“Would you like to go to a festival in Taipei with the drumming team?”
That was all I was asked and all the information I was given about the event before I was asked to accept or not. I’m currently trying to get involved and in doing so I promised myself to say yes to everything (within reason). So, I agreed which is how I found myself as a “chaperone” on a field trip to Taipei with around 20 kids. Now I believe technically I was labeled a chaperone, but in no way did I fulfill all the responsibilities you would typically give a teacher leading a field trip. I wasn’t in charge of students; I didn’t help give instructions etc. I was there to take pictures and video of the event, my attendance at their choir and drumming practices were noticed by the teacher leading the trip.
The schedule of the trip was given to me the night before and was written completely in mandarin which my LET was nice enough to translate most of it for me. I was allowed one small bag which I interpreted as my camera bag and then one larger bag of clothes. It was one night so I didn’t need to bring much in terms of clothes. However, it was the need to bring my own towel and sleeping bag that mad things difficult. We weren’t staying in a hotel. My LET had told me we were sleeping on the floor of an apartment in Taipei. I don’t have a sleeping bag, nor do I know where to buy one. One of the teachers at Kan Ding was nice enough to lend me hers otherwise I would’ve been bringing two towels, one for showering and one for a blanket.
My day started with meeting the kids, their families, and the drums at the train station at 6:20. The amount and the size of the drums made me feel bad for the other people in the train car with us because we took up so much space. I also noticed the kids’ bags were small, even their overnight bag of clothes, which worried me. There wasn’t much I could do, but overthink my packing with no way of changing it. On the 3.5 hour train to Taipei the teacher assigned me to sit with her daughter, Michelle. Michelle is a junior high grade 3 student in a private school in Taitung City. In other words, she is the equivalent of a freshmen in high school and out of all the people on the trip she had the best English. This not only worried me, but surprised me. Originally, I thought Kan Ding’s old English teacher was on the trip as well, but she must’ve changed her plans. The beginning of the trip I felt bad that Michelle had to sit with me rather than sitting with her friends, but two hours into the ride we began to talk and it was actually relaxing to have a conversation with someone that’s not another ETA and knows about Taiwanese culture. Sitting with her on both the train ride there and back I learned so much about the aboriginal tribes. First and most importantly I found that the translation my app gives me for aboriginal population is actually a derogatory term so thank god I never used it except to try to talk to her (I was trying to speak Chinese to her and she would answer in English). I now know that to identify an aboriginal population you say 原住民. This translates to original people living here, the equivalent of the difference between Indians and Native Americans.
Michelle isn’t actually Bunan, which is the aboriginal group at Kan Ding. Instead, she is half Han Chinese and half Paiwanese. Paiwanese is vey much like some other aboriginal groups because their communities are very close. What sets Paiwanese apart is their dresses that are very ornate and their “King.” Their community Kind is like chief who is responsible for making sure everyone is taken care of and that everyone has food. At some points the King even makes food for everyone. The King is one person in a family and the title is passed down to the first born regardless of their gender. Michelle explained that in Taiwanese culture unlike China it doesn’t matter as much which gender your first child is, they still rather have a boy but it isn’t as pronounced as in China. Michelle said the first born are always their parents favorite. In some cases the first born will get the family name and none of the other children in the family will get that last name.
Following my very detailed lesson in aboriginal culture (feel free to ask any questions because now I have a better understanding), we got to Taipei and were boarding our shuttle bus that we had for the weekend. We headed to lunch and from lunch we went to a random intersection. I was very confused because I thought we were going to City Hall, but once we got to the intersection I began to understand. We were in a parade, it wasn’t a festival. We would march from the intersection we were at to City Hall surrounded by floats, dancers, and other drumlines. This parade beat the 10/10 parade floats no problem. It was a celebration of art by the Dream Foundation so they encourage originality and well art. The parade floats were a lot more detailed and creative than the ones celebrating Taiwan at the Double 10-day celebration. I was given a school shirt to borrow and then one of my student’s mother gave me a aboriginal accessory called an "alosaysay" to wear during the parade. There has to be so many pictures of me on the internet by now because everyone was taking pictures of me whether it was because of the fact I was a foreigner with a aboriginal group, that I was wearing the most amazing and intricate piece of aboriginal clothing, or maybe some of the time it was me being self-centered and thinking it was a picture of me and not the people behind me. Either way my presence interested a lot of people.
The parade was the largest Chinese Carnival Parade in the world and I had the opportunity to walk in it. There were groups from Japan, Brazil, you name it there was a float from everywhere it seemed. This was the best experience I have had so far. It was the event on my bucket list I didn’t even know I wanted to cross off. The crowds went crazy for my kids. They were amazing and full of energy. My favorite is seeing all the young ones, we have some first and second graders in the group, with their huge drums which impede their ability to walk right making it look more like a waddle at times. Even in the slight rain I went through two camera batteries and finished a memory card. Once we marched to City Hall there was a party for all those involved culminating in all the drum lines getting together and playing together. It wasn’t even a song they all knew. Instead, they had leaders who would hear the other rhythms on the other types of drums and would answer the beat with their own. I am amazed I could hear that night being so close to the drumming for so long.
It was 9 o’clock when we finally left for the Taipei Sports Complex. I thought this is where we were going to sleep, like it was a YMCA. However, we were just going to shower there as the apartment we were staying in only had 2 bathrooms for everyone. It was 10 o’clock by the time we got to the apartment were we would stay. It was unfinished with doors missing handles and no furniture. The lights were all working and they gave us some fans along with the blue foam that looks like puzzle pieces for us to sleep on. It wasn’t as bad as you would think to sleep on so I can’t complain. What was hard was that by the time we reached the apartment after the showers, the kids had newfound energy so when the teacher took the older kids to 7/11 for food and snacks, the younger kids were running amuck. I was left with one of the moms and a old Kan Ding student in college (the first person I’ve met that’s actually my age- well 22 going on 23, but I’ll take it). I was so nervous we would end the night at the hospital as we tried to stop them from fighting each other. Apart from one of the rooms of girls locking themselves out of the room because they closed the door fully and it didn’t have a handle to turn the night ended well.
Sunday began with a served breakfast and yet another performance, this one just singing. I know I am in Taipei when the servers speak to me in English and don’t even wait to see if I speak Chinese. When I said I was from the US, the server then told me he had some coffee he could whip up if I would rather drink that than the tea they had laid out for everyone- a super kind offer. The other young children groups from the parade in the breakfast area all turned around and would tell me hi and good morning and then giggle when I responded.
Following breakfast we had two more performances: one at a nautical museum which we got a tour after and one at the festival again- this time on a stage. They really left no extra room and I can now understand what Disney stars feel like getting dragged from one concert to the next. The kids were exhausted, falling asleep on the bus in the short ride to the other location. I felt bad they didn’t get a break till we got back on the bus to go home at 4:30.
My favorite thing was when I wasn’t wearing the aboriginal accessory this weekend people would come up to me and tell me about my students and how good they are and if I have the time how I should go to Taitung to visit the aboriginal populations. I was confused at first, but then understood. So many of the people didn’t realize I was in their group. Instead, they thought I was a tourist of some sort or a photographer because I had a photography pass during the weekend. I would explain that I was their teacher and actually lived in Taitung and they would be really surprised. Sometimes my kids were just run up to me during one of these conversations shouting “Teacher Briggs, Teacher Briggs” and they would get the idea. At the train station when we were leaving the ticket booth stopped me as I followed my students onto the platform because they didn’t think I was with the group. The teacher leading it had to come back and vouch for me and even still they were very confused and surprised.
I finally got home at 7 o’clock. This was a very rewarding experience to be a part of this. I am so proud of my students. I spent 3 hours last night trying to download all the pictures that I took which I will hopefully have time to determine the good ones to send to the teacher. If this trip has taught me one thing it’s that I can’t imagine what it is like being a parent because I was so happy to be able to return the kids to their parents at the end of the night Sunday and return home to relax. I didn’t even go to dinner, choosing to eat snacks I already had because I couldn’t convince myself to go out again. I owe Kan Ding a huge thank you for taking me on because I know it is difficult having someone who doesn’t fully understand the language and at times is completely lost with what is happening. Despite this the parents, Michelle, and the teacher were so accommodating and understanding and because of that I was given an opportunity to support my students out of the classroom and I think this is the first step towards a stronger relationship with them.
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