I can’t believe that this month marks our 1 year anniversary of leaving South Africa and moving to Taiwan! Time has really gone so quickly!!!
We are still waiting for a date for the courts to finalise Asia-Faith’s adoption.
The birth mother and the social worker have been a bit slack in getting papers signed – though she was supposed to have signed and registered with the courts yesterday (Thursday), so please pray that she did! Then we have to wait 2-4 weeks for a court date, and then the judge takes another 4-8 weeks to make his decision!!! So please keep this in your prayers….
We are more than likely going to make the move to Ilan on the north-east part of the island. The boys are particularly excited about the impending move! I am just concerned about the logistics of it all!
We had the Dragon Boat Festival here over the weekend. Monday and Tuesday were a public holiday (so now Jason has to work on Saturday – as if it were a Monday, to make up for the day off!). Anyway, our friend Bryan was in one of the teams that were racing and their team, Fooyin Hospital, came in second place!
We were invited to their celebratory dinner on Tuesday night at a local seafood restaurant here in Donggang! Dinner was interesting! Bryan did tell the staff that we only wanted to eat COOKED food and NO VITAL ORGANS!!! We started off with asparagus and bamboo (not too bad actually), with a very sweet mayonnaise, then we had fried rice with what they call “Cherry Blossom Shrimps” – they are VERY tiny and look almost pinky/transparent, anyway, the dish was quite tasty! We also had sweet potatoes that were coated in a sweet syrup (like toffee apple syrup) – it was very nice. Then they brought a soup with a whole fish lying on the bottom of the bowl (head, eyes and all!!!) – we told Bryan he could take that to his table! Then we tried “fern” – yes just like the fern that grows in the garden. We also had prawns (which I love, but would have preferred if they had been butterflied instead of just boiled), but they were good nonetheless…and we had clams! While I had a clam in my mouth and trying very hard to swallow it – Jason mentioned that is was like trying to swallow sn*t! I tried really hard not to spit it out, and only managed to get one down!!! The boys just ate a bowl of plain rice (I had made sure they had eaten dinner before we left home – just in case!)… And of course Asia-Faith was willing to try anything!
Here is a bit about the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival:Dated : 5th day of the 5th lunar month
Qu Yuan
The Dragon Boat Festival, also called the Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the Chinese calendar. For thousands of years, the festival has been marked by eating zong zi (glutinous rice (糯米)wrapped to form a pyramid using bamboo or reed leaves) and racing dragon boats.
The festival is best known for its dragon-boat races, especially in the southern provinces where there are many rivers and lakes. This regatta（赛舟会）commemorates the death of Qu Yuan , an honest minister who is said to have committed suicide by drowning himself in a river. Qu was a minister of the State of Chu situated in present-day Hunan and Hubei provinces, during the Warring States Period (475-221BC)（战国时期）. He was upright, loyal and highly esteemed for his wise counsel that brought peace and prosperity to the state. However, when a dishonest and corrupt prince vilified Qu, he was disgraced and dismissed from office. Realizing that the country was now in the hands of evil and corrupt officials, Qu grabbed a large stone and leapt into the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month. Nearby fishermen rushed over to try and save him but were unable to even recover his body. Thereafter, the state declined and was eventually conquered by the State of Qin.
The people of Chu who mourned the death of Qu threw rice into the river to feed his ghost every year on the fifth day of the fifth month. But one year, the spirit of Qu appeared and told the mourners that a huge reptile（爬行动物）in the river had stolen the rice. The spirit then advised them to wrap the rice in silk and bind it with five different-colored threads before tossing it into the river. During the Duanwu Festival, a glutinous rice pudding called zong zi is eaten to symbolize the rice offerings to Qu. Ingredients such as beans, lotus seeds（莲子）, chestnuts（栗子）, pork fat and the golden yolk of a salted duck egg are often added to the glutinous rice. The pudding is then wrapped with bamboo leaves, bound with a kind of raffia and boiled in salt water for hours. The dragon-boat races symbolize the many attempts to rescue and recover Qu's body.
A typical dragon boat ranges from 50-100 feet in length, with a beam of about 5.5 feet, accommodating two paddlers seated side by side. A wooden dragon head is attached at the bow, and a dragon tail at the stern（船尾）. A banner hoisted on a pole is also fastened at the stern and the hull is decorated with red, green and blue scales edged in gold. In the center of the boat is a canopied shrine behind which the drummers, gong（铜锣）beaters and cymbal（铙钹）players are seated to set the pace for the paddlers. There are also men positioned at the bow to set off firecrackers, toss rice into the water and pretend to be looking for Qu. All of the noise and pageantry creates an atmosphere of gaiety and excitement for the participants and spectators alike. The races are held among different clans, villages and organizations, and the winners are awarded medals, banners, jugs of wine and festive meals.
Enjoy the pics....
