Trip South ~ Family Time Part One

1. Tuesday was Tomb Sweeping Day, we drove down to Ding Zhou on Wednesday. It takes three hours to get to the place where Steve's mum comes from. We came down to clean up Baba's tomb and to make steps to have his ashes moved to a different place, to Bai He - the place of his and Steve's birth. I say we, though the girls and I don't get involved in the details or activity. Tilly got the flu the day before and was a bit out of it yesterday. The weather was lovely and those there met Evie for the first time. Bai He is pronouced Buy her, but don't be fooled by my spelling of the pronunciation. It's a pretty little town and the name means White River. It is the famous hometown of the lotus flower. The trip we took between Ding Zhou and Bai He (about half an hour) was lovely. Green and lush. beautiful schools, old traditional style housing.
2. Steve's uncle, his mother's eldest brother, making us tea. He rode in on his scooter just after we arrived and came straight in and put on a 'cuppa'. He's a lovely man.
3. Steve's older sisters and Evie. Evie was really lapping it up. In all the 'ki li ka la' of the Taiwanese language being thrown around, she was not fazed by it one bit. She almost looked at them like she knew what it was all about.
4. Steve's second sister Pei Qi, don't get to see her much. She's a doll.
5. Mum, her first real chance to be with Evie. Mum lives here in the South and we don't travel much down here. Though she did come up to see her after she was born.
6. Mum's brothers run a cherry tomato farm. Yum, considering they are well expensive in Taiwan, we are lucky to always have a big bag to bring home.
7. Ding Zhou, Mum's hometown. It's small and most Taiwanese here in Taipei that I tell about it don't even know it. (But that's coz they're just city slickers......)
8. Big Sis getting geared up to clean up Dad's tomb.
9. Need a broom for the sweeping?
10. How about this one? Any better? If you've never been to Taiwan and you have no idea about it, you would never believe the way things are done here. Convenience is ultra and in the extreme. This woman and her husband came back and forth a good five minutes with tomb sweeping goods to show my sis in laws, just for them to spend a couple of bucks on a broom and a sickle shaped knife to cut the grass. And that's ok, because that's how it's done here, and life rolls by smoothly.
11. Bai He, the place Dad's ashes will be moved to. This is a funeral hall as such. This picture is outside the funeral hall, I asked them what it was but didn't get a clear answer as they didn't really know either. Ha. All these things I view from the car with the girls. Steve's family are incredibly gracious about not expecting us to participate, on any level. I am supposed to as he is the 'eldest son' (even though his sisters are older) and therefore the head of the family. My responsibilities would be great indeed. Yet, I have none and they accept that. That might sound strange, though this whole thing is steeped in centuries old, confusing tradition and being an outsider so to speak and a Christian, they do not ask me or the girls to do any of those things.