In Taipei

Had a great flight from Saigon to Taipei.  At only 3 1/2 hours it was the shortest flight I've been on in a while.  Australia is very far from everything, a fact you can appreciate only after trying to get somewhere else.  Saigon: 9 hours.  Taipei 9 hours.  San Francisco: 14 or so hours.  And so it goes.  


It is very hot and humid in Taipei at the moment, more so than Vietnam.  Unlike the clouds of yesterday the sun is full and thus it is almost intolerable.  After a long walk at 7 AM it is now time to hang around indoors until it cools later tonight.  Last night I went for a walk with Allan Wong, an Australian Jesuit who will be in Taiwan for the next year or so.  Allan and I met at the Lunar New Year Mass in North Sydney several months ago, just before he came to Taiwan.  I promised to take him out to dinner but didn't realize it would be so convenient since he is in the same community.  Will do so tomorrow.   We walked down by the river and discovered some improvements that will drive me there tonight with camera and tripod.  Some fantastic night time photography potential.  


Below are some more photos from Vietnam with descriptions.  


Scholastics at afternoon recreation.   They have an interesting rule: kicking the ball over the net ala soccer counts.  

This was my driver for the trip from the scholasticate to the novitiate.  Yes, I wore a helmet (a law for motorcycles/scooters but never worn on bicycles). 

The Vietnamese novices.  One of the highlights of the week was speaking with them for an hour about the Exercises, the meaning of tertianship, and answering their questions.  The eighteen primi began the long retreat yesterday.  

These may look like a close-up of mints.  They are rubber balls in a net enclosure at a kindergarten in the Delta run by the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres. 

Helping to put away chairs at the kindergarten.  The day was over and he was waiting for his mom. 

Reflective self-portrait at the kindergarten. 

A real treat.  Water from a coconut freshly cut from the tree at one of the sisters' family home.  No matter how hot it is outside the coco water is always cool.  

Boats along the coast at low tide.  The water was about 1/2 mile away during low tide.  These colorful fishing boats, where some of the men live, were sitting on wet sand waiting for the tide.  I took several hundred photos here.  More to appear later. 

+Fr. Jack