Wendell Barnes in Taiwan --Thursday, 7/9/09

I have been blessed to be a part of this trip with eleven of the most amazing and mature kids I have ever known. English teacher Thomas Moore ('99) has been an invaluable member of the team and it is so nice to have his perspective and talents as well. Parents, I thank you for raising such wonderful and brilliant children and for making it possible for all of us to make this trip. This is my first visit to Taiwan, although I have visited Japan for three weeks in 1993, and much of the hospitality I found there has been repeated here. Mark Huang and recent graduate Kevin Shen, who I am proud to say are Summerbell boys, have shown maturity and poise beyond their ages and I am constantly astounded every day at their attention to detail and caring for all members of the trip. Like my trip to Japan, each day in Taiwan has been full of delightful surprises at each turn--many unexpected--but our Servant Leaders have adjusted and gone with the flow at each turn. Some things scheduled have been changed at the last minute but our kids jumped in anyway and did a great job with each event. I have also been impressed with their willingness to adjust to so many unusual foods, bathrooms, lack of air conditioning, and so many other things without a complaint and with smiles on their faces, savoring every moment. Each day has been exhausting physically and mentally--much worse for senior citizens!--and I don't think any of us expected to sweat so much! But as we fall into bed each night, in a different location most nights after lugging our bags around and working all day and eating strange meals with many things we don't recognize, before we go to sleep we complete our journals. I am sure that collectively we have taken over 4000 or more pictures, and we hope to get all of these together in a book later. We have been in the newspaper at least four times here in Hualien (pronounced Wah-lee-un), alledgely on television, and the mayor and/or his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Thai, and other city officials have been present with us at most events. Mrs. Pan, our hostess for this leg of the trip, has gone out of her way to make arrangments for everything and even has fed us tremendous feasts two nights at her home! She is a ball of fire and a lot of fun. One of the things we have learned is that we don't have to share a common language to share a common love for our fellow man. We have been in Hualien since July 5, and have toured the sites of the city and spent today in the magnificent Taroko National Park, seeing sights so astounding that it was difficult to keep our mouths closed! But by far the most meaningful times we have spent in this city are the opportunities for service and the hospitality of the people--and we thought we Southerners had a lock on that! Being able to meet many of the descendents of the original aboriginal tribes of Taiwan has been so wonderful, and being able to serve the Amis tribe by cleaning up and landscaping their tribal assembly grounds and teaching many of their children English has been such a blessing to us. The people here are beautiful and have gone out of their way to welcome us. Tomorrow we return to Taipei for the rest of our trip, including some servant leadership in that major city, and we are looking forward to those new experiences. And a special shout out to my wife, Reba Barnes, who started the Servant Leadership program at Darlington three years ago which has led to taking community service international into Taiwan thanks to Mark and Kevin. The implications of this trip will affect all of us, and I am sure the people of Taiwan, for a long time to come. Now if we could just remember what time it is in Georgia before we try to call home!!!!!