January 2014 - Yeosu, South Korea

INTERESTING: On Sundays we go to the Korean Service (translated into English) and the English service.  There is lunch in between.
At the Korean service the Senior pastor told the story of a Korean who went to heaven.  When he got there there was a sign, "Under construction".  He was shocked. He asked the angel at the gate, " What does this mean?"
  The angel replied,  " It's because of the  Koreans.  So many of them have cosmetic surgery that we have to build special medical centres to find out who's who."

Korea - land of the morning calm.

CULTURAL: You may know that the Korean War was from 1950 - 1953.

A stream in Central Seoul post Korean war, 1960.

The country was devastated after the Second World War and then the Korean war.
Seoul city was invaded 3 times during the Korean war.

Military coups, corrupt Presidents, civil protests, arrests and even killing their own civilians continued into the 1980s. 

The same stream in Central Seoul 2010

 Poverty was everywhere.  Post 1980+ things began to improve with true democratic elections and honest government.  The contrast is seen in the two photos of the same stream in Central Seoul.

However the 80's were still very difficult for some people.  One of our students is a Pastor in a missionary church in Japan (the old enemy). He told us a story of his childhood.
They were very poor and lived in small house in a depressed part of the country.  They had very little money and very little food. As a young boy he and his brothers begged his parents and eventually prayed for meat to eat.

One day 4 small sparrow like birds flew into the house.  The Father and the boys shouted and quickly closed all the windows.
They ate meat.

US
Lots of staff and students have been sick.  Many of the students are extremely tired after 5 months of immersion English.  We have been fine. Our classes are interesting and varied and weekends we get away on the local bus system and see the surrounding countryside.  As always the bus drivers seem worried as the trip continues and the passengers gradually alight until only we are left.  They arrive at the end of the line and two old people are sitting, smiling in the seats at the back.

 I get up and ask in terrible Korean, " Going back?"  ..... silence?  " How long 10 minutes?"

Our normal limo.

By now he realises that we are not part of the film crew for a new movie about bus hijacking.  He then shows us the time table and we hop off, take some photos and then get back on.  Usually they don't allow us to pay again so we give the driver a small Australian key ring. 
Back at the depot,
"Hey, Yongshin. Let me tell you about the weird Westerners on my bus today ......."
"I know, I know they are old and gave you a key ring, right??"
"How did you know? "
At this point all the other bus drivers hold up key rings they have got!

Aileen thought he was Psy "Gangnam Style"

From the students we hear amazing stories of things that have happened to them that are miraculous.  One of the teachers has worked in India and told a story of an amazing series of events.
 She started by saying, " I think that I met an angel in India .......... "
A long story, but basically at a critical moment a man appeared, solved the problem and then she turned around and he had ... disappeared!

We are blessed to be here.  The sad part, as I say every year, is that we fall in love with many people and then we all go off to different parts of the world.    

We are also encouraged by the attitude of these missionaries of Korea.  They are so positive but like us all have doubts and concerns, yet they go forward in faith.

We are now in the final weeks.  We arrive home on January 28.  Our Australian friends will see us soon.  This will be our last blog.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

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.

The Last Blog for 2012

Food story 

There are a many coffee shops and patisseries here - chains such as "Paris Baguette", "Tous les Jours" and Starbucks. Coffee prices are generally similar to Australia.  The hot drinks include sweet potato latte and green tea latte.  Green tea cake is also popular. The yellow sweet potato cake in the photo has thin slices of deep fried sweet potato as decoration.  Recently someone had a birthday cake to share at lunch-time.  It was covered thickly in cream and decorated with fruit.  Aileen decided to choose the piece with a big cherry on top.  The following conversation took place...
Aileen: " Oh, I thought that was a cherry but it was a tomato!'  Students: "Yes?"  Aileen: " But it's a tomato on a cream cake!"  Students: "Yes?"  Aileen: "But why is there a tomato on a cream cake? " Students (very puzzled): " It's a fruit."

Brilliant red with tomatoes and other fruit.

All I want for Christmas is...

 SPAM did not go away after WW II. It is available in the shops here and you can buy a gift pack of 12! Cost is approx. 30AUD.
Monty Python's SPAM song comes to mind.
SURVEY
In our small corner of Yeosu (population 300,000+) there is a main street.  In half of the street I counted 110 shops.  20 are mobile phone shops!
HISTORY

EXPO 2012 Site, YEOS

 World EXPO 2012 starts here on May 12th.  The city has a population of about 300,000 and they are expecting 10,000,000 visitors over the three months.  All public transport will be free during EXPO.  We have tickets for the opening weekend - we may never leave there alive!!!

The EXPO site.

We have blogged a lot about food - you've noticed?? Well here is a little on traditional dances.  One is a ladies dance originally under a full moon.  It's called Ganggang sullae. Look at the website.
 http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=G16A94hWrvk

The second is the farmers' dance.  It is strange that the cacophony of sound has become quite pleasant to our ears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tae4Zv6cDJM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztGeP1wCSiE
US
We leave on May 15th for a week in Seoul and then home, arriving the 24th.  It has as always been a wonderful and inspirational experience. We meet and become friends with many people whose faith and commitment are a gift and challenge to us.
We would appreciate your prayers for safe travel and our family in Australia who we are looking forward to seeing again.
To all of you who have been following this blog - thanks.  We hope it has been interesting and perhaps inspired you to plan a similar involvement somewhere in the world.  Please keep in contact and visit us when you can.

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

Farmer's dance Traditional Folk village

April 14, 2012 Robin and Aileen, Korea

True story:

It is local (Mayor and council) election time here in South Korea.  Just a wee bit different!

Local parties have names but they are also given numbers.  This is done to help the old understand who they want to vote for. So there are numbers 1 to 9. Some of these cards have Braille to help the sight-impaired.
Electioneering is done by flooding the area with ladies who are dressed in jacket, caps, gloves, shoes all adorned with the party number.  They bow low to everyone who walks or drives past.  They then proceed to give out cards with the member's photo and some brief details. There are also trucks. These are covered with posters and have loud speaker systems. The trucks blast (correct word) us with music preceding the short speeches.  Music is a campaign slogan to well-known tunes. These tunes include " Jesu Joy of Man's Desire", "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer"' and "Mary had a little Lamb" !!!!

While this doubtful music is assailing your ears, the ladies all line up and do dances to the music. Usually on a major road. If only the Australian Labor party knew about this method of campaigning they might have a "song of a chance" next election.
Korean Culture/history 
We are so impressed by the Korean people.  We have found them friendly, happy and polite.  It is a great joy to be here.  In many ways they are like Australians.  Like us they have a healthy distrust of politicians. Since the Korean war (cease fire 27/7/53) they have had 11 presidents. The history of these early Presidents is somewhat bleak. One was overthrown by a military coup, one assassinated  by his head of security, two imprisoned for corruption.  The prison terms they received were long - 17 and 22 years - but they were later pardoned.   Another was accused of bribery and committed suicide.  They are a people who rely on and trust their "group" be it home town, university or high school.

Us

We had a school outing, but it rained all day!

We continue to be involved in Sunday School and our EXPO English class.  There is the normal Korean church and an English language service so Sundays are busy.  We try to see as much as we can and usually go out for long walks during our couple of hours of free time in the afternoon, and try to go out somewhere sightseeing on Saturdays.  Some of our students are separated from their families (wife and children) and travel home Friday night (4-5 hours) and back on Sunday night.  Others struggle with where they are headed and where God would lead them.  Living in community with them and sharing meals means that we start to feel that they are like our children. 

Spring has arrived and last Saturday we were out walking (and climbing) for 3 hours in the wild flowers.  Wonderful.


Greetings to you all.  Our prayers are with you.

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

Our walk to Youngchi Mountain to the wild flowers.  Absolutely stunning.

Hundreds of people hike up to see this display that lasts about 2 weeks.

April 1, 2012 Robin and Aileen, Korea

True story:
I was in the MTI office and one of the office staff gave me the small plastic package in the photo.

It contains concentrated apple juice from her father's farm.
"Does your father have a large apple orchard?"
" No.  It is not big just average."
"So does he do this with all his apples?  Is it a big operation?"
"No.  Many farmers do this in a small production for local people.  We do it a lot."
" Wow. Good idea."
"Yes we do it with apples, peaches, strawberries, onions......"
"Onions?"
"Yes it is very popular. We boil it until the ingredients are soft and concentrated.  We drink it for our health."
"Onions?"
" Sure.  Also dog, goat, black goat and ....."
"Okay. I guess you are correct. It must be very healthy"
"We use black goat as a drink after birth.  It's very expensive and tastes terrible but...."

Actually I have seen zero black goats but quite a few dogs in Korea so I guess "goat drink" is more popular than dog.

Korean Culture/history
Each day in class, as a speaking activity, one person talks about culture in Korea or some other place.
One of my students spoke of "high school culture" The final year of High School is VERY important as the results determines the university you will enter.  In brief she went to school at 7.30am and had classes till lunch.

After lunch more classes and then dinner at about 5.30pm plus 20 minutes cleaning the school.
After dinner more self-study classes and then school finished about 9.30pm.  She then attended a private "academy" arriving home at 12.30 am.

This is 6 days a week and usually Sunday as well.  Because she is a Christian she was allowed to miss Sunday lessons.   After the results of the final year are announced there are always a number of students suicideing.

She says that Uni can be described in one word, "booze".  Academically it's easy.  Everybody passes.  It seems that many pass out as well - regularly.

US

We have been busy with our classes that start at 8.30 am and finish at 9.00pm.  We have a couple of hours break in the afternoons, so it is a long day but not too bad.  The students are inspiring, their devotion and commitment encourage us to work our faith out each day.

Our Sunday School has quietened down somewhat.  We have about 70- 80 kids from grade 1 to 6.  It is meant to be in English, but many things have to be translated.  We have a lot of young people helping, which is great.   Aileen tells the story (with lots of actions and visual aids) and we organise games and activities.  The biggest problem is trying to fill in an hour plus with activities suitable for children with limited English understanding and with such a wide age range.

Our "English for EXPO" classes have started and meets on Friday nights.  You may recall in our last blog we told you we had 1 sign up.  The first night we had 18 starters with 7 apologies.  The second Friday we had 19 with 5 new people and it had been raining "cats and dogs" all day.  We also had CBS (Christian) Television turn up.  This venture has one primary object of out-reach into the community.  We do have quite a few church members but also people from the district.  We hope to expand each week.

Please remember us in your prayers.  Things go well and we are well.  Two teachers have not been so well and some students are a little ill. One of Aileen's students was a beginner and finding it difficult.  He went to the hospital with a cold.  The doctor gave him some medicine and wanted him to leave.  He refused as he felt he "needed time" in hospital. Five days later he is still there!

Every night there is a half hour " One to one".  Here individual students meet with a teacher in private.  They discuss many things including their concerns and worries.  Sometimes, it can be quite intense and we need some wisdom. 

We think of you all often.

Tea, tea and more tea made from a wide variety of vegetables, flowers and fruits

Peace and Grace
Robin and Aileen

Spicy "Kim Chi"

FOOD

These two strangers kindly shared their raw fish with us.