Hello to everyone from inside Taiwan,

My apologies that it has been several days since I have been able to write. I have been so busy with things over here. Late evening of Wednesday, August 26, I arrived at the Taoyuan airport in Taiwan. I was greeted by two young folks living at the shelter and Cha Cuong, one of the priests here. Then I was taken to the shelter, my new home, where I settled in and adjusted to the sweltering heat.

The next day, two very friendly shelter people showed me how to get to the office. I was drenched in sweat by the time we arrived and greeted by smiles of the shelter folks hanging out in the hammocks outside the office area. No sooner had I said hello to the staff and given a short tour of the office, Cha Cuong instructed me to accompany a case worker to Sansia detention center about 40 minutes from the office.

Sansia detention center was as ominous on the inside as it was on the outside, a light blue stucco sheathed in trails of blackened mold. The guards were friendly enough, but as soon as we reached the male floor a knot grew in my stomach. (Women are on one floor, men on the other). The air was stiff and stale with an underlying stench of many meals eaten in confined quarters causing a clinging odor in the air. With only a 6 x 4 foot area for visitors to conduct business, the case worker began speaking to the men through the reinforced steel metal bars. That day, there were 60 male victims of human trafficking at Sansia. There were no cells, just a big open room with bare-bones style bunk beds linked together so that it made one massive bunk bed/sitting spot and a clear area for sitting n the floor to play cards or pass the time.

Vietnamese men crowded at the bars to speak with the case worker, as she began handing out forms with basic information in order to open their cases. A Filipina case worker was there too doing the same as us, but it was clear that there were other languages needed to assist these victims. Inside, I felt a mixture of anger, wonder, and compassion for these men. Most of them did not look well with sallow skin and a look of vacancy in their eyes. Many of them asked questions to the case worker about me, because I did not say much and they had not seen me before. Mind you, I had been in Taiwan less than a day at this point so I was doing my best with what little preparation I had. When the men were told I was American, their curiosity increased exponentially, yet there was also an awkward palpable energy. I am still unsure if this feeling was due to gender differences, cultural differences, or just the sobering fact that these men and myself are both Vietnamese...yet they are not afforded the same human rights freedoms I experience daily. We visited the women's floor briefly, but due to how much time we had to spend on the men's floor, we were not able to interact with them for very long.

Again, I say I felt anger, wonder, and compassion. And I was left with more questions than answers. It angered me that people were expected to live like this and labeled as suspected criminals, when most of these people were actually victims of a crime. I was curious to know what happened to these men trapped behind metal bars, and I felt for them as any human would feel at the mistreatment of a fellow human. I wish that the descriptions here were dramatizations of the things I have experienced so far, but unfortunately this is not the case.

After Sansia, I was taken to two different meetings regarding human trafficking and human rights work. Flying by the seat of my pants here. Since then I've taught art classes, taught some English, and practiced Vietnamese. From the bottles of red, yellow, blue and white that were donated, I was able to produce these colors for the survivors doing art here. Pretty cool stuff! Everyone here was amazed by the amount of art supplies donated by people in America.

One of my biggest challenges here is going to be my evolving Vietnamese language skills. Most shelter victims are perplexed that I was not taught by my parents in America. There also is a great deal of Mandarin spoken daily. I am working hard to pick up Vietnamese quickly. Most of the victims here are Nguoi Bac (from northern Vietnam) so learning gets tricky for me at times. I am keeping a positive attitude about it and just doing my best.

I've ridden all three public transportation systems: MRT, Train, and Bus. Taipei is 2 hours away using public transit and the other two Americans here, Dave and Hope, have a place there. I explored Taipei this weekend knowing only how to say "thank you" and "hello" in Mandarin. Adventures galore. I am sad to say that the 5000 yr old egg tastes pretty accurate to me. Anyway, the three of us will be starting the recreational program in the detention centers on Thursday. We bought barrel and heart-shaped Styrofoam for the detainees to decorate. Stay tuned to see how this goes. Though we're not allowed to photograph in the detention centers, I will for sure write about it! I don't know how much of a difference I can make here, but I have many hopes and am optimistic.