The summer camp is now over, or at least our contribution to it is ended. The third and final day of my participation began with a walk about the village. The area has some seemingly solid middle class families, but I also saw evidence of decay suggestive of cultural decline and economic hardship. Conversation with my colleague opened my eyes to the possible link between cultural loss and social decline. Our talk centered around the Amis Tribe and their annual harvest festival celebrations. My colleague Ya-ling said the yearly event requires the older generations to train the younger generations to ensure full and proper participation in the ceremonies. This advances transmission of not only traditional knowledge, but a sense of pride as well. It also encourages communal cohesion.
I did not see very much communal cohesion or intergenerational cooperation in my morning stroll. Visible, however, were signs of government and other organizational attempts to help the community: an "accident awareness center" whose primary purpose is to encourage people to live safer lives by avoiding alcohol, for example; a community activity center that teaches dance and crafts; a Presbyterian church center for the elderly that gives them a safe place to gather and ward off loneliness; a health center whose posters against alcohol, drugs, HIV/AIDS make their purpose pretty obvious.
Of these, the Presbyterian church operation was most impressive and the most distressing: the former because of their very important and seemingly effective outreach to the elderly, the latter because, I was told, far too many seniors live alone and this church center is their only opportunity for conversation or assistance. I was wondering whether the youth of the town could work with or aid the older residents. Perhaps the children can be provided video cameras and asked to document the lives of the town's older generations?
The rest of the morning was spent shopping at Carrefour in preparation for the afternoon's "pizza toast" activity, which would turn out to be my only responsibility. The activity actually worked quite well. I was worried about chaos arising from students not listening to instructions and heading aimlessly into mess. That is certainly my experience of leading college students in food preparation activities! To my surprise, however, the children listened intently to my instructions and lined up in an orderly fashion. My instructions were "doubled" as I used one of the older boys to repeat to the entire group what I had said, and then he and I both made our pizzas: select bread; choose meat and vegetable toppings; pick a cheese; add tomato sauce; place into toaster oven (with assistance from an adult). I used the vegetables as a double vocabulary lesson, having the children shout out the names of the vegetables in English and Truku languages. When we let the children loose they lined up well, and made their pizzas with a minumum of mess. I was impressed.
While I was slicing and dicing the meats and vegetables for the activity, I was able to hear the students in the classroom behind me as they practiced and performed their English-language role plays under the guidance of my colleague Professor Olivia Chang and doctoral student Amay. I could hear the wild applause of the students and occasionally the role play dialogs spoken loudly and in unison, such as "Thank you for your attention." I was sorry to have to miss the fun, as the children certainly sounded enthusiastic and cute. If only university students could feel the same youthful and uninhibited excitement about speaking English in front of their classmates.
After the pizza toast was consumed out in the front courtyard, everybody reassembled in the main classroom for the final part of the camp: student dancing. While the fun was pretty much dominated by a couple of the more eager Michael Jackson enthusiasts, a good number of children had an opportunity to show off their physical dexterity as they spun, twisted, and twirled before leaping, kicking, and throwing themselves onto the floor to finish their routines off with a bit of breakdancing. While they obviously practiced long and hard, most impressive was the choreography that went into the performances. The children planned their movements and chose appropriate props, from chairs to neckties, to bring a set of relatively stylized movements into full-piece dance routines. 
I must confess to being a bit uncomfortable seeing children on the cusp of puberty performing highly sexualized movements learned from MTV: hip swinging, chest thrusting, crotch grapping. I applaud Teacher Tien for not commenting on this from her vantage point as an elderly woman, a teacher, and a devout Christian. Rather, she noticed the children's control of their own bodies, recognized the source is not the children's own growing sexual awareness but their respect for their pop idols as available on YouTube, and called for distraction from the obvioius by asking the audience to applaud and cheer the performers.The dancing and speeches ended the camp, but we left behind a good deal of work undone. The children did not complete their video products, and were told to finish these and submit them to us in Ilan by September 15. Our alumni and we will select a winning video, and that person will recieve a DVD player for his family home. The other unfinished work was a picture of "the animal that is most meaningful to me," an activity inspired by the viewing of The Whale Rider. Professor Chang Ya-ling will oversee the September submissions and decide how to best reward those who complete their assignment.
When time came to say goodbye there was a general sadness at departure. Unexpectedly we all ended up piling into one car and heading off together. This may have been a somewhat shocking departure, and one boy responded with tears and by hiding in a corner to pet one of the family cats. The other children, even the older teens, did what children will do when departure time arrives: they clung to their favorite teachers, asked them to stay a little longer, and expressed hopes for meeting again in faraway Taipei or somewhat nearer Ilan. They playfully mobbed the car in a final expression of sadness at our departure.
And then we were gone, but I suspect we'll be back.
Watch video of the children dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWly6g7z06I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9TmyVd_zs
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