an extraordinary moment of connection

I’m in Tokyo right now at the guest house of Meiji-Gakuin University. It’s just me and Roy now. Everyone else has gone back to Canada.

On Friday， I went to a meeting of Taiwanese Aboriginal peoples at the alumni building of National Taiwan University with Garry Gottfriedson. They were gathering to discuss the pros, cons and uses of tourism in keeping their communities healthy and running. Ken Chih You presented Garry with a knife. In his tribe, this is what one man gives to another to create a bond of brotherhood. The aboriginal people we met were thrilled to bits to meet Garry, as he was to meet them. This meeting was a real watershed moment for Garry– he’d been actively seeking discussion with Taiwanese aboriginals for the whole length of the trip. As for me, it was a honour to witness the extraordinary moment of connection. We were well taken care of by Cheryl Robbins, a reporter on aboriginal issues for an English paper called Taiwan News.