[travel] 1407 taiwan: ligang, kaohsiung, kenting // volunteer teaching

view from a Kaohsiung river cruise

In 2014, I had the opportunity to teach English to middle school students in the countryside town Ligang, Taiwan. The program is called AID Summer and they serve to help out any schools in Taiwan that is disadvantaged by location, finances, resources or a combination of any of those factors. Like most countries, schools are compared against a national standard and a lot of more rural schools cannot keep up with the testing standards set by the government.

The program included one week of training, and then two weeks of actual teaching at Ligang Middle School. Then there was an optional all expenses paid tour for the final week, but my teaching group decided not to go and met up on our own at Kenting and Taipei!

I just wanted to share some of the photos I took during my travels in South Taiwan, a beautiful region with rich aboriginal/Hakka Taiwanese history.

it started to rain in Kaohsiung

3-legged cat from a mountainside restaurant enjoying fish

As someone who has always been fascinated by glass blowing, I was able to make my own bead! I did take some pictures of the glass blowing process but they didn’t turn out so well. Basically you heat up a thick glass rod of the bead body color you want with a Bunsen burner type deal, and then you dab it onto a very thin rod. You can then make any other design you want using thinner glass rods that will just melt onto your main bead. Super quick and easy! Many Hakka women worked there making beads for visitors.