Taiwan Swallow after the storm (Hirundo tahitica)

It is at the darkest of times that very often we see humanity at its best and it has indeed been true this past week. A big thank you to the members of BF for all the PMs and e-mails to check we were OK.

There is very much a spirit of collective national grief in Taiwan. There is a huge amount of anger directed at the powers that be up in Taipei who just haven't measured up. However, in the darkest of times the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and the pulling together of ordinary people moves things forward and shines as an example of humanity at its best.

The pair of Pacific Swallows that would always sit outside my study window seemed to have disappeared after the typhoon but on Thursday they were back. Swallows mean good luck and hope here and this little one sitting in the sun after the storms just seemed to be a symbol of hope and filled me with joy on its return. The sun meant that rescue helicopters were flying. At times we can hear them in the mountains above our village. We came through OK but many areas not far from us were badly damaged.

My wife recently took up a teaching post in a remote aboriginal mountain school in the Alishan area. It's summer vacation so she's home but there are seven students from the school amongst those from the area that haven't been accounted for. Rescuers only reached the area late yesterday afternoon so it is understandable that many families just haven't been located yet and it isn't necessarily an indication that something has happened to them. So like the return of the pair of swallows to our house we are hoping and praying that all students will be back at school on the 31st (They will be combining with a school at the bottom of the Alishan mountains for a few months until roads are repaired and cleared and they can return to their school up in the mountains which they have heard is OK and the village where it is seems to have suffered only minor damage.).

Many folks have expressed surprise at the difficulties in getting to mountain villages in Taiwan. Taiwan is a very mountainous island and has the highest mountains in East Asia. Over 200 peaks are higher than 3000m with the highest peak just a few metres shy of 4000m. The mountains are extremely steep and so villages in the mountains can be extremely hard to get to especially when the clouds roll in blanketing everything in mist.