By: Bro. Bernard Collera, SVD Seminarian

Celebrate and Dance
I am an SVD Seminarian in Taiwan, but as a baptized Catholic, I am a missionary too, though I am still in formation my stay here in Taiwan is indeed a missionary experience. Taiwan has 200 million more people, and only 3% of these are Christian, half of these 3% are Catholics the rest are Protestants. I am fortunate to have lived with native Catholics here during my regency in Tefuyeh where our Divine Word Missionaries (SVD) are actively committed to the evangelization of the Tsou tribe. I enjoyed that short period, and was able to enter rather smoothly and happily as evidenced by my dancing with them during times of celebration. Indeed life is worth celebrating (despite the world class catastrophes we’ve been having these years) with a smile.

Filipinos: Fast Learners
My regency followed two years of Chinese (Mandarin) studies in the university’s language center where we Filipinos are noted to be fast and happy learners of the language, making it a plus for easy insertion into culture.

Inspite of Poverty
Fortunately, or unfortunately again, no Chinese would immediately think I am a Filipino. They often tell me I am either a Malaysian or Thai or Indonesian or Singaporean or Hongkong-ese or Cantonese due to many Chinese accent. (I am happy for this latter one). There is a certain pain when the fun