I’m in Taiwan teaching Communicative English in Dadu, Central Taiwan. Dadu is in Taichung and this is my third consecutive years of volunteer work which I love doing. I arrived on 4th November and today I was invited to visit Green World Ecological Park in Hsinchu County, in North West Taiwan. 175 kids of Grade 5 and 10 teachers including me set out at 8am in 7 buses. The entire responsibility of the tour was given to a touring company from school and teachers had the opportunity to wander around the park and not run behind the students to keep them in control or teach what they are seeing. The Park is in its 20th year and very popular as I found out.

Once outside the concrete jungle the scenic beauty to the park was spectacular with small hills around all sides. The students in each bus was under the supervision of the touring company guide and they were being asked General Knowledge questions to which if right answers given were handed a candy. The students enjoyed the question & answer session so much. One time they were shown a cartoon movie. So the students were engaged very aptly.

Once we reached the Park, I understood the vastness of the park and so much to cover between 10am to 2:30pm. In between was beverage break for teachers and the students were constantly munching something along with clicking with their smartphones. All students in uniforms and bags full of snacks and drinks they were having a balls of a time. Some students had their parents accompanying them in the trip which was neat I think. The tour company guides were teaching on the animals or birds or insects names, plants, cactus’s characteristics and the students were in apt attention. I truly loved what I was seeing. We were all told to attend a Macau show and we all enjoyed. Even during the show the students were encouraged to ask questions to the Master and the students interacted quite a bit

Lunch was at 12 noon and was sticky rice, pork, two kinds of leafy veggies, chicken, fish and oolong tea. Enjoyed the lunch and Teacher Sharon & I walked around bonding and clicking lot of photos. All students often saw me and waved, shouted out to say ‘Teacher Madu’ and I responded with great enthusiasm. All students clicked lot of photos on their phones. They all had various lunch choices and all looked so happy. Munching more snacks post lunch we all walked around the insect, bird and reptiles area. We saw Pelicans, Flamingo, Eagles, hare, rabbits, hens & chickens etc.

At 2:30pm our return journey started and we reached back to the school at 4:30pm. What a great fulfilling, full of learning day and I truly enjoyed my time

(c)Madhumita Bishnu