The morning of December 16th, the district office of Da-an, invited us to paint lanterns as part of the celebrations of the lantern festival in Taiwan to be held during the "Year of the Monkey" in 2016.
We met at 9:30 a.m. in large numbers at the front gate of Longmen Junior High School. All ladies were impressed with the size, cleanliness, facilities, and buildings of this school. We were greeted by the headmaster of the school and a group of dedicated personnel. We proceeded to the interior of the premises, where a small group of school girls volunteered for touring us around and who in good English guided us all the way to the Qing Dynasty Longanpo Huang Family Lairang Estate, inside the campus.
The weather was excellent for this special day and visit.
From outside, this beautiful construction of estate seemed small but, once inside we discovered that there are several rooms of large size and high ceilings. The first room we visited was a shrine where people went to pray and to give thanks. We saw a small room with beautiful and colorful painting placed in several wooden stands. Then we continue the visit to a big room that was used as a kitchen where we could see old and remarkable well preserved molds for baking maybe cakes or cookies. There was a room with a wooden old bed with extremely well done carvings of Chinese designs. We exit to the garden which was marked for the lovely tree facing one side of this beautiful area.
After this visit, we proceeded to the library of the Longmen Junior High School, passing through spaces reserved either for lunch or to work on projects of design or painting. All areas of this high school are spacious, clean and it prevails light and natural illumination.
The library counts with a large collection of books and texts that the pupils can use and there are editions that will provide them with the necessary tools of knowledge.
For our use, several tables were displayed and kindly and properly provided with the paints, brushes and glasses of water necessary for the task object of our visit: try to paint colorful traditional or original designs proper to our own countries particularities or beautiful landmarks known almost for everybody.
We disposed of 2 hours to complete our task and all of us tried joyfully to expose our feelings, our emotions and our pride of our own roots and to show how proud we are to be in Taiwan, a place that makes no distinctions because they treat us all fine and kindly.
Wives of ambassadors and representatives, and all of us, we started diligently to accomplish our lanterns.
Remarkable results, the colorful, the funny, the historic, the traditional, the invented, the artistic, all lovely, and colorful and made with love.
Obviously, after two hours and many moments of surprise, congratulations, and the happy sessions of photos were in progress to keep our memories alive. These 2 hours were shared in a very friendly manner.
The principal and the instructor who explained how to use the paints were always with us. Kind, extremely kind people were helping us at every stage of the painting process.
At the end of the event, I was surprised by a lovely cake to celebrate my birthday, I felt so shy, and I fell terribly humble at this precise moment. People sang, and it was the beginning of a great birthday for me, which started here at Longmen Junior High School. I give thanks to all the people involved in this moment.
Snacks and refreshments followed, people stayed, others left according to their own occupations, but all happy to have had the opportunity that the district of Da-an, through her head of office, and the facilities provided by the principal and professors of the Taipei Longmen Junior High School offered to this friendly group of ladies and men.
We thank as well all to the people of "Welcome to Taipei International Club" who organized this memorable activity.
Taipei, December 16th. 2015.
By Silvia Villascan Vazquez
WTIC extends very sincere thanks to the personnel from the Longmen Junior High School and Da-an District Administrative Office for their kind support.
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