The Menno Melange

Anyeong Haseyo (안녕하세요)!

It seems we’re getting the monsoon rains a little early this year, as we’ve had 3 days in a row of rain, and even some thunder showers. This amount of rain is unusual for this time of year.

Making the Pregnancy Real
So, Will and I set out to buy maternity clothes (well, just for me). There aren’t many stores in Chuncheon, and I had been warned that I wouldn’t find any that would fit me. However, I figure stretchy clothes are stretchy clothes. We stopped for ice cream on the way, sat in the middle of a shopping alleyway, and people stared at us like they had never seen foreigners eating ice cream before. We saw a store called “해피 맘” (which pronounces as “Happy Mom”, more or less), and that’s where I scooped my clothes. I am hoping that I won’t have to buy anymore, cause they are NOT cheap! (머니 비써요- Very expensive)

By the way, now that I’m pregnant, I’m getting a lot more hugs at church. It’s nice. People here are really happy that we’re having a child here. Already, one church member refers to our baby as his “niece”. A few people have pointed out the me the unusualness of how frequent I get ultrasounds (once a month here). I think it will actually be hard for me to have children in Canada and not have that luxury anymore. It’s been really reassuring to be able to see our baby every month, see her little heart beating and limbs moving, and mouth swallowing.

Youth Sunday School Fade Out
So, due to my build up of difficulties with the Sunday School class, I became very limited in what I could do with the youth; 1) I still had no translator, so I couldn’t give them a meaningful lesson in the Bible’s teachings; 2) Because they couldn’t understand me, and are painfully shy, I couldn’t get them to act out fun skits, or play complicated/meaningful games; 3) I couldn’t lead any meaningful discussions or ask them questions to invoke learning, because they never answered me or spoke in class, etc. Due to the aforementioned, my class had been stripped to 15 minutes of singing, 10 minutes of a brief Bible lesson, that only half the kids were getting, and mindless games for the rest of the time. In one class we played the card game “Spoons”, except I replaced spoons with chopsticks to make it more “Korean”, and that was, by far, the only time I had their full attention and interest (as well as the other classes where we played mindless games). A replacement was finally found for me, and after some struggles with feeling like a failure, I’ve come to realize that it’s only for the best, for my sake and the youth. I did the best I could with what I had, and in the end, having a translator was the maker and breaker of the success of my leading the class.

I will take this opportunity (one less responsibility in church) to pursue again playing music during worship (accompanying hymns, etc). I had asked about that in the beginning, and it was first met with enthusiasm, then with apprehension. Worship leaders like to move with the spirit, and as a result may change a song, or want to repeat a line again, and this would need to be communicated with the pianist. However, since I would not understand such a last minute communication (if the worship leader didn’t speak English) that would slow things down in the service. I understand the dilemma, but I really want to find a way to share this particular gift that I have. This calls for some creativity, I think.

Neat Temple Experience/Buddha’s Birthday
One night, I invited a friend out for makguksu. Afterwards, we followed a strip of colorfully lit lanterns to the biggest temple I have seen in Korea so far, and it’s just around the corner from JVC! For weeks leading up to Buddha’s birthday, all the temples in the country have lanterns leading up to them, and then have hundreds of lanterns outside the temple and in. Also, cities have large lantern pagodas in the downtown areas. There were also floats for a parade;dragons, golden pigs, an elephant with Buddha riding it, as well as the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals all lined up. My friend told me you’re supposed to put money in the animal of your year, but I’m too cheap to do that. We went inside this 3-story temple, and the sanctuary was quite breathtaking; 3 large gold Buddha statues sat at the front, and both sides of the room were lined with thousands of tiny lit candles, the ceiling was lined with hundreds of colourful lit lanterns (which people could pay for and hang a prayer on), and there were colorful, food displays all around the room. It took me right back to India.

From L to R: Ana in front of the temple at night; Buddha on an elephant; Two Chinese zodiac animals, Korean flag and lantern pagoda; The floats by day; Dragons up close; Lanterns on the balcony; Lanterns and scenery; Lantern tower in downtown; same

Will’s 30th Birthday
For some time, Will has already been thinking as a 30 year old, as he has been “31″ in Korean years since we got here. However, we are still true to his Canadian age, and celebrated this milestone here. As has become our tradition at special occasions, I sent him on a scavenger hunt around the apartment to find his gifts. We treated ourselves to a lunch at Outback Steakhouse, and I was frustrated at how little I could eat, because of my increasingly shrinking stomach. No wait…I still ate a lot, I just regretted it later. I made a cake for him, which we shared with our cell group that night, and sang “Happy Birthday” in Korean; “생일 춬하 합니다”. It was a special day.

MC Canada Witness Retreat
We were fortunate to be able to spent a weekend at a home in the Sobaek Mountains. On our way, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant called “Sand & Food”. The food was much better than it sounds like it would.

We had all of Friday off, so before meeting the group, we drove a little farther to Andong to see some sights. We first saw Korea’s historical treasure #157 (all the valued cultural artifacts and buildings are numbered here), which was a big Buddha head carved out of rock. It is said that hundreds of years ago, a soldier was angry at his horse for fearing this statue, so he chopped the statues’ head off, and blood was seen coming from the neck. Yeesh. The head was put back on, of course. We then found out way to Hahoe Village, one of (if not the only) preserved traditional Korean villages, where people actually still live. It took us away to be walking along mud-brick walled lane-ways, mud houses with straw rooves, right beside the traditional curved roof Korean buildings, traditional gardens and gateways….and then we’d see cars in the driveways. Unbelievable.

From L to R: Buddha’s head through lanterns; So, the Hotel exists…; The lanterns leading to the temple; Kimchi pots; Laneway in Hahoe Village; Another street in Hahoe

With the group the next day, we went to see the first Confucian school in Korea. It was explained to us that Confucianism was very controversial when it first arrived, and many were killed for their adherence to the beliefs. In fact, many were killed and thrown into the river that flows through the school grounds. On Buddha’s birthday we climbed a somewhat steep hill (well, it felt steep to me!) to a wooden temple built in the 1300’s, with the original wood! There was singing and drumming coming from the temple, and many visitors coming and going. Later a smaller group of us when to a hot springs place, where there were 4 different pools of different temperatures to choose from. I mostly waded in the luke warm pool, and was cornered and stared at the entire time by two little girls. A little awkward.

From L to R: The gang at the entrance; An old classroom; Scenery at the school; Ana with some lanterns; View from temple; same

I wish I could say it was a restful weekend, but it was quite the contrary. It seems my bodies’ incredible immunity boost for the first 4 monthes went away, and I came down with a Korean cold. I had heard they were bad, and it was bad. In fact, I’m still getting over it now. That, in combination with not being used to sleeping on a thin mattress, meant I did not sleep very well. Other than that, we had a wonderful time with fellow workers, and our time there really strengthened our friendships with them.

Teaching and Teacher’s Day
There is a wonderful day here just for honoring teachers, so as a result I got two bouquets of flowers and a hair clip. I also got a little card that I said “I love you” 3 different times. Wow. Also, my guitar class is going well, at least for 2 students who are improving, who I know are practicing at home. Others keep complaining about their fingers hurting, but I keep telling them “your fingers won’t hurt after a while if you practice at home”.

Odaesan Field Trip
We went on a V-School Field Trip to Odaesan Park, and saw an old temple, that had been destroyed during the war and rebuilt (there are a lot of those). In the museum there, we saw a display case with 3 tiny stones that looked like pearls. Our leader told us that when a Buddhist monk died, their body was burned, and if those little pearls are found in the ashes, they are considered true monks. The 3 pearls we were looking at were apparently from THE Buddha himself. Also, there was one dynasty where every word of the king was recorded, and we got to see some of those old books where those words were kept.

From L to R: Neat roof on a temple; Will and a doorway; Pagoda in front of temple; Gazebo with drum; Ana in front of archival building where the books are kept of the kings words

Visit from Canadian Tour Group
Two of the previous workers here brought along a tour group from their church, and we had the pleasure of hosting the leader couple. We enjoyed worshiping and praying with the group, as well as sightseeing. One place in Chuncheon we saw was the Shin Tomb; the tomb of one of the ancient kings’ best friends, who dressed as the king and was killed in the king’s place. Before the king could get to his friends’ body, it was beheaded, so the king made a head of gold to replace the real head, and buried the body, the real head and the head of gold in separate graves. Today there lies 3 grave mounds, and no one knows which is where (although among the group we seriously questioned whether a head of solid gold would really have been buried, and if so, if it had been dug up and stolen)

From L to R: The statue of the honoured king’s friend; scenery near tomb; Turtle tomb (symbolizing longevity); The hill leading up to the tomb; The 3 mounds; Worshipping with the group; same; One of the tour leaders preaching

Random Frustrations
Some would say we have been here long enough to have a few built-up frustrations, so I will share some:
-When students laugh at us (not just polite giggling, but full-blown, loud, long-lasting laughter) for mispronouncing ONE syllable in a Korean word, when we never laugh at them for mispronouncing English
-Our car was keyed significantly 3 times over the course of one week (We were told some drunk people will do that…either that, or someone was mad at us!)
-Taxi drivers that break all the rules of the road; cut you off, don’t use signals, make a wide left turn in the middle of the intersection, when they are in the far right lane, honking at you when you are in their way and they want to run a red, etc)
-The swimming pool etiquette is quite lacking here: In one swim alone, I was almost hit in the face by a young man carelessly playing in the middle of my lane and his; I had to avoid a girl swimming towards me in my lane, who didn’t even move out of the way at first; I had to push flutter boards out of my way on various laps, etc.

Seems silly to end this email on a note of frustration, since we are still very happy here and loving our community.

Here are some pics of us helping to prepare food: Rolling kimbop; Will slicing kimbop

Ana’s updates are usually full of both of our experiences, but over time I, Will, have developed a few opinions about things, and I thought this would be a good outlet for those kind of ramblings.

One of the many strange dualities I experience here has to do with my impressions of time. As we wander around Korea doing our various tasks and side-trips, I sometimes see things that make me feel like I’ve slipped back in time, and there are other times I feel like I’m living in the future. I don’t mean this in a critical sense, either of our hosts here or of our worlds back home, these are just observations. Also, I think it’s arrogant for people to think that something newer is by definition better, or that we as a society are smarter, more civilized or more humane now than we were a generation ago.

The future
As a former pastor, I have a tendency to always makes lists of three, so here are three of the ways that I feel that my life in Korea feels futuristic.

Technology
A ridiculously high percentage of Korean homes have high speed Internet access. The causes or results of this are that 1.) Korean websites require a greater than average amount of bandwidth because of their flashy content, etc. 2.) Koreans are much more open/calloused about illegally downloading movies, 3.) people buy everything from clothes to groceries over the Internet. The only thing preventing us from doing more Internet shopping is that these web sites are almost always entirely in Korean.
Another sign of the high level of technological advancement is that cell phones are much more prevalent than they were back in Canada. It is quite common to hear someone’s phone going off during meetings, on the train or during a church service, either with a trendy/annoying/unnecessarily loud/funny ringtone or the buzz of the “silent” vibrate mode. We even have a cell phone when we would have opposed their intrusive presence back home. The Korean alphabet makes sending text messages much easier and quicker. Also, the only time I’ve ever had less that four full bars of connection is when I was working with a friend of mine near the North Korean border.

Language
This may sound strange coming from someone who is still a long ways away from having a functional ability to speak or understand the language. I think this language is in many ways more advanced than English. There are almost no irregular verbs, the alphabet is quite simple to read (Korea has almost 100% literacy rates). There is always a structure for everything and people’s ability to explain nuances of the language to us is limited only by their ability to speak English to me, not by the complexity of the language. Of course, one of the beauties and curses of learning languages is that they were not developed by think-tanks taking simplicity and universality into consideration. The Korean language developed in a small peninsula, while the English language developed as the British Empire grew and became exposed to and absorbed other languages and cultures. Over time people have theorized that a newly invented language would take over the world, and while various attempts have failed, I imagine if it were possible, that language might look a lot like Korean.

Land use
Korea is a small land with lots of people. They barely have room for their own people, let alone immigrants. That’s why, when Koreans build, they build up, not out. Futuristic books when I was a kid always talked about a time when people realized there was only so much land they could use for buildings before food production became more important. Korea is that place. People understand that having an apartment may not be better than having their own house, but accept that it is the most feasible thing to do.

Blasts from the past
Cars
When I was a kid, there were basically three car makers, and anyone who drove something made by someone else was either showing off their money or could be suspected as being a communist. Those three companies each had one compact car, one sedan etc, and each model had maybe four or five colours, so if you drove a tan coloured Taurus, odds were you weren’t the only one in any given parking lot. In Korea, almost everyone drives a Kia, a Hyundai, or a Daewoo. Our light blue Hyundai Avante is never the only one of its kind that we will see in a day. It reminds me of the Ford pickup my dad drove, or the various family vehicles we had over the years.

Racial Homogeneity
If you grew up in a small town, an ethnic community or, like me, you grew up in a small town ethnic community, your exposure to people of other races was limited. I had a certain trepidation about approaching foreigners and an over-sensitivity about not offending them. Foreigners are still relatively rare in Korea, and while most people still have a trepidation about approaching us, not everyone worries about what is offensive to us. Groups of school girls will say “hello” to me, and then when I say “hello” back, they giggle as though either my voice cracked or my fly was open (and I’ve experienced both enough to know those distinctive laughs). People laugh at us when we mispronounce Korean words, they tell us we’re too fat to buy clothes at their store, or do anything to avoid talking to us, even if it’s their job as a service personnel. I know these are very natural reactions, but they can be quite offensive if we allow ourselves to be offended.

The North
I was too young to appreciate the significance of the falling of the Berlin Wall or the end of the Cold War, but I remember how people talked about the communists, as though it were some kind of ever-present threat. The Cold War is not over in Korea. Some people are hopeful for a reunification with the North while some people live in constant fear of the war reigniting. The combination of mandatory military conscription and a highly militarized border with their only land neighbour leaves an interesting impact on the society.