December 2013, Yeosu

Interesting:
Crossing the road here is ... challenging.  Of course there are pedestrian "walk" and "don't walk" signals.  However cars can drive through (or at least they do drive through) if there is a break in pedestrians ... as long as they don't break the pedestrians!  The Zebra crossing give you no priority.  It was explained to us that in the "Soap TV" programs this is the common way they kill off characters that are no longer needed.  The Soap star tries to cross without looking and  ......... out of the series - dead!
You may know that every able-bodied Korean male must spend 2 years in military training.  A friend told us that her brother had been promoted.  He is now allowed to turn on the TV and change channels.

Won15000 = $15 a bag

 Food note:  Oyster season is here.


 We sometimes go to an oyster restaurant. It's basic furniture and only serves oysters.
There is oyster porridge after all the oysters are finished.

The basics that come with oysters are :

• an oyster knife, chop sticks and a spoon
• a glove
• chilli sauce
• Kim chi (2 types)
• a small plate of raw oysters to eat while the oysters steam open.

Cultural:

North Korea: Last year there was a fire in a building in the capital Pyeongyang.  Some small children were trapped on the 4th floor.  They cried out to their father, in the street, to save them.  He rushed into the burning building and rescued not his children but the pictures of their leader Kim Jong Il.  The children died.  He was praised as a hero.

Restaurants:  Here it is common to firstly decide what you want to eat, e.g. noodles, chicken, raw fish, dog etc..  Then you decide which restaurant you will go to, as many of the restaurants are quite small and each one specialises in a particular type of food.  The menu is often on the wall with only the 5/6 dishes that are sold in that restaurant.  To eat a simple meal of noodles, dumplings or even a rice dish is the same price or less than a cup of coffee.  The average price of coffee is about $3.80 a cup.

Christmas lights - but no Santa or Baby Jesus?

Us : We are well.  We try to go to the gym (one month cost $10) and walk a lot.  We have caught up with friends in nearby cities and visited some interesting places.  We visited a bamboo forest and the memorial to an 1980 massacre of 200 civilians by the South Korean army. Sobering to think about such a thing happening in a democracy.
We thank you for your prayers and thoughts.
The students inspire us.  They work so hard - in fact it is difficult to get them to stop and relax.
They are going to the corners of the world. Their courage and passion is beyond measure.  We are blessed to serve them,
Christmas lights are here and enjoyed by all. 
Fortunately there is no snow!

Weekends are the time we walk in the countryside.  We have again started to catch buses, basically at random, and start walking.

Peace and Grace
R & A

Coastal scenery is very beautiful.  Usually as one looks out to sea there are large areas of fish farming, oysters, shell fish, small fish and prawns, sea weed, etc.

Korea 2013 On the Road Again November, 2013

Down Town Yeosu. Admiral Yi

Back again in Korea.
We travelled via Singapore and Taiwan.  We hadn't seen the friends in Singapore for 7 years and the friend in Taiwan (Taipei) for 16 years - she is now married and has two very polite sons.  The boys leave for school at 7.30am and return after 'cram school' some time after 9.30pm. It was so good to see them.  Friends are such a blessing.

So the stops in both these places were great.  The hospitality and food wonderful but as usual some interesting things.  Listerine Mouth Wash, flavour  - Green tea.  Of course here icecream comes in Green tea flavour, as does bread, but mouth wash?  Peppermint mouth wash will never sound interesting again.
 How about double shot, skinny soy, latte mouth wash? or G & T mouth wash? or single Malt whiskey mouth wash!  With good marketing it could be a BIG winner.

Pedestrian crossings ....... in Singapore, if you have
 a pensioners' card, you can place it against the
button at the crossing and you get longer to cross!!
 In Taiwan the green man who appears indicating
 you can cross actually walks, and for the last 8 seconds
he starts running!! Wow.

CULTURE
I have never been a great fan of  traditional dance.  Here, in Korea, I have become interested in some of the dances.  One particular dance is ganggangsuille - a woman's dance.  I attach a site where you can see it.  I think it's very beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgmT6WHqac0 

US
We are well and settling in again.  Everything seems familiar except the cold.  So far 2C has been the lowest.

 Kim chi fermenting in the fridge and forcing the lid open!

Kim chi, the fermented cabbage mixed with chilli, is back on the menu. Sometimes it even ferments in the Kim Chi fridge!  It tasted great.

This week the church organised that the ladies make kim chi.  In the West our church ladies make cakes, here it's kimchi.  So they bought 1070 cabbages and went to work.  That's a lot of kimchi.
I was talking to a friend who told me that as a boy kim chi was the staple diet of Winter,  mid November to the end of March.  For a family of two parents and 4 children they would make kim chi using perhaps 300 cabbages !!!!

The students are wonderful and we are very happy with their diligence.

 If you would, we would appreciate your prayers for safety and energy.

Peace and Grace,
Robin and Aileen

Friday night snacks

 We have started going for "snacks" from street vendors on Friday nights.  We may lose interest as it gets colder! But as you can see, inside the street vendor's "tent" there is plenty of steam - and spicy food.

Eunpha church choir.

Tom and Grace in Taipei

Mel and Dan in Singapore

Singapore friends.
Teo and Jennifer
Kids: Left to right are - Siew Min, Teng Chang,
Teng Sean and Jasmine (4 years) +  the helper

Solomon Islands July - August 2013

SOLOMON ISLANDS

We are home after five weeks in the village of Nafinua,  Solomon Islands.
 

Six years ago we were at the same place, teaching English for ten weeks.  This time another couple from our church, plus the Korean girl who has been living with us for almost a year, came with us to help with the teaching for the first two weeks.  Six years ago we lived in a house in the local village with 7 other people – no bathroom or flushing toilet, no electricity or running water and we had to walk 20 minutes up to the Bible College to teach each day.  This time we found things easier, as there was a visitors' house with two bathrooms and toilets (cold water only) and tank water piped into the kitchen – real luxury.  We christened it the Nafinua Hilton. 

The Hilton is on the right.

 It was also much more convenient, as it was built in the Bible School complex, with only a couple of minutes’ walk each day.

Inside the Hilton.

As this is a second world rural area, second hand clothing (apart from “home-made” school uniforms) is chosen for price, availability, size and perhaps colour.  Brand names, logos or printed messages are immaterial.  This leads to unusual combinations between the wearer and the message......

            A young woman, who has probably never left the island, wears a T-shirt proclaiming proudly “I still call Australia home”.

            A young boy who has certainly never ridden in a car with a T-shirt that gives excuses to the motor-cycle policeman writing a speeding ticket (eg, ‘I was rushing to buy you donuts’)

            In church:

            An angelic 8 year old singing choruses and emphatically stating on her T-shirt  -

                      “Bad Attitude”

            An 11 year old girl announcing on her T-shirt  

                     “My next husband is going to be normal”

            An old lady who could barely walk and only spoke the local language, haranguing the men in the congregation about how bad their treatment of women was before Christianity was introduced to the Solomon Islands – her bright pink T-shirt said 

                    “Boys are stupid – throw rocks at them”.

CULTURAL

In the 21^st century, in the mountain areas, there are still so-called “heathen people”.  These are small tribal groups who basically live a primitive, almost stone-age lifestyle.  They have few, if any, clothes, no modern plates or cutlery.  They hunt with spears, bow and arrow and slings.  They come out of the jungle to trade live pigs for basics such as machetes.  They are being contacted by local church groups, which often involves a day’s walk to reach them.

There are also the “hidden people”.  They are very small, with a lighter skin and different facial features.  They probably don’t wear clothes in the villages, but wear very ragged clothing to come down to trade.  The Christians in the churches have very little themselves, but are asked to contribute clothing, kerosene lamps, eating utensils, etc. 

One of the students we were teaching in the Bible School was Joshua (one of the "heathen") – his ‘tribe’ had been contacted and his father asked if  his son could be taught to read and write, so he was accepted as a student.  He is probably late 20's? He appeared to be enjoying the experience.  The other students looked after him and helped him.  He sat in on all the classes and even though he could understand little, he tried to participate.  We think that we were the first white people he had had any close contact with – he was probably more amazed by not only meeting us, but also meeting our Korean girl.

Bible Students

As last time, it was an amazing experience.  These people who have so little are friendly, happy and generous.  

 

Robin's class.

 It makes us realise just how decadent our lives can be.  The students in the Bible School have no breakfast (finances don’t stretch to such a luxury), they eat plain boiled rice for lunch and plain boiled sweet potato for dinner, with occasionally some cabbage from their gardens.  One student, whose grandmother had died, had to walk home to his village for a period of mourning.  He left about 10.00am.  Aileen asked her class, “How far is his village?”  “A long way.”  “How long will he have to walk?”  “Mmmm, he will probably reach his village about 9.00 tonight.”

Coming home from church.

US

We are well and were fine when away. 

We ate simple food and walked a bit.
Traveled by boat, truck and outboard.

A 6 hour boat trip and Robin trying to sleep.

The roads were  ............ interesting!






We may return.  That is in God's hand.
If you would like to see where we were - "Google Earth" and search " Nafinua, Solomon Islands"

We will be returning to South Korea on November 9 for 10+ weeks. So some further blogs.  Winter ....... great.

We hope and pray you are all well.

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

Aileen with a friend Rose at the market.