Famous

As many of you know, the English worship service that Katie and I attend is hosted by a much larger Korean church, Hanbit. The main church recently published a short article in their bulletin featuring us. I was asked to write a blurb containing facts about us, such as when we were married, when we came to know the Lord, etc. The blurb was then translated into Korean, and published in the bulletin. A longer article about us will also appear in the church's quarterly journal. Last Sunday Katie and I were surprised -and just a little embarrassed- when people we had never met from the main church kept greeting and smiling at us enthusiastically. They even knew our names...

The first line of the article says, "How are you? This is Aaron and Katie." If you are curious what our names look like in Korean, here they are:

So Yang Children's Home

A couple of Sundays ago we, along with the Hanbit English worship service, traveled to an orphanage on Gadeok-do, an island off the coast of Busan.


After traveling by car to Busan, we boarded a ferry to the island. It was something between the ferries we rode in Washington and the ones I rode in Peru.


Our captain told us a lot of stuff over the PA that I'm sure was really fascinating, but it was all in Korean.


Shortly after we docked, we had our first view of the island. This is a massive tidal plain with hundreds of traps of some sort visible in the distance. We arrived at low tide and the plain was muddy and barren-looking, as you can see. Later in the day, when we returned, the tide had come in and the scene looked completely different.


There are a handful of small villages on the island, and we had to walk through one of them. Katie and I were a little relieved to walk through an area that looked as if it hadn't been built within the last 10 years. We walked through a maze of narrow, winding streets until we finally arrived at a rendezvous point where we were picked up by vehicles from the orphanage and transported the rest of the way.


On our walk we saw this enormous pile of garlic. One thing we have learned about Koreans is that they love garlic. Or perhaps they are just really afraid of vampires...


After boarding the vehicles we were whisked up a network of narrow mountain roads past flooded rice paddies. When we arrived at the orphanage, Katie and I expected it to blend right in with everything we had just seen. To our surprise, the orphanage was beautiful and very modern-looking. Much of the grounds were occupied by what looked like giant, brightly-painted McDonald's Playplace equipment. About 80% of So Yang's funding comes from the Korean government. The remaining 20% comes from donations.



After being treated to a lunch of noodle soup and rice, we all gathered for a worship service. The worship was led by a combination of the Hanbit worship team and older students from the orphanage. There are approximately 120 orphans at So-Yang at any given time, and, in addition to a number of other skills, they must all learn to play an instrument. As the result, their "orchestra" was actually quite good.


In this shot you can see a number of the older children at the orphanage. They were extremely well-behaved, and helped set up and take down everything for the service.


From left to right: Arriane, Evan, Chi Hyung-Shik (director of So Yang), Erica, Nancy, Allen, Katie, and me. We are standing in front of a massive wooden house, unlike any other we have seen in Korea. The house is home to the director and his wife, but also contains a large recreational area for the children and guest quarters for visitors staying at the orphanage for extended periods.


The Hanbit group posed for this shot just before leaving. You can visit So Yang's website at http://www.lovesoyang.org/.

Prayer Retreat

A few weekends ago Katie and I attended a prayer retreat with Hanbit. We spent the day in the nearby mountains, and though it rained quite a bit, the scenery was still quite beautiful. The topic of the retreat was communication with God. Sitting next to me, from left to right, is Arrianne, Michelle (she is very active in the Hanbit English service), and Kevin (the Hanbit deacon in charge of the English service).


At one point Henry went outside and came back in with a small, wet puppy. Katie fell in love immediately, and we all had a difficult time parting with the little guy when it was time to leave. Someone had obviously been taking care of the puppy and his brother, as there was a food and water bowl set out for them. Still, they looked pitiful in the rain.



Here is Henry and I, along with Tad, another American friend from Hanbit. Katie found it humorous that I am throwing up a "peace sign" in order to mimic what every Asian does when they see a camera -meanwhile Henry is flashing a gang sign.

Children of the Secret State

Yesterday Katie and I watched a very interesting documentary about the plight of orphans (and others) in North Korea. It's about an hour long, and worth the watch. It's called Children of the Secret State. (Click the link if you want to see it).

At one point the film shows covert footage of rice being sold on the black market somewhere in North Korea. The bags bear the words "A Present from the United States". The food had obviously been "diverted" by someone looking to make a profit, rather than going to feed starving kids.

As if we all needed any more motivation, I think it's clear that this is just one more reason to be disgusted by commies.

My Life as a Saun Sang Nim (Teacher)

At long last, I have managed to put together about the kids I teach. Teaching these kids has been quite an experience, especially as they come to me at various ages (about 8-17 years old) and at different levels of English proficiency. They are sweet, mean, kind, lazy, hard-working, and absolutely hilarious. The above photo is of Andy, Steven and Kevin, from one of my elementary classes. These are, of course, not their real names. They get to choose whichever English names they like for use at the academy. Remember your alter ego from Spanish class? It's the same basic idea. Some choose to be called by their Korean names, and that's okay, too.


Here is a shot of my desk. As you can see, I have a pretty decent setup, complete with white board, computer, wall calender, and desk caddy.

My favorite times teaching have been when the kids pop off with some random and hilarious question or comment. Here are a few examples:

Pointing to the hair on my forearm, Andy comments, "Teacher. Too much fuzz." This is because Koreans have virtually no "fuzz" on their arms. Mid-lecture I have felt a tiny hand patting my arm, only to find a perplexed kid looking at my "yellow fuzz". The hair on my head is, of course also "yellow" (blond).

Our topic one night was apartheid in South Africa, and we were talking about "race". I asked them what race I belong to, and they said "white". However, one particularly thoughtful kid interjected, "But Teacher, you are not white. You are pink." I asked what color he thought he was, to which he replied, "brown."

While discussing breakfast with the kids, I explained that each morning I eat a bowl of cereal (assuming that this would be a "typical" example of breakfast). The kids all burst out in laughter. I asked what they ate for breakfast, and they all gave the same matter-of-fact reply: Rice.


This is John. He was in one of my middle school classes last term. He was an all around good kid, and paid attention even though his class lasted until 10:30 at night. John and his friend, Brian both like American brands and used to always ask me questions like, "Teacher, do you wear Levi's?" and "Teacher, is 'The North Face' American brand?"


This is Robin, whom I photographed just as he was going in for another paw-full of funions. Robin is one of the naughtiest students I've had the pleasure of teaching so far. He is the master of manipulation. Before class begins you might enjoy a 5-minute long conversation with him about how sick he was over the weekend. He is better now, of course, he is happy to report. Only later do you realize that he did not complete any of his homework. "Oh, but Teacher, I was so sick!"


Bella is a total smarty-pants, a student who always answers correctly, always does her memorization, gets A's on tests, etc. She was in the same middle school class last term as Robin.


Crystal is an elementary school student, and is another example of a "model" student. Some of these kids are bewilderingly smart. I'm sure Crystal will grow up to be a brain surgeon or a physicist. Aside from her smarts, Crystal is also every bit as sweet as she looks in this picture.


Here is Crystal again, along with Sarah and also Emma (who is hiding behind Sarah). Sarah is hilarious. She loves music, and constantly asks me if I like this or that singer. I frequently have to tell other students to stop talking, but I have to tell Sarah to stop singing. Seriously. Emma is very little for her age and extremely cute. She was very quite at the beginning of the term, but came out of her shell a little toward the end.


Left-to-right, this is Emily, Julie and Helen. They are middle school students and all pretty good unless they start giggling about something. As you may notice, Emily and Julie are photographing me with their phones as I took their picture.

A quick note

It's been a while since we've posted. Aaron has been busy with work, and there really hasn't been anything new to report. We have gotten to do a few cool things with the church over the past couple weeks. Our friend Nancy put together a cool prayer retreat up in the mountains of nearby Jangyu. We were surrounded by beautiful green, lush forest while we prayed for the needs of the church and each other. We were also treated to a Korean style barbecue lunch. Then, last Sunday we took a ferry from Busan to Gadeok Island where we visited the SoYang Orphanage. We had lunch with some of the kids and also church, and then took a tour of their home. Aaron will post pictures from both the retreat and the orphanage soon.
Our Korean lessons are going well. Our instructor says that I am better at listening and speaking, and Aaron is better at reading and writing Korean. I guess it's just another thing we have come together on!