Ordinarily, it is not common at Shui-li township train station in Nantou County to see children giggling, playing and dancing and learning English.
But that is what could be found there as a summer camp for children affected by Tropical Storm Mindulle kicked off last week.
"Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes," sings 22-year-old Benjamin Jacobs, an American working at the King Car Education Foundation's English Schwietzer program.
PHOTO: CAROLINE HUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He sings and acts out the song patiently, exaggerating his movements for the children. The popular children's song is one of many activities of the English educational aspect of the foundation's Mindulle Relief Camp in Nantou County. The camp has been set up for children whose villages were devastated by Tropical Storm Mindulle early this month.
The camp is the foundation's attempt to keep children occupied while their parents ponder the damage and financial costs caused by the storm.
"I believe that recreational education is just as important as normal education," foundation general director Morgan Sun (孫慶國) said on the ride down to Nantou last Wednesday, adding that he feels parents in Taiwan place too much focus on testing, leaving children little time to enjoy themselves.
Under Sun, who has a background in recreational education, much of the foundation's work during its 20-plus years has focused on summer and winter camps for children and educational programming events such as the Schwietzer English program, which imports dedicated young teachers from the US to teach English in remote areas of the country.
The rescue camp is an extension of the camps the foundation normally runs each summer. The foundation had originally planned to hold a camp in Nantou County in August. But after the devastation brought by Tropical Storm Mindulle to Taichung and Nantou counties, the foundation decided to move its August camp foreward on the schedule and relocate near the disaster areas.
"When we learned of the disaster, we immediately went to Nantou and got in touch with the educational authorities," Sun said.
"Because we have good relations with the education boards in those counties, we were able to get the camp together, budgeted, and planned within a week," he added.
The camp, which is entirely funded by the foundation, aims to let parents busy with damage assessment and repair be free of the added burden of their children.
The camp is also free of charge for these people, Sun said. Many children have been stuck at home because summer camps or classes have been canceled due to the damage or because parents can no longer cover the costs.
The camp will run for six weeks at various schools throughout the disaster region, with the first week of the day camp being held in Nantou County and the second in elementary schools in the Ali-shan area in Chiayi and Taichung counties.
One such school that is benefiting from the foundation's camp is Ji Ji township's Hoping Elementary School in Nantou County.
The school suffered an estimated NT$3 million in damages from the storm.
"After the storm passed, I came back to the school and found that it was flooded with water 80cm deep," Hoping principal Chen Chien-chih (陳建志) said.
"We lost everything in our first floor computer room, and a lot of equipment and books were ruined, in addition to structural damage to the school buildings," Chen said.
Despite the happy chatter of the children at the camp, it became clear that Tropical Storm Mindulle has left a permanent mark on these remote communities.
Wang Yu-chieh (王雨婕), a fifth grader at Cheng-cheng Elementary School in Shui-li township in Nantou County, said that her family received a scare when her father's car was trapped by mudslides.
"My dad was driving to my grandmother's house to save sugarcane we had stored there from the rain. My mom had a bad feeling and didn't want him to go, but my grandmother insisted. When he was driving, my father heard really loud noises and saw a mudslide had just blocked the road in front of him and right in back of him," Wang said.
Luckily, her father was able to climb over the rocks and get home, although he had to abandon his car.
Camp teachers said that they are sensitive to the psychological impact the storm has had on the children.
"We try to focus on having fun with the kids, but we realize that a lot of the kids don't necessarily want to have fun because they've been through a lot of trauma, so we just try to hang out with them more," Jacobs said.
Jacobs is one of four Schwietzer foreign teachers volunteering at Cheng-cheng Elementary School.
Camp classes are conducted by both local and international volunteers and focus on English education, environmental awareness and personal development.
Aside from the Schwietzer teachers -- most of whom will remain in Taiwan teaching at local elementary schools in Chinmen Hualien and Nantou counties until next year -- classes are taught by local people and foreigners alike.
Ruby Hsu (許曉茹), a 21-year old American-born Taiwanese attending the University of Connecticut, is just one of the many people who volunteered their time to the camp.
"This has been a really great experience, to get to learn about my parents' culture and give back to my country," Hsu said, emphasizing that she considers Taiwan her native country, although her Chinese speaking ability is limited.
And what do the children think of their teachers?
"I like Jeremy the best!" said one little boy about a Schwietzer teacher at Hoping.
When asked why, he replied, "Because he's the most handsome, of course."
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