The Menno Melange

Here in Korea we have come across some funny signs, and some that are just fun to look at.

We saw this sign in the grocery store. It’s supposed to be “Crab”. I dunno, maybe crap would be good, too.

This label was on our toothpaste box. Will said he couldn’t relate. I don’t like calculus much, though.

This sign was at the Buddhist temple at Seorak-san Park, the modest monk. Very cute.

If you look closely, this sign says this is the Emmaus road. We walked down that road, but we didn’t see Jesus walking with us.

   
These signs are just cute, which we have seen throughout Chuncheon, and one from the top of Seorak-san (the one that warns us that there is a drop at the top of the mountain).

Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!

I hope the end of September is finding you all well. September is such a beautiful month, a time of transition for everyone; A change of season, a change in job, going back to school, a new country. September has been very grey and rainy for the most part in Korea.

I don’t know if the updates will always be this frequent and long, but for now, when there is so much to say, I figure I better keep on top of it all.

Teaching
We had our second day of teaching, with our Day-Students (teenage boys), which seemed to go well, but I think a constant struggle for us will be the shyness of the children in Korea. They probably know a lot of English, but they often don’t respond to our questions right away, or at all, which can only lead us to conclude they don’t understand. But sometimes it is just shyness. This will be a challenge to overcome. It will be fun getting to know them, though, and they aren’t afraid to laugh. When Will and I were on our way to bring them outside for a break, the elevator closed on me, like right in my face, and I could hear them laughing from inside the elevator.

Love Cell Group
We attended the third Cell group meeting, this one was Love. We had a wonderful time, and everyone in this particular group could speak English very well, and did so the whole time. We felt more like we knew what was going on at this meeting. That evening we learned that Koreans have English names only for the purpose of English visitors (and their English names are just names that sound the closest to their Korean names), but would rather be called their Korean names. This was good to learn, but it means that we are going to try harder to remember the Korean names, which is quite difficult at first, especially when the names are hard to say. It was funny, they said we should pick their cell group out of the four, saying, “The greatest of these is love!” It was funny.

Kugok Waterfall
One day Will and I had some time on our hands and had the hankering to explore Chuncheon and beyond. We drove over a bridge that crossed a river, and once on the other side it was like we were in another world. We had entered a “river town”, a party town that went alongside the river, with a fair and a go-carting track, and it was also right beside some mountains. It reminded me of Banff, but a Korean version. The mountains were so close now that we had to crank our heads right up to see the tops of them. There was a stone path leading to the waterfall, which we presumed was the original old path, and around the path is a worn away newer dirt path. The river we walked along got bigger and more rapid the higher up we went. The air was cool, yet humid, and felt very tropical to me. We crossed over some beautiful stone bridges, a colourful Buddhist gazebo looking thing, and some rocks piled up by Buddhists, which they do in a meditative practice. We reached the wooden staircase that led up to the falls, about halfway up. We were pretty wet from the mist. The rest of the day was the most humid since we got here; Will and I were dripping in sweat just from walking around.

 

Chuseok
Chuseok (추 석 ), pronounced choo-sock, is the biggest Korean holiday, where everything closes down and everyone goes home to see their families. Naturally we had no duties during this time, and some friends of ours from Seoul (who are teaching English at Connexxus) came to Chuncheon to visit us. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of Brother Cha, who offered to pick them up with us (as our car wasn’t big enough to fit them all), and drop them and us off at a restaurant, then picked us up later to take us home. This is just one example among many of the shocking generosity of our JVC community. They gave us a gift of Korean rice cakes, which are a Chuseok tradition, and they are filled with sweet bean paste. I never knew there were beans that were sweet.

We brought them up Anmason, as they hadn’t had a chance to climb a mountain yet, and we had all the exercise equipment at the top to ourselves (because of Chuseok, there weren’t many people up there). We had hoola hoop fights, and tried this special hoola hop that had ridges on it for massaging, but it really hurt.

  
We went to the same Dak-Galbi restaurant, and learned from our friends that you eat it in lettuce and sesame leaves. When Will and I went the first time, we didn’t know what the basket of leaves were for! Some children walked by our table, which had 7 white people sitting around it, and their jaws dropped.

We brought them to church with us, and I sang with the choir, a beautiful song in Korean. They thoroughly enjoyed the pot luck that followed, and my promise to our friends that the pot luck dak-galbi would be far superior to the restaurant kind was true. Dak-galbi is the specialty dish for Chuncheon, and Koreans from other cities will come to Chuncheon just for it. Kyung Jung (the supervisor at the Korean Anabaptist Center who attends JVC) brought us all to the lake, and we all boarded swan paddle boats to explore the lake on. We would try to race each other on these boats, but they went so slowly it was just a race in slow motion.

We then went for a walk around the lake, and there was a special pebble path, made with stones of all shapes and sizes, beside the regular path, made for walking on in bare feet. It is meant to massage ones feet, but MAN did it ever hurt. The challenge was to get to the end but most of us couldn’t.

That night we went to a No-rae Bang, which is Korean karaoke. You rent a room with comfy chairs, and there is a screen that shows the lyrics, and there are tambourines that light up when you hit them. You can just sing your heart out, and not worry about embarrassing yourself in front of strangers.

Sokcho
The next part of the plan with our friends was to go to Sokcho (속 초 ), a coastal city to the east. The bus drive there was breath-taking; scenery of rice paddies, farms, mountains shapely green mountains and blue lakes. After driving through a 3km long tunnel, we came out in Soerak-san park, surrounded by mountains so high the clouds were covering the tops. When we arrived in Sokcho, we had a bacon dish for lunch, that involved frying thick squares of bacon, and eating them in lettuce leaves with the usual side dishes, like Kimchi, rice, and other kinds of Kimchi, made with squash, radishes, etc. At one point I saw a box of “Oreos”, so I bought them, thinking they were the real thing. The logo looked the same, as well as the packaging and the actually cookies themselves. Only when I ate them did I realize they were different. They were a knock-off, but they looked the same. Is that allowed? We saw some funny signs, including a “25 hour market” and “Hip Hop Rounge” (Lounge).

We went to Seorak-san (서 락 산 ) National Park, which is the largest mountain area in South Korea, and has the highest peaks. The traffic going into the park was unbelievable. Alongside the long line of cars and busses, was a stream of people walking there as well. Not a gap was in sight. At the entrance they were selling food, so we tried a number of different Korean snack foods; Sweet potato fries, fried silk worm larvae, and some Korean “street meat”. We wandered to the nearby Buddhist temple, and saw possibly the largest statue of the Buddha I have ever seen. I had seen 50 ft high golden statues of the Buddha in India, but this one was at least 60ft high, made of some kind of metal.

 
We went to the top of a mountain in the cable car, slowly passing through the clouds. From the top, we followed a stone stair case to a Buddhist temple on the mountain. We followed another set of stairs that led to the peak of the mountain, which people were climbing. Will and I climbed to the very top, and posed for pictures by the Korean flag that was flapping in the wind. It was so foggy we couldn’t really see the ground from there, but it was probably just as well. We were over 1,500 metres above ground.
    

That evening we found a nearby fairground, and rented some mini-motorcycles. They couldn’t have been higher than 2 ft, but they could go about 20-25km/hour. VERY fun. We all drove around the lake, on these little paths that seemed to be made for the bikes, but there were no rules or boundaries. It was awesome. The bikes ran on batteries, so every now and then one of our bikes would die, and the guy who ran the place would drive in to check on us and bring a new battery.

The next morning we had breakfast at a “Toast-uh” place (Koreans often add “uh” to the end of a word, and English words, when written in Korean, often end with that sound). We all ordered the “Spectal Toast” (it actually means “Special”), which had eggs, ham, cheese and bacon. Mmm. After an afternoon at the beach, we grabbed lunch at a beach-side restaurant, including squid sausage, which is a specialty of Sokcho, and a side dish of fried minnows.

 
On the bus ride back home to Chuncheon, we saw metal and cement cylinders protruding out of walls and cliffs along the highway. We both had heard that those are explosives, and if North Korea ever attacked, they would be detonated to block the highway in to the South. We saw them there because it was closer to the north.

Random Thoughts
~U-turns when driving are not only legal here, they are expected in some spots. There are signs that tell you where you can make a U-Turn to get where you need to go.
~There are people who come to parking lots in apartment complexes and ring bells to say they are selling something. One man came by ringing a bell, and he was selling octopus.
~I have noticed that when Koreans have pet dogs, they are always very small (many have little dog sweaters, or have the tips of their ears dyed). Our friends told us that is because Koreans eat dog meat, but only from big dogs. Haven’t tried that yet, and I don’t think I want to.

We have the rest of the week off, so we will spend this time wisely preparing class lessons and studying Korean. I would love to hear from all of you!

Here are some flowers that we have seen so far. These in particular we saw on one of our walks around town yesterday.

These are some critters and creatures we have seen so far. The spider, cecada and dog we saw while climbing Anmason mountain yesterday, and the praying mantis we saw on our way home on a fence post. A woman walked by wanting to see what I was taking a picture of, and when she did she made a face and walked away.

As with all of the images on our blog, you can click on the small picture and you’ll be able to view a bigger picture. We have even bigger versions of all our blog pics available if you want them as well; just email us and say which picture you want.

Here are some pictures from this past week to accompany the next post, which is an email Ana sent out earlier today.

   

From left to right: This little cartoon guy is Chuncheon’s mascot. He adorns a number of buildings, utility boxes, etc. This is the lake city afterall. - Here I am eating a beef rib soup with a wide array of side dishes, including a powerfully hot red pepper paste. - This is red pepper season here, so when it’s not raining, the streets and parking lots are littered with big mats covered in red peppers being dried in the sun. We’re surprised that they are just out in the open, but nobody must steal them or otherwise tamper, or else they wouldn’t leave them out in public. - Another example of how agriculture permeates the city. Vacant stretches of land become hobby gardens. This corn is growing right at the side of the road in the middle of town, again with no evidence of theft or other damage.

  

A storefront near our apartment. - A tiger statue on a bridge. - The view from our balcony. Almost everyone in Korea lives in apartment buildings like these. We’re lucky to have mountains like these nearby as well.

Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!

It has now been a week, but it definitely feels like we have been here longer. Already we feel a part of the JVC family, which is overflowing with kindness and love for God. We feel privileged to be a part of this community, as the people are very generous, warm, friendly and genuine. They have gone out of their way to make sure we feel at home and comfortable here, which we do. Even people who don’t know us want us to feel welcome. A woman came to our apartment and handed us 3 packs of kleenex, then left. I thought maybe that was her clever way of saying I had something unpleasant in my nose, but we were later told that kleenex is a popular house-warming gift.

  

Mountain-Climbing
We know that Koreans love their mountains and mountain climbing, so one morning we decided to find the closest mountain to us, and it turned out to be a mountain called “An-ma-san” (”san” means mountain). The path up the mountain was made easy by a well-worn path, steps made of stones in some places and logs in other places. The mountains are all covered in crooked pine trees, and buzzing with cicada type insects. We passed some tombs that have been there for hundreds of years, which just looked like mounds of grass, with a tombstone beside it. There were many people of all ages climbing up and down the mountain with us, and halfway up the mountain, as well as at the top, was exercise equipment. As if climbing the mountain wasn’t enough! These people are VERY fit. Maybe we’ll be ready to tackle the exercise equipment next year, after hiking up the mount every DAY. We climbed a large hill another day (felt like a mountain when we were climbing it), after passing fields of rice paddies, with misty mountains in the distance, and more tombs along the way. There was more exercise equipment, complete with hoola hoops, weights, a stair climber, etc. It was quite the sight, seeing lots of elderly women with visors on, doing hoola hoops. There was a mirror and clock strapped to tree trunks, too, a perfect outdoor gym. There was a big monument at the top of the mountain commemorating that spot, as that was where Koreans hid from the Japanese 100 years ago to mourn the death of an emperor. Will lifted a few weights on the mountain, but just for the camera.

Driving Lessons
We eventually got our car, and Brother Cha took us on a driving lesson around town here. After Will almost got side-swiped by a bus, Cha said buses and taxis follow no rules. Right after he said that (as if on cue), we watched as a taxi honked and drove right through a RED light, which had been red for a while already. Another day we saw a guy riding a bicycle while listening to music on his head phones and using both hands to text messaging someone! This of course required that he use his elbows to drive his bike!! Then we saw a motorcyclist driving on the SIDEWALK. The lady he swerved past didn’t seem surprised or bothered at all. Turns out that this happens all the time, as we’ve seen it happen a few other times.

Cell Groups
JVC has 4 cell groups; “Peace”, “Joy”, “Tenderness/Gentleness” and “Love”. The cell groups are seen as the most important aspect of church life in JVC, as it involves smaller groups of people to gather weekly in each other’s homes to pray, read, discuss and fellowship together. We were invited to attend all of them and see which one we would like to be a part of. We’ve only attended 2 so far, and they both were so different from each other. At “Peace” we prayed, talked about the book they were reading about faith, and we shared our testimonies, and how we felt led by God to come to Korea. Oh, and we ate some delicious snacks of boiled corn and sweet potatoes. At the “Joy” cell group, we were immediately invited to practice a song in Korean with them, that they plan to sing at church next Sunday. This was amusing, as Will can’t sing, and neither of us can read Korean as quickly as needed when singing. It was fun, though. There was an artist in this cell group, and she had us all draw simple pictures about certain emotions like “joy”, “anger”, “sadness”, “peace”, and then we talked about each other’s pictures afterwards. Then I was asked to play a song on guitar, so I played “Faithful”, a song from the musical we wrote. They enjoyed that, and had us talk about ourselves and why we came to Korea.

Becoming Korean
When we spent the day getting registered, we had to get our “alien registration” cards, drivers’ licenses, a cell phone (our first one!), and open a bank account. Brother Cha (one of the leaders of JVC who has been helping us settle in) thought we would need Korean names to open our account, so we now have Korean names (basically Korean-ized versions of our names).

Will’s name is: 노 일 암 (No, Il-am)
Ana’s name is: 노 어 라 (No, A-ra)

Part of becoming Korean involves speaking Korean to the best of our abilities. We are slow at this process, but we use what we know with gumption! At a meal gathering (this happens a lot), I said “Jung Malo Majiseyo!” (very delicious). One of the JVC leaders told me to say “Jung malo Mawjiseyo” to him, so I did, and everyone laughed. He then told me that I called him handsome. I guess there was a slight difference in pronunciation. So, I turned to Will and said what I thought was the same thing, but everyone burst out laughing again. Apparently I called Will delicious. Sigh. In Korea, babies are considered one year old as soon as they are born. That being the case, and to our greatest dismay, Will is already 30, and I’m 27 going on 28, in Korea. Bigger sigh.

Culture
At every super store here, there are greeters who bow as you come in, as well as people standing in front of every aisle to do the same. The side roads here are so small because 30 years ago there were no cars here, and so there was no plan for them. Side roads are just full with parked cars on either side, and there’s just barely enough room to get your car through. Also, with apartment parking lots there are more cars then parking spaces, so it is a common practice to park ones cars behind someone else’s but leave it in neutral, so that the car can be rolled out of the way when needed.

Food
We were introduced to bone soup, which is made from beef bones that have been boiling for 24 hours! It was so rich and delicious. Kimchi (김 치 ) is a favourite, fermented cabbage with red pepper seasoning, which is served at every meal. Generally the way restaurants work here is they serve one dish, so you go to that restaurant if you want that particular dish. Knowing this, Will and I went to a restaurant for lunch thinking we wouldn’t have to communicate at all (knowing that we couldn’t if we wanted to), but the waiter kept asking us questions, and we were helpless. Eventually I heard him say “Dak-kalbi” (덕 갈 비 ), so we said, “Ye, ye” (yes), and it was cooked right in front of us on a grill that was attached to the table. It is BBQ’d chicken, cabbage and rice noodles. Mmm. We went to a traditional Korean restaurant in the country yesterday, right in the middle of some mountains, where you sit in a separate room around a table close to the floor, and sit on the floor (as you do at all restaurants in Korea, but at this restaurant there are chairs that are right on the floor and have backs), and there are sliding doors made of papery material. We were served rice in wooden holders, with all sorts of side dishes, fish, tofu and bean curd soup, followed by a cinnamon/ginger tea called “Sujungkwa” (수 중 과 ), that tasted like cold apple cider, without the apples, and a hot bark tea called “Makamok” (마 다 몯 ), made from the bark of an ash tree. Another evening we went to someone’s house for supper with the young adults of the church. They are a wonderful group of people. We had a Japanese style feast, that involved cooking beef strips, shrimp, mushrooms, greens and noodles in a boiling broth on the table. We later played Crokinole, and we proudly told them that crokinole was invented where we came from, in Tavistock.

Church Work
Will led his first Bible study last Sunday, and it went well. Having a translator, everyone understood and nodded their heads along with what he was saying. I went up with the kids during the service to teach them some English songs. That went well too, as long as I was playing music. As soon as I stopped, the kids went berserk, and one kid lifted a chair above his head and then threw it down. Wow. When I came back down, communion was just finishing up, and everyone was sitting in a circle, with the table of bread and wine in the middle. A woman took my hand, led me to the middle, blessed the bread and wine, and placed it in my mouth. That was a beautiful experience. We were invited to a welcome pot luck that evening, for us and a few other new comers. We had a wonderful feast, then introduced ourselves, so I was asked to play more of my music, so I played a guitar song and a piano song that I wrote. We had our first day of V-School classes today (the home-schooling program, run through JVC), so we had 3 teenage boys at our place today. We introduced ourselves and played some fun word games and board games, and Will gave his first Bible lesson. We feel it went pretty well, although Korean children and youth are painfully shy, and don’t speak up very much, even if they know the answer. Hopefully they’ll get more comfortable around us.

Prayer Requests
We just ask for prayers for our continual adjustment to life and culture here (although it doesn’t feel too hard right now), and to be able to prepare ourselves adequately for our teaching tasks and ministerial involvement.

Anyeonghikeseyo (안 녕 히 게 세 요),
노 어 라 & 노 일 암
(Ana & Will)

Our week of preparatory tasks has now completed. We are finally at the point where we are only tired at night and our bodies wake us up at reasonable times, so no more jet lag. We have an alien registration cards, Korean driver’s licenses, a local bank account, a cell phone and a car.

Our hosts apologized for the low quality of the car, but we assured them that this ‘97 Hyundai Avante is a step up from the ‘93 Taurus we left behind in Ontario. We’ve found that the driving isn’t as bad in our city as some people had predicted we would find in Korea, but it could be better. A generation ago almost nobody had cars and now almost everyone does, and in that time, not everyone has been adequately instructed on safe driving practises. Bus drivers, taxi cabs and delivery trucks are especially bad, but you could probably say the same thing about a lot of Canadian cities. Another interesting thing is that almost everyone here drives Korean cars. Imports are available, but 99% of the vehicles that I have seen on the roads are Hyundai, Daewoo or Kia. I’ve seen an Austin Mini and a Jaguar, but the rest have been domestic cars.

We are also enjoying a wide variety of foods. Our lunch today included bone soup. The broth is made by boiling water with soup bones for 24 hours, and then some noodles and strips of beef are mixed in. Tuesday as we were touring our neighbourhood, we found a restaurant and decided to eat there for lunch. None of the staff spoke a word of English, but we figured that the premise of a restaurant should be pretty universal; whether or not we could communicate, we had money, and I was pretty sure we would get fed before we left. When the waitress arrived we pointed at another table indicating that we wanted to eat the same thing as them, which we later found was unnecessary, since most restaurants serve one basic dish. She brought out a beef rib soup, which we both enjoyed. Korean restaurants also serve a number of side dishes with their meals, which are unlimited; cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi, some pickled stuff, wasabi type stuff and some terribly hot red pepper paste. Ana and I have really enjoyed the food, with a few minor exceptions: Ana cannot handle spicy food and I suspect I may be mildly allergic to seafood (it turns out that fish and red pepper flakes are staples in the Korean diet).

It was with hesitance that we got the cell phone, since we tried to live without one in Canada, but it is a fun new toy nonetheless. The problem with it is that the instruction manual and some of the option menus are in Korean, but in the spirit of making lemonaid from lemons, we’ve found that we can just ask local teenagers to help us, and we all of a sudden have a social connecting point.

Anyong Haseyo!

Will and I are now safely in Korea, and even though we’ve only been here 3 days, it feels a little longer. As soon as we arrived here it felt like home. Maybe it’s because Korea is not all that different from North America, in culture and in appearance, or maybe it’s because we have a family and community to be a part of here, who embraced us immediately. Whatever it is, we are very happy to be here, and know that it is meant to be.

The journey here certainly had its stresses, as travelling goes, but everything worked out somehow. We had 2 bags overweight (they were underweight by Singapore airplines standards, but we forgot to check up on Air Canada’s standards), so we had to pay for that, and we had one extra bag to pay for (but we knew that). Our flight to Seoul was delayed by almost as hour because of engine problems (great….), then when we arrived in Seoul, Will’s bag of clothes was missing. Amazingly it was just sitting there in the lost and found, although I don’t know how it would end up there, as we were right there to grab our luggage at the carousel. Those aside, we arrived in one piece, and were met at the airport by one of the JVC leaders (see earlier blog post).

We stopped at a McDonald’s, and they had Koreanized McDonald’s food; McBulgogi Burger, or something. As much as I hate McDonald’s, I’m always impressed with the internationalization of their food. In India they had a McAloo Tikka burger. We were driven to Chuncheon, a beautiful city of lakes and green mountains, and taken to our apartment, where a “Welcome” sign awaited us. Chuncheon has a little blue mascot, as every Korean city has a cartoon character mascot to represent the city.

The next day we had breakfast at that same JVC leaders’ home, where fried tofu and soya sauce were included on the menu, then attended our first worship service at JVC. The church meets on the third floor of an office building, and it was beautiful, with a view of mountains from the window. We were asked to speak during the service, so we passed on greetings from friends who have been here, and that prompted a big applause. We were so exhausted from jet-lag, we found it hard to stay awake during the service. I HATE jet-lag. Amazingly, I’ve travelled to Uganda, Scotland and India, and have never experienced jet-lag like this. I know…it’s because Korea’s even farther away…but anyway, it’s awful. Will is so strict with not letting me nap during the day, and I know it’s for my own good, but man! It’s SO hard to stay awake. There was a pot luck following the service, and the spicy food woke us up. Among some of the new things we tried was sauna cooked eggs, which turned them brown, and some sort of jiggly chestnut thing. For supper that night we were brought to a fancy restaurant, and we had a taste of squid-ink dyed bread, which tasted pretty good to me (until I found that out). We then began to discuss our responsibilities here, and I thought I should mention that Will and I plan to start a family out here, which caused a big applause among the group. I corrected them and said, “No, not yet. We will start trying next year sometime”, to which one of the leaders said, “You can start trying tonight!” I guess they like kids.

We went grocery shopping yesterday, and as I suspected, there was no luck at finding many North American brands. What I found amusing was that any North American brands that were there were Korean-ized. For example, there were Pringles, but they were some strange stir-fry flavors. I saw Sun-Chips that were a spicy red pepper flavor. I also found some green tea Haagan Daaz. There are other North American products, but written in Korean, but they are just Korean-ized versions of the brand name: For example, Oreo’s are 오 레 오 (literally “o-re-o”), Cornflakes are 콘 푸 레 이 크 (literally “kon-pu-re-i-ku”), which if you sound out, sound like “Cornflakes” with a Korean accent, Skippy peanut butter is 스 키 피 (literally “su-ki-pi”). And so on.

Some friends of ours are also in Korea right now, and they sent us a welcome package. In it was a pair of plaid slippers, as Koreans like plaid apparently, a visor, as many Korean women wear visors, dried squid and peanuts (I don’t think I can bring myself to try that), and a gold pig for good luck. That was a good introduction into Korean culture. Today a woman came to our apartment, and handed us 3 packages of kleenex, with Korean cartoon characters on it. I don’t know if Koreans just highly value kleenex, or if she had seen me pick my nose earlier, but it was strange. Will and I went to a restaurant today, for the first time here, and we were kind of a “freak show” according to Will. First, we seemed to be doing okay with our chopsticks and spoon, but some lady from the restaurant came and gave us forks and proceeded to cut our 2 different kinds of kimchi with scissors for us, like we were little kids. Man, that was embarrassing. Then, when Will picked up his shoes from where he took them off (you have to remove your shoes when going into a home or a restaurant), and walked with them to the cash register, the 2 waitresses and cook laughed at him for a while. We couldn’t undertand why that was so funny, and none of them spoke English, so we’ll never know why that was so funny.

Other observations about Korean culture, is that it is very much like a developing country in certain ways (having been one in the last century), and yet they are very up-to-date with technology, and streets are kept very clean. Agriculture is mixed right in with city life, like a corn patch right beside a main street, and a rooster crowing underneath a highway overpass. Red peppers are put out to dry in the sun right on a parking lot. Very interesting contrasts.

That’s all for now. Will and I are very happy to be here, and feel very welcome and cared for. Till next time.

Kamsahapnida (Thank-you)