Narrow streets, rice fields, men and women working, astonished tourists  like me; bicycles, motorcycles, colorful flowers, grape ice cream store on the corner; Christian songs, blazing sun, the pharmacy of over 100 years; water well, Buddhist temples, houses with red lights at night; the farmer most famous farmer giving autographs; hairdressing salon, rotary tables in the restaurant, the mango, the priest, children singing, toads, night markets…, these are a lot of pictures that comes to my mind and good memories that I never forget it.

Hi I'm Jorge, from Mexico, I was in a community of Tainan for two weeks last summer, participated through AIESEC and Chunghwa Telecom Foundation, to make a documentary with my partner Ryan, likewise captured many photographs to illustrate a blog where we wrote day to day.

Every day, we were picked up by our host, the local priest, around 9 am. We had breakfast and then we worked and discussed in the computer room, which was behind the church, and where some children from the community came to take classes and trained arming and disarming computers for a competition.

We took the streets; we interviewed people, lived with them, because our mission was to have closer contact with them, get confidence and to have a documentary about the here and the locals. An example that comes to my mind and also I find funny was when we entered a small supermarket, and there was a makeshift Karaoke with older people, was a pleasant atmosphere, so at the end of the afternoon I was singing too in this place, Chinese and Japanese songs, and eventually received many standing ovations.

After capturing some pictures and videos, we returned to our work space, and we selected the best material. After having a small dinner, we left to rest at home.

Being in Tainan was one of the most amazing experiences in my life, walking in the streets of this small community, see the green fields or biking, brought to me peace and tranquility.

But the best of Tainan is: the people; they are very friendly, helpful, kind! Wow! I have been in many countries, and I want to say that in Tainan are the best, I never felt this warm in any other place, I felt like home, or maybe better. All the kids knew my name, and in the morning when I arrived to the church, or when they saw me in the street, they shouted “Hey! George!” (my name in english), and that feels good !! I had a good connection with these children, and felt myself like the oldest brother, because we played, had meals, surfed online, biked together. So at the end was hard to say goodbye.

My farewell was exciting. A night before leaving Tainan, I received many presents from children with Chinese letters that some of them I still don´t understand, but I know the content has the best wishes for me. We went to play in the park for the last time, I walked on dark streets, I ate the last grape ice cream I like so much ... Now in Mexico I see pictures from Tainan with people who I appreciate, and I say:  I would like to be there… thanks Tainan!

Jorge Luis Rodríguez Granados   (México Octubre 2011)