well, haven't blogged in a while and i'm tooo lazy to write too much. so i'll pull a "vivien"... hahhaa... (okay, it's an inside joke but i'm sure you'll get it later...)
SO, THE POINT IS: just go to vivien's page for our latest updates. the best part of going to her blog:
PICTURES ARE UP ON VIV'S BLOG!!! yayayyayayayayayay!
so yeah, read up on that and see how we are doing!

updates from the past week:
saturday 15th
we went with 20 of the kids on their tribal dancing performances. they were invited to dance at this powerplant family fun day... it was really hot and they were really sweaty but it was good. then they were invited to kaohsiung (second largest city in Taiwan) to this tourism exhibition. my goodness, there was soo many people... imagine i dunno, some really crowded place... like University Fair/CNE/Nathan Philip Square on New Year's Day. yeah, so pretty crowded and we had no choice but to walk through all these people who want to go on vacation AND the people at the exhibits who attack you with their flyers.
what did i get out of this day? a better friendship with many of the older people. most of the time, we spend our days with the younger children... but in the choir and tribal dance group, we get to spend our time with teenagers (14-18 years old). like our peers. it's good because we realized, they're just like North American youth... really like to do stupid but fun things. it's all jokes, but yeah, i think i really like to hang out with them. if only i could speak more of their language.

sunday 16th
not much happened. went to three services. 8am primary school children. 10am, Liu Kuei Baptist Church. 7:30pm, orphanage service. we did work in the kitchen in the afternoon but that's about it.

monday 17th
nothing special happened. the usual routine in the evenings. actually, we didn't even teach english at night becaues on monday nights we work with two girls who are telling their testimonies when they go on tour in the summer in English... but they were having choir practice so no English lesson.

tuesday 18th
the choir went to taipei that morning for the the Presidential Inauguration. they are performing in it. if you remember in our prayer letter, that was one of our prayer items - May 20th Presidential Inauguration... and OUR kids were performing in it. i was going to blog earlier to ask you guys to pray, but didn't have the chance to.
we went gardening at the Forestry Bureau and got sunburned. but we have our own tree now.. it's like a type of cinnamon tree that is only available in Taiwan apparently. and it's a herbal medicine or had medicinal usage.
then we went with two of the teachers here to pick up flowers for their gardens. they brought us to eat lunch and then also took up to a Hakka Heritage place and they bought us paper umbrellas. it was so nice of them! they were so nice!!

wednesday 19th
we cleaned our house because doctors and nurses are coming on the weekend and they're going to be living in our house. (Viv wants to emphasize the fact that DOCTORS are coming... ) oh yeah, 80 of them are coming so we wanted to clean up where we're living.

thursday 20th
today was the Presidential Inauguration. our kids were performing in it. we watched it for like 2 hours and then we didn't see them perform. it's good in a way that we didn't see them because the orphanage workers didn't really want the kids to show up on the TV so that they wouldn't be exploited or questioned about why they're at the presidential inauguration.
we also moved into the girls' residence today. don't know what to expect. maybe we'll have to wake up at 5am like them. we'll have to see. =) but yeah, we moved 'cuz the doctors are coming.

hmm... not much is happening. it's raining right now... so we're just here. =) well, i guess that's it for now. =) update y'all later!

This has been our most useful week here ever. Thanks for all those who have prayed for us. Let me just outline our week so far... I think I posted my last post on Monday or something like that!

Monday
- we went to move some small rocks and dig up soil so that the plant people could plant flowers! =) YAY! so useful...
- then we took a 3 hour nap and woke up again in time to water plants!

Tuesday
- i spent the whole morning and afternoon in the office typing up English, moving Powerpoint files into Word files, e-mailing the new files to some Businessman, and then translating a full 2 page Chinese file into English!
VIVIEN SPEAKING: i worked in the kitchen. SO fun! they have huge woks (cooking for over 100 ppl). i got to cut, chop, wash, clean for 3 hours. fun.
MEL: i cut apples! i cut apples! i cut apples!
-we cooked a lot because some Christian pastors were supposedly coming for lunch. VIVIEN: welps, they didn't show up until AFTER lunch. they just ate mel's stupid apples. muahaha
- then the usual: taking care of the kindergarten kids and teaching English at night
VIVIEN: OH. on the first day here we saw a very "tit-ty" dog (mel said it!!!). we were wondering why it was so..."tit-ty". WELL, on tuesday we found out it was because it had puppies! baby labs! SOOOOO cute. we played with 2. and took pictures with them as well. there was a golden one and a black one. adorable. however. we find out on wednesday that 2 of the puppies have been MAULED to death. MAULED. AFTER we played with them. WHAT the hecks?!!??!?!!? it kinda disgusts me how un-"animaltarian" ppl are here. they pick up dogs by the neck, whip around geckos and kick them and pick up random bugs and torture them!!!!!!

Wednesday
- i don't think we did anything special this day... I felt sick today so then I took a nap while Vivien cleaned the toilets
VIVIEN: toilet cleaning was kinda fun too. haha. oh. then after i went to play piano.
- then I translated one of the children's testimonies into English... well, she's not really a child, she's 18. it is one of the people that are in the choir that is going on tour this summer and they want her to learn her testimony in English, but I think that her Chinese testimony is much more natural and that if she speaks in English, she'll sound like a robot
- oh, in the afternoon, we also helped dig some more soil.
- then the usual stuff

Thursday
- Viv and I washed our clothes again (we have dubbed every Thursday as laundry day!). It took me 1.5 hours to wash my clothes by hand. It's sooooo hard and tiring and the detergent makes my hands sooo dry. =( But yesh, it is a good learning experience, even though we know that the kindergarten kids have a washing machine in the building that they live in... I don't know if we should ask to use it, or if we should just keep washing our clothes by hand to train ourselves.
- oh, I was looking for a stool in the house that we are living in so that I can sit on it while I wash clothes... and then I opened one of the doors and there was a old man sitting at a desk. I was SPOOKED out and went to tell Vivien... then I spooked her out.
VIVIEN: she FREAKED me out. she saw a MAN? in the house? we LOCK this house! how did he GET IN?!?!?! so i asked her if i would have been able to beat the man up. in CASE!!!
- my parents called me today... I was happy
- I asked a man in the office who the old man was... turns out he is an artist who comes to draw pictures in that room... he is also the teacher of this girl who was raised in the orphanage. The girl is very special, actually, she is married now. She is armless, with NO arms, and only one fully functional leg... but she is an artist. She draws beautiful pictures with that one foot and I think she is quite famous in Taiwan because of that. So yeah, we also found out (from my dad when I told him how I found a man in the room) that he speaks Cantonese. Vivien and I were then very happy because we can finally speak to someone else (other than each other) in Cantonese.
- They killed a rat today. The rat was in a cage because a worker had caught it last week. But, Viv and I were in the office when I heard one of the workers say, "Where'd the rat go?" I ventured downstairs to take a look... and I found out that it had escaped to the room downstairs. I told Viv not to come downstairs (because she was upstairs in the office), then the boys closed the door, and all we could hear was smacking sounds. The next thing I know, they are rolling the dead rat out of the doorway (which is their bedroom). The rat was HUGE. It was probably the size of my foot. Not including the tail! EWW...
VIVIEN: oh my goodness. i watched them from the stairs as they chased and smacked around the rat. even AFTER it was dead, they just smacking it!
- Today, I retranslated the thing that I did two days ago. Well, not re-translated the whole document. Basically, they re-wrote the whole document so that it's only one page and then I retranslated it. Guess where that document is going to? To the Presidential Inauguration for all those foreign people who can't read Chinese. (And Viv!) Hahhaa... just kidding. Isn't that great? I have no idea what I wrote.
- A famous actor came today. He is a host of five Taiwanese shows and he came to do a show on the orphanage or of Liu Kuei, the city that we live in.... I'm not sure which one. But he came and the kids did a tribal dance thing for him. Oh, his name is Jacky Wu (Wu Jung Shien) if any of you know anything about Taiwanese actors. =)
- Oh, teaching English to the Grade 7s tonight was horrible. There was 5 boys and 1 girl. The girl's eyes are a bit crooked and so the boys kept making fun of her, so then she cried. Yah, we were a bit frustrated with them and mad at them. Most of them have no interest to learn English but are forced to by their "mothers/fathers" here. Like, their English is sooo poor. In Grade 7, their English is probably similar to the English in Grade 2 or 3 maybe? Yah, it's just really NOT good.
- When we came out of teaching English to the Grade 7s, we bumped into Dai Sow (which is the oldest son's wife). She asked if we wanted to go get something to drink. We didn't really want to but she ushered us into her van and off we went to some place. We drank Mango Slush and Vanilla Slush. It was quite good. =)
- We slept way past our bedtime last night. We usually sleep at 11pm and wake up at 7:20am, in time for staff devos at 7:30am. But last night, I slept at nearly 11:50pm because we didn't even get back until 10:50pm AND we still have to take showers.

Friday
- it's now Friday... we taught English to the staff
- then we went back to our house to eat breakfast. The old man was in the room and we were waiting for him to come out of the room so we could speak Cantonese to him. He came out, asked if we were living there in Mandarin, and then we replied in Cantonese. He was shocked. So happy though, finally, a Cantonese speaking person.
VIVIEN: i got to talk to my family. i miss them. ok.
MEL: she cried!! again!! every time she talks to them.. but it's a good thing. not heartless like me... =(
VIVIEN: i get weepy. i miss home!!!!!!!!

YAY! We have internet in Taiwan... here is what we have been doing for the past week! Please continue to pray for us so that we can be more and more useful here! =)

Viv and I wake up around 7am everyday and then we go to staff devotions at 7:30am. Where I have to pay careful attention to understand the Mandarin and where Viv doesn't understand anything but she's really good because she sits there and waits patiently. Then at 8-8:30am, we teach English to the staff. So far, we've taught them about the weather and things like "Welcome to the Orphanage." Then from 8:30-4pm, there really isn't much for us to do becaues they won't let us do much... and because ALL the kids are at school except for 2 kids who are 3 years old and already have someone watching over them. From 4-6pm, we go and help out in the Kindergarten room because one of the helpers in the kindergarten area just had a baby last week and so we're going to help for 3 weeks. It's so cute because they just come back from school and play with us and then they take a shower together... all of the 9 kids... boys AND girls. It's so cute because they just line up in a row and then just wait for their turn to get shampooed and washed. Then we go for dinner. Then at 7-7:30, we teach the kindergarten kids English. From 7:30-9pm, we teach different groups of kids English. On Monday, we'll teach three choir girls how to say their testimonies in English so when they go on tour in the summer, they can just say their testimony in English. Then on Tuesday, we teach Grade 5-6; Wednesday, Grade 3-4; Thursday, Grade 7; Friday, Grade 8. This morning (Sat), we taught Grade 1-2. So yeah, a lot of English teaching. We asked if we could help them during the day because they are doing some landscaping so next week, we're going to move rocks. YAY! Yeah, we are very bored during the day. Yesterday, Viv took a four hour nap! Hahaha... Well, I took a three hour one. Anyways, I think that's it for now... not sure when I can write more but this is it for now...

YAY!! I'm in the HK airport right now and Viv and I are waiting for our flight to leave HK to go to Taiwan. This is almost the first time we've had internet access since we left our homes in Canada. We're not even sure if the orphanage has e-mail or internet access, but we're crossing our fingers. The past 48 hours in HK has been quite busy... composed of eating, eating, sleeping, and more eating. We've eaten with a lot of people (my parent's friends) and finally got a chance to meet up with Felicity, Perry, Joanie and Fai last night where we went to Lan Kwai Fong. It's been good to finally see familiar faces.
Hmm... I slept 17 hours on the way to HK from Toronto... just ask Joanie and Viv... I skipped all the meals and just slept... I think I was awake for 1.5 hours the whole trip. Hahaha... anyways, since we've been here, it's been hard to adjust to the hotter, humid weather, but we should be experiencing even hotter weather in Taiwan though the mountainous climate might be a bit cooler (I'm not sure b/c they don't have the weather for the mountain area we're living in but they do for the closest city). In July, when we return to HK, it will be even hotter and we are soooo not anticipating the sticky weather here!
I'm excited to actually be going to Taiwan now but I'm really not sure what to expect. It seems a little bit too unorganized or confused about what we're actually doing there. I think it will be so weird once my parents leave and Viv and I will finally be on our own in Asia. I'm so thankful to God for letting Joanie be on the plane with us as we travelled from Toronto to Vancouver to HK, and likewise, just as thankful for having my parents take us around HK for the first two days. Now, it will be truly total dependence on God to help us through communicating, adjusting to the lifestyle, and for His love to love those children. Please continue to pray for us... I will be very thankful when I have a chance once again to blog to update on how these experiences are changing me... if I don't have another chance, here is my blog for now... I can't write too much 'cuz these computers are really slow and I'm scared if I write a blog that is TOO long, it might be lost and not load properly. So for now, God bless... but I really hope to write more soon!