usage Tips" on the Studio Classroom TV program.

Do I really look like that? Yeah, with lots of make-up, I do.

Zhong-li H.S. Students Visit ORTV

Rachael Sawatzky and I with some of the students that visited ORTV recently. After they took a tour of our office and studios, we did some English activities with them in the chapel.

Evangelical Free Church in Nei-Hu

Lisa Holl and I goofing off with some of the students in the English Fellowship at EFC Nei-Hu. We visited their Thursday night group, did an English activity, taught a Studio Classroom lesson, and shared our testimonies. By this time, you can see we'd gotten pretty comfortable (or crazy) with each other.

Heavenly Frogs

Thanks to our ORTV photographer, Jeff Chao (Ah-liang) for these pictures of the Heavenly Frogs at Spiritual Emphasis Week in Wan-li.

From left to right: Steve on guitar, Phil, Dale - the spiritual leader and director of our group, Vance and Bryan.

Now we're really into the motions. And Doris has a front row seat. Wonder what she's thinking. Oh well, if the ship goes down, we've got Dale as our captain. :)


Dale looks like he feels something welling up from within. Hopefully it's a spiritual thing and not something left over from lunch.

And thanks to Marci Fry for these photos of the Heavenly Frogs.

Steve plays while the others go through the motions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", "I'm Gonna Sing, Shout and Praise The Lord", plus "When The Saints Go Marchin' In".


Steve continues playing while the frogs go marchin' in behind Boogie Bullfrog Bryan as he does a "ribbet rap".


Looks like Slimey Steve tries to catch a mosquito with his long tongue while Froggy Phil rests on his webbed feet.

College Guy at a Wan-Li Hotel

No, it's not "Spring Break". The actual event was ORTV's "Spiritual Emphasis Week" retreat. We spent two and half days in Wan-Li, on the northeast coast of Taiwan. Here's a photo of Bill Quinn and the view from his hotel balcony. Bill's enjoying the view and thinking we should have more retreats in places like this. He's quite the traveller as well as an avid collector of college tees. From Pittsburgh to Princeton to Portland, the Pacific and beyond!

Jin Mian Mountain Hike

Near the top of Jin Mian Mountain in Neihu, Libeck, Jessie and Andrea strike a pose. These "Angels" could take a real flight from here, but perhaps they're not quite ready to try their wings just yet. However, they were real good "troopers" on this particular hike. I appreciate their willingness to accompany me here on a Saturday afternoon. And I must say I felt real safe with "guardians" like these.

Liz wasn't able to make it because she had to do some work-related stuff and preparation for our upcoming "Spiritual Emphasis Week" retreat. Were it not for my "Angels" here, I would have been on my own in the Taipei "Outback".

Andrea agrees that there's a good view of downtown Taipei from the top of the Jin Mian Mountain. Looks like Jessie's got her eyes fixed on the 101 in the distance. It's probably because she's doing a 101 stair climb for charity coming up real soon. Libeck's just glad to take a break and enjoy the view.

Stinky Tofu

At a roadside restaurant in the Shi-Lin night market. Bill and I tried to humor our Taiwanese Bible study students and helper (Rebecca, Cindy and Flora) by partaking of this stinky tofu (chou doufu). Believe me, our smiles are fake. Bill said it's a "once a year experience". For me, I think I can go longer. I love good tofu, but this stuff wasn't anything I'll be wanting again for a long, long time. Cindy (in the back corner) is happy because she just downed a plate of duck's blood stinky tofu from this restaurant. Bill and I weren't that daring, so he went out and bought our boxes from another stand. Rebecca (left corner) and Flora (right corner) smiled and watched as we ate. They then told us that the chou doufu we were having wasn't the best. I wish someone would have told us earlier. Oh well, thanks for trying, Bill. After we finished, Bill and I were happy to go along with the others for some shaved ice. The shaved ice was good. I had strawberry and Bill had rasberry. However, I think we would have settled for almost anything to cover or wash away the lingering chou doufu taste in our mouths.

Good Friends

It's easy to make friends when you have a nice dish of bacon macaroni fresh out of the oven.

NPA Officers Visit ORTV

Steve Marth and I with some of the young NPA (National Police Administration) officers who visited ORTV recently. Some of them have office jobs at the Foreign Affairs Police Department in Taipei. Their visiting group met with Studio Classroom teachers in the 5th floor cafeteria. We enjoyed some food, drinks, fellowship and conversation. There was at least one Studio Classroom teacher at each table. ORTV maintains a good relationship with the NPA. Hopefully, it will continue to be an avenue of positive influence here in Taiwan.

Former Students in Taichung

On a recent rally at Wei-Dao Catholic High School in Taichung, Liz and I met up with some former students of ours, Dennis and Tony. Here they are pictured with some classmates, in the middle, second and third from the left. It looks like Tony's giving Dennis the "rabbit ears".


After more than 3 years, Tony's grown up so much that if Liz wants to be taller, she has to get up on stage.

Tony plans on going to America for study next year. Good luck, Tony!

More Rally Trip Pictures

Doris is sick of me being around...


so I decided to hit the road.


A scene just outside our breakfast window at the hotel in Taichung. How many people are they gonna put on that truck before the thing tips over?

While setting up at a rally, a midget-sized Phil gives a massage to Jason.

This is the morning welcoming committee at Nantou High School's front gate. These girls would salute teachers and others as they drove in.

There's a bust of Chiang Kai-Shek near the upper left corner of the building in the background. Perhaps the school keeps it hidden up there so that the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) won't come in and tear it down.

This is how Jason and I feel when we're finished with rallies for the week.

April 10th-14th Mid-Taiwan English School Rallies

Our rally theme for the week was "Life Is A Gift". Steve Marth delivered the wrap-up speech at this high school. He encouraged students to use and develop their gifts. I can hear him now telling them, "Use it or lose it". I really liked the nice multi-color (uniformed) crowd here. Rex Wee translated Steve's talk into Chinese. Steve and I alternated doing the wrap-up talks on the first part of this trip. I also enjoyed being Steve's roommate during this time. We shared some good laughs and moments together. Liz came and took Steve's place later in the week (as my new rally co-host and roommate, of course). I want to say that each of them has his/her own unique strengths as a roommate. I'm very thankful for both of them. :)

Steve, next time I'll bring the joke book (along with the trivia one). We did still manage to get in some good ones. Listening to Weird Al Yankovic on your iPod while you checked out the 80's tunes on my MP3 player was pretty fun too.


Phil with students at a school in Yuanlin.

Liz with students at a school in Nantou.

Getting ready for a school rally in Nantou. There's Liz way in the distance on stage raising her arms. The banner on top reads "Friend For Life".

Rex and the Sunshine Singers get warmed up for a rally in Puli. That's Dick Wang over on the right taking it easy. Dick is a sort of tour manager for us in that he helps with booking the hotels, deciding where we're going to eat, etc. Seems like he knows where all the good local eateries are. In this picture, it looks as if Dick's warming up too. We did spy him falling asleep on us a few times during the program. One time he was slumped over in a chair by the side wall near the front of the audience. Some of the students couldn't help but notice. However, having Dick fall asleep on us is better than having students fall asleep (check out the student who fell asleep on Hazel a few weeks ago). After all, Dick's seen our rally programs more than a few times.

Our school rallies couldn't happen without the leadership of Linda Yeh (pictured here with students before a rally in Puli). Linda is our rally program producer who makes sure that everything comes together smoothly. She also operates the PowerPoint projector for our songs, games, talks, etc.

All I can say Linda is, "You are very good! You are very good! You are, You are, You are, You are, You are very good!"

Dazhi Presbyterian Church

On this particular Sunday, Liz and I went with Jane Hsu to Dazhi Presbyterian Church. Jane is a good ORTV colleague and friend who works in our Educational Services Department. That Sunday, the church had a special guest and singer, a Ms. Mori from Japan. It was a very nice service and message. Quite convenient too, considering that the church is just right next to where we live on Bei-An Road. Jane, sorry the date got stamped on your clothing. Liz says she likes having the dates on photos for reference.

The congregation listens to Ms. Mori from Japan sing and share her testimony. One particularly moving part was when she shared about her family. One of her brothers died in Taiwan's big 9/21 earthquake in 1999. This really affected another brother who previously had been resistant to God. He subsequently accepted Jesus in his life. He realized that he needed a savior. Now he is serving him too.

Ms. Mori sings beautiful inspiring songs in Chinese, Japanese and English. In the past, she has been a singer on Japan's NHK TV network. Her singing experience and polish really showed. She was also very pleasant toward the crowd. On one song where she sung, "I will pray for you" she walked out in the midst of the congregation. She smiled sincerely and made eye contact with individuals seated in the pews.

Crashin' at Cafe India

Yay, another sleeping kid! This time it's little Mikayla Fry being held by Andrea.

Now it's Linda holding Mikayla. Between her and Andrea, I'm not sure who put Mikayla to sleep faster.

Melissa and her cousin, Vern visiting her from England. Yes, I believe there's some resemblance there. For one thing, she's another nice Chinese face with a wonderful accent much like the Queen's. I hear they have some pretty good Indian food there in England too. :)

Another Sleeping Kid

Check out the student in the upper deck here at Zhongzheng High School during a recent Studio Classroom English rally. What's funny (I think) is how no one's sitting around him, so it's so obvious. I guess Liz and myself aren't the only ones who can put some kids to sleep. Even a teacher as animated and interesting as Hazel can have this effect. We now realize that some kids will fall asleep on anyone. In the picture, it looks as if maybe Hazel doesn't notice, but Mei's looking right at him (ha, ha... I'd like to see the look on her face). We've been noticing sleeping kids lately, so Liz just couldn't resist snapping this photo from on stage.

Taipei Rotary Club Inter-Collegiate English Speech Contest

On Saturday, Liz and I along with Doris and Troy went to the Taipei Rotary Club's Inter-Collegiate English Speech Contest. Studio Classroom was a co-sponsor of this event. You can see our owl logo on the banner in the background. There were around 70 contestants from different colleges around Taiwan. We served as judges for the contestants' speeches. There were alot of good speeches and it was hard to narrow down the field. In the final round, 6 students gave impromptu speeches. The top two students standing behind Doris (holding their award certificates) won all-expense paid trips for one-month home stays in England and Australia. We tried to give tips and encouragement to those who didn't win. Troy even presented a workshop on making impromptu speeches. Hopefully, many of them will be back next year. Also, I'm hoping that some of them in the Taipei area will come to our Friday Night Live program. (P.S. The second-place winner, Ellen Yeh, did come on the following Friday)

It was good to run into one of our former Bible study students, David, at the contest. He made it past the first round into the final 18, and narrowly missed the final round of 6. David's English is very good. Hope he'll try again next year and certainly hope to see him back at Friday Night Live & Bible Study very soon.

Bible Study Students

Here's a few of our students from a recent Friday Night Live (FNL) Bible Study group. They're all great students. I won't name everyone in the group. However, this time I'll point out one next to me who looks like she's scratching her chin. That's Kalucia. Rather interesting name, isn't it? Kalucia's a high school student with very good English. I first made contact with her during one of our "Call Your Teacher" nights that we have the second Monday of every month. Next to her is her good friend, Evelyn. Kalucia invited her to FNL and since then they've both become FNL regulars when they're not too busy with school or exams. Speaking of exams, directly in front of me is Harry. He's got a big exam coming up soon and is a little worried about it. In fact, he e-mailed me and asked for advice on how to relax and do his best. Let's pray for him that it all goes well. Encouraging our students and showing God's concern for them is what it's all about!


Sorry I cut your head off, Bill. That's Justine smiling on the right. Either she's smiling because she's next to Bill or because she's found Jesus in her life (quite possibly both). Anyway, Justine recently accepted Jesus and got baptized. Next to her is one of her "cram school" (bushiban) students. She's brought several of them to our class. God changed her, and now she's a witness to her students!