Friday, December 30, 2011

Ahn Neyong Ha Seyo (Hello) from So. Korea…

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your New Year’s Eve will be memorable.  If you are one of my former students or a teacher, I hope you are being very laid back and relishing every single minute you have before school starts again in January.  If you’re a skier, take a few runs for me.  If you are a reader, make it through a book for me (I’ve only had three books to read since I left – they’ve been pretty hard to find!).  If you are sitting by a warm, cozy fire watching a great video, take in some warmth for me.  If you are catching up on some long over-due projects, let me know when you are finished… I’ll give you some of mine (smile).  If you are enjoying a simple nap here and there, I’m actually joining you here whenever I get on the metro.  If you are just plain enjoying the holidays with all its festivities, food, family, and friends, ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!

My Christmas Eve turned out even better than I expected.  The kids surprised me and were able to find most of the ingredients for shrimp cocktail, so I showed Tayler how to make cocktail sauce.  He improvised with a few other ingredients to make up for what we didn’t have, and it turned out quite nicely.  The clam chowder was good, too.  So in case you can’t find half and half in the future, just know that half whipping cream (unwhipped, of course) and half milk will work in a pinch.

                       Shrimp cocktail before our clam chowder.

After dinner, we did all our usual things including opening pj’s for everyone (even a surprise pair for me), and opening a new Christmas book which we read together.  The kids found some kind of crackling fireplace thing on YouTube, so they ran their computer through the TV and we had a fireplace below our stockings.  Too bad it didn’t include heat, but otherwise, it was great.  We watched both Tayler and Meghan’s favorite Christmas videos and listened to the Christmas story from the computer.  It was a fun night.

Christmas Day, we had to leave for church by 8:30 AM in order to be there by 10:00, so presents went on the back burner until we got home at 5:15 PM.  We also went to the Ritz Carlton for their Christmas Brunch… very expensive, but soooo worth it.  It’s the closest thing I’ve eaten to American food since I left America, and every single thing I ate was delicious!  We were eating for 2 full hours!  We spent one hour at church, two hours eating, and the rest of the time was spent on taxis, metros, and walking.  5 hrs. and 45 mins. to be exact.  What I wouldn’t have given for my own warm car to get us where we wanted to go!  We opened presents when we got home and settled into a good movie.

 One of the floors in the Ritz Carlton Hotel.  This is the entrance to the restaurant.

                           Some of our Christmas presents.

It finally warmed up enough on Tuesday, so Tayler and I went into Seoul to see a Buddist Temple and to do a little shopping.  We went inside the temple and people were kneeling on little pads and praying everywhere with something that looked kind of like rosary beads.  It was really interesting and very beautiful inside.  Nobody seemed to mind that we were there, but I felt a little like we were intruding.  I took an “undercover picture” from my hip – just pointed my phone in the right direction and clicked.  I was surprised that it turned out as well as it did.

 Street vendors by Nomdamoon (where we went shopping).  These are hot dogs (I think) rolled up in I have no idea what and deep fried.

These vendors are everywhere.  They have all kinds of non-descript foods.  Some smelled good, but there's no way I would have eaten any of them.

Wednesday, we went with Miss Hong and Mr. Jong again for lunch.  This time we had gamjatang (Korean potato soup).   Honestly, it didn’t seem that different from the shabu shabu that we had the other night, but I know they are totally different foods.   It all tastes “Korean” to me – surprise, surprise.

I thought I was going to be in a first world country here, but honestly, there are certain aspects that aren’t much different than the other places I’ve been.  Bathrooms in public places are an improvement over what I’ve been encountering in Kenya, So. Africa, and India, but they are still a far cry from American bathrooms.  I’ve learned (the hard way) that you have to check to see WHERE the toilet paper is BEFORE you enter the stalls – sometimes it’s inside the stall, and sometimes it’s on a roll by the door as you walk into the bathroom. 

Koreans seem pushy like many Indians we came upon especially when it comes to standing in lines for things.  They just push ahead like they are the only people there.  They don’t seem to be the friendliest bunch, either, but Tayler thinks they are very anxious to please others.  They rarely seem to smile.  It’s still hard to find a variety of foods that Americans like, but the Lotte Mart here does seem to have a lot more food than anywhere else I’ve been.  The kids go to an international market or Costco in Seoul if they want to find a few of the foods they are used to buying at home.  I have found it interesting that you have to check your bags before you can go into a store in Kenya (a little), So. Africa (some), India, and here.  I guess they don’t trust people.  The stores also close down much earlier than at home.

We’ve basically been without hot water since Christmas Eve when a boiler pipe burst out of the clear blue sky over the washing machine.  Last night, someone called here (after 3 guys spent 2 hours working on the water - we're now up to five different visits and 11 guys TRYING to make it work - to no avail!) and told Meghan they couldn't fix the water and we were going to have to MOVE to another apartment.  She was pretty assertive with them and basically said that wasn't an option.  She and Tayler are the only teachers who LIVE here.  The students could just pack up their suitcases and go, but it wouldn't be that easy for them.  Later, a member of the faculty dropped by and said we could stay here.  Another guy came over around 9:00 PM and did something to the water, so now we're supposed to have hot water from 11:00PM until 8:30 AM (that's generous of them, isn't it?).  So the kids both still had to go upstairs to the other apartment around 9:30 to shower last night. 

I'm glad I only have to live with this arrangement for one more day.  Thursday afternoon, I was upstairs in the apartment we were told to shower in because it has hot water.  Luckily, I had locked the front door and closed and locked the bathroom door (that is actually a first for me because I figured no one lived there, so no one would venture clear up to the fourth floor to come barging in on me).  WHILE I was in the shower, I thought I heard voices in the living room.  I thought maybe some workmen had come in to do something.  I finished my shower, threw a cover-up on, wrapped the towel around my wet hair, and walked out of the bathroom - only to discover a man and two high school or college-aged girls in the apartment.  We all looked startled.  There are a few things still in the apartment, so it looks like someone MIGHT live there, but not really.  I tried my best to explain in English why I was there, apologized, and quickly left the apartment.  I'm not sure they understood a word I said or who was more embarrassed.  At least I didn't walk out in just a towel!  Just another "fun" adventure, I suppose.

Last night, we celebrated Tayler’s birthday (Nov. 20) and Meghan’s birthday (Jan. 1).  I always fix my family member’s favorite meals for their birthday, and Tayler's is corned beef and cabbage.  The cupcakes with the peppermint bark turned out pretty good.  Meghan's mom sent her a little 6-cupcake cooker thing, so I cooked them in that since they don’t have an oven.  It's pretty slick.

Meghan is now getting sick, so tonight just Tayler and I went for Korean BBQ again – this time with Jooin, the kids’ “boss”, and his wife.  He’s also a teacher, but he’s over the international faculty.  Aside from the Ritz Carlton, it was the best dinner I’ve eaten here.

 Jooin and his wife.  They were so sweet, and they even gave me a gorgeous pair of Louis Quatorze black leather gloves!

        Really good Korean Barbeque.

That's it for tonight,

Kadi

Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

I doubt if anyone is going to be reading my blog today because everyone is probably running around trying to do last minute Christmas errands or getting ready to spend time with family.

I'm glad to be here with the kids for Christmas.  It hasn't felt at all like Christmas everywhere else I've been.  There has been little or no evidence of Christmas, and with the warm temperatures, it just didn't feel like the time of year for Christmas to happen.  I was glad to see Tayler and Meghan's apartment door decorated for Christmas, their little 2' foot Charlie Brown Christmas tree with a few presents under it, and stockings hung for the three of us.  It's starting to feel like Christmas now.  The temperatures CERTAINLY make it feel like winter at least.  Thursday night when we went out to dinner, it was 18 degrees, but that didn't include the wind chill factor.  It felt significantly colder than that.   I could hardly function when we were waiting in the metro for the train to go home.   Last night, it actually snowed, so it looks like we will have a white Christmas after all.

 (Tayler loves the Queen of England, Meghan loves Abraham Lincoln.)

 Mr. Jong serving all of us.

Miss Hong adding the beef slices to the shabu shabu.

Diane flew home on Wednesday.  I started getting a runny nose the night before she left, and it’s gotten progressively worse since then.  I am stuffed up, my ear hurts, and I don’t have much of a voice. The good news is that I don't have anything really pressing me like I have every single day since I left home.  The kids have been teaching each day, so I've just been home, anyway.  It's been nice to just STOP and take it easy!  Thursday night when we went to dinner with a couple of other teachers from the high school, it was bitter cold!  I could hardly function when we were waiting in the metro for the train to go home. 

I hope everyone is getting ready to have a wonderful time with their families today.  Christmas is a time for families.  I’m glad I’m with mine.  Tonight, we’re going to do our usual Christmas Eve (within reason under the circumstances of being in Korea).  I’m going to make clam chowder, and we’ll have some yummy bread.  At home, I’d make shrimp cocktail, but I didn’t think we could find all the ingredients here.  I’d have a lot more to the dinner, but this will be good enough.  The clams came all the way from the USA with my nephew, Troy, and I’ve been packing them ever since Kenya.  I’m so excited to finally get to eat them!  We’re going to have to improvise on the half and half – milk and whipping cream – because they don’t have half and half here, either.  Hopefully, it will work.  Then, we’ll read a Christmas story, hopefully also the story of Christ’s birth in the scriptures, then watch Tayler’s favorite Christmas video – “Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase.

The little skiff of snow in front of the high school this morning.

In my travels at this time of year, I’ve come to a conclusion.  I love all the gaiety and decorations, etc. at Christmas time, but perhaps as Americans, we go a bit overboard and forget the true meaning of Christmas – the celebration of Christ’s birth.  I hope that we will all keep HIM in the forefront of our minds and hearts this day and throughout this holiday season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!!

Love,

Kadi

Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011

Getting from Rising Star Outreach to Seoul, So. Korea was an adventure, too.  Diane and I left Rising Star Friday at 2:00 PM, drove over 2 hours back to Chennai, shopped for a short while, flew out of Chennai for Mumbai (Bombay) at 9:10 PM (our flight was delayed for about an hour), flew out of Mumbai for Incheon at 4:10 AM.  I got about 4 hours of sleep total on the planes, but I wasn’t really tired the whole first day in Seoul, which surprised me.

Tayler and Meghan picked us up at the Incheon International Airport.   It was so great to see the kids!  I almost started crying in the airport.  Tayler and Meghan have been so good to us.  They pushed all of our luggage, got a cab, had little booties, mesh sponges and towels laid out for us on our beds when we arrived. 

They had been asking us what special food we'd like them to get for us.  My request was pancakes, so Sunday night we had pancakes (Krustez is the only kind of pancake mix they could find here, which neither Tayler nor I like all that much at home, but HERE, it was WONDERFUL to just have a "normal" all American breakfast) and bacon.  They've really made an effort to make us feel at home, and it's so nice to be in a semi-normal apartment.  We can even drink the water out of the faucet and have hot showers (you DO have to turn the hot water on ahead of time, however, like I did in Kenya and also at Rising Star)!  What more could a person ask for?

The first night we were here, we went out for Chinese food.  That was my first (and last) attempt at kimchi (fermented cabbage with hot chili soy sauce)… hum…   It was freezing cold outside.  Unfortunately, I’ve got very few warm clothes.  I sent a coat, gloves, sweater, and turtleneck to Tayler before I left, and Diane brought my shoes, socks, and another sweater with her. I’m going to get really sick of the two pairs of long pants I have after wearing them for two weeks straight.  My skin is super dry here.  I feel like an old prune.  I’ve gotten used to the warm/hot humid climates I’ve been living in for four months, so this is a real shock to my system.

Sunday, Tayler and I went into Seoul to go to church.  Later, we went to Seoul Tower where you can see 360 degrees around the city.  It was awesome.  You can even see a mountain that is only about 20 miles from North Korea. Seoul has about 10 million, and Seoul/Incheon area has about 15 million people. 

 Squid in all different forms on the side of the walkway up to the Seoul Tower - Yum!

                  Tayler and Me inside Seoul Tower.

A view of Seoul from one of the panoramic windows.  No. Korea is on the other side of these mountains.

It’s a very busy place, but I have to say, it’s 500% cleaner and nicer than anywhere we’ve been since I left the USA.  ALMOST all of the bathrooms we’ve been in here have been clean and have sit-down, flush toilets, toilet paper, soap, and running water to wash with.  I had a hard time believing that the water at the airport really was okay to drink, even though it said it was purified and okay to drink.  I’m not used to drinking water most anywhere anymore unless it’s from a bottle. 

The streets are clean, people are clean and tidy, cars drive fairly normally (comparatively speaking), and everything seems rather orderly.  Cars don’t honk much (but they still do a little), and it seems quieter than most places we’ve been.  Koreans, however, are NOT the friendliest people by a long shot, and the majority don’t seem to speak much English.  I’ve found out that they learn to read and write English in school, but they don’t have conversational English lessons, so they can’t really speak it very well.  They are also probably the rudest (well, they run a tight race with the Indians) when it comes to standing in lines or entering somewhere.  They just push their way forward no matter who is in front of them.  That has gotten to be more than a bit annoying both in India and here.

So. Korea is fairly new, being totally rebuilt after the Korean War ended in 1953. There were very few buildings or landmarks still standing after the war.

Monday, Diane and I went into Seoul and visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the Folk Museum, and Insadong Market.   That was a lot of fun, but it takes a LOT of time to get anywhere.  From here, we took a taxi, two metros, three taxis, three metros, and a taxi to go from here to Seoul and back home again!  We met Tayler and Meghan at the metro to go to a restaurant for Korean BBQ, which was really fun.  They bring the meat strips right to your table and you cook it yourself on a built-in grill on the table.  Then you make little rolled up things with a lettuce leaf, the meat, raw garlic (everyone smells like garlic here!), and a bunch of other things they bring to your table.  I really liked it, but some of the food was too spicy for my stomach, so I passed on that.

           Inside the metro station, looking into where the trains go.

 Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is really a series of buildings as you walk further into the interior of the grounds.

The ceiling inside one of the buildings.  They are all very beautiful.

                    Outside the Folk Museum.

                   Meghan and Tayler at the restaurant.

                 Pork strips, cheese, and little rice sticks.

Dinner at the Korean BBQ and walking back to the metro afterwards.

On the metro on our way home, they had a monitor with news bites.  We discovered that Kim Jon Il, the President of North Korea, had died of a heart attack.  No wonder there were so many military men getting onto the metro earlier in the day!  Things seem fairly normal here still, but the won (their currency) took a dip on Tuesday.  The So. Korean government was slow to respond to send their condolences to No. Korea, but they eventually did.  There is heightened security.

                In the metro decked out in our winter duds.

This monitor says, "N. Korean leader dies at 69 after decades of Iron-fist rule."

Tuesday, Diane and I went to the Seoul, So. Korea Temple.  It took us pretty much the whole day.  It’s a beautiful temple.  It was so nice to finally be able to go to a temple again after all these months!  We ate dinner at Tayler and Meghan’s apartment.  It was one of the best meals I’ve eaten since I left home!  It was more like I normally eat – salmon, baked potato, asparagus, tossed salad.  I was in heaven!

      (We took our coats off for the picture, but it was freezing cold!)

Diane left Wednesday morning for home.  She was very excited to be going home and seeing her family again.  This was a long trip for her.  I was grateful for the time we spent together.  Neither of us would have done some of the things we did together if we hadn’t been together, so she added to my trip for sure.

I started getting a runny nose and sore throat Tuesday night.  That’s the first time I’ve gotten sick since I left home.  Yesterday, I slept almost the whole day.  I was just glad that I didn’t have to go anywhere at all.  The kids are still teaching, so they were gone most of the day, anyway.  It was nice to just “be home” and not have to run off somewhere.  Today has been about the same, but I’m feeling a little bit better.  We are going to dinner tonight with Miss Hong and Mr. Jong, teachers at the Incheon International High School where the kids teach.  It’s been bitter cold (it was 13 degrees farenheit when we arrived), but I’ll bundle up and have a great time.

Hope you are warm and happy wherever you are.

Kadi

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It’s been over a week since my last entry, but I’ve either been too busy or tired at night so I’ve not been able to write until now.  I hope you haven’t given up on me.   Let’s go back to last week, and I’ll take you to the time I left India…

Thursday, December 15, 2011

I spoke to a man at the leper colony who has been working with them since 1964, and he told us that leprosy is caused by a certain bacteria that is transmitted by nasal droplets, skin lesions, and prolonged close contact.  I've read up on it a little bit, and it's also genetic.  95% of the world's population is naturally immune.   India has one of the highest populations of leprosy in the world.  It is treated by a multidrug therapy.  People have to be on it for 2 - 5 years (if I remember what he said) before they can stop taking the drug.  The people we were working with are no longer infectious.  Dr. Susan, the school’s doctor, told me that there are 250,000 – 275,000 new cases each year in the world, and 50% of those are in India.  It’s hard to believe that all they have to do is take an antibiotic and it will stop the progression of their leprosy, but they either don’t have the knowledge of that or the money for it, so they become deformed, lose extremities, hands, feet, and eyesight because of it.  That’s so sad to me!

These are pictures from the leper colony we visited on Monday, Dec. 12:

                     Me oiling a leper's foot.

The five of us volunteers who went to the leper colony on Monday:  Diana, Amy, Diane, Me, Ann.

Last Wednesday, I mostly tutored all day with the kids at the school.  In the evening, we practiced a dance with Ann and Diana, the two volunteers that have been teaching dance to the kids each day.  They were having a final dance rehearsal on Thursday night and wanted us to do sort of a flash mob thing with them to “Celebrate”.   I also went to a few of the houses and read and talked to the kids.  The little ones have to be in bed by 8:00, and the older ones by 9:00.

            Girls I visited in the evening.

                  Me tutoring.

                   

                       A whole school picture.  Diane and I are on the edges (you have to look closely).

Thursday, I wanted to go to the leper colony again, so Diane and I road with the team to a village.  First, we went to an orphanage with special needs children and colored with them for about an hour.  They ranged in age from maybe 4 to around 20, but their mental ages were all about 3 or 4.  It was hard to see the conditions they lived in.  As we drove in, there was a beautiful high school.  I was impressed;   however, we drove around to the back and there was this dingy little building that was poorly lit and run-down.  That’s where we found the orphanage.  The kids were very sweet and so fun to work with, even if they didn’t really understand us.  We were able to give them positive feedback on their coloring and they seemed pleased with themselves.  They, too, were very loving and some even clingy. 

             Coloring with the special needs orphans.

                    The outside of the orphanage behind the beautiful high school in the next picture.

After the orphanage, we drove over to the leper colony to clean and bandage feet again.  It was raining quite hard, so it was hard for the lepers to come out.  We stopped by one woman’s home who hardly had hands and couldn’t walk.  I don’t think she had much of her legs left, either.  I took some gauze and other things into her hut for her.  There were only 3 or 4 lepers that showed up to the actual clinic this time because of the rain, so Diane and I just observed the nurse and the nurse intern bandage their feet.  One man was a tailor and had his sewing machine right there, so I told him my grandfather had also been a tailor and asked to take his picture.  Even though we didn’t actively participate, it was still a great day and very rewarding.

The woman who has lost her fingers and legs for the most part.  I had to bend over to even get inside her hut.  She obviously can't stand.

               The man who is a tailor in his shop.  He's also a leper.

Thursday night we got to watch the kids practice their dances.  They are really, really good!  It was so much fun to watch them.  They did a dance to a David Archuletta song that brought tears to my eyes.  At one point in the dance, most of the kids formed poses as if they had leprosy.  Two other dancers would later dance around, touch them, and lift them up as if they were being healed.  The thing that touched me the most is HOW they looked in their poses.  You could easily see that they had had first hand experience with lepers in their own families.  It’s hard to see that and not be touched by it.  Later, we did “Celebrate”, which was a lot of fun to dance for the kids.  Then it was off to the houses again for the last night.

                Some of the boys I visited in the evenings.  I loved this group!

Friday morning, I tutored Vanilla Mary again.  She’s 28, has two kids, and is a widow.  I worked hard with her on her phonics and word recognition.  She made me feel good when she told me she had already learned so much from me in only the two sessions I was able to work with her, and she was disappointed to hear that I was leaving that afternoon.  I really enjoyed working with her.  She’s darling!

                   Vanilla Mary and me.

Friday was Marriott Day, which is a really big deal for the kids.  The Marriott Hotel has a strong connection to Rising Star Outreach.  I think they have been a huge financial supporter for them.  The kids had all prepared songs and/or dances to perform by grade (standard) level.  Marriott employees sang Christmas songs to the kids and were all dressed with Santa hats on, and one was dressed as Santa Claus.  The kids loved it.  After all that, the Marriott employees dished out and served lunch to all the students and employees there with food they had brought.  We had to leave before the dancers got to perform because we had to catch our taxi at 2:00 for Chennai.  I felt lucky to see this day and be a part of it. 

I think their last day for school was on Saturday, and they don’t come back until the day after Christmas for school again.  The children were all excited to go home to see their families.  They can have a family member visit them once a month.  Otherwise, they hardly get to see their families for a long time.  Each hostel (boys’ and girls’) has several “houses” with a “mother”.    There are between 18-20 kids in each house.  The kids were so cute and loving.  I’m definitely going to miss that experience!

This is out of place, but I didn't have this photo when I told you about our elephant ride in India.

That's it for India...

Kadi