A Proud Moment

This summer while home in the states I hosted a fund raiser for the water well that I am raising money for this year. God gave me the idea of BBQ and provided the perfect place for it at Rusty and Pam Fulling's home/farmstead in. They generously opened their home to 50 0f us who had a wonderful time catching up and chowing down on great food. At the end of it all we raised $1700! I am so proud to be a partner with others who want to make a difference in people's lives around the world.

Culture differences

Today is one of those days when cultural differences were so obvious to me I had to write them down. I think being here for as long as we have I just don't notice them as often. It's become part of me to ignore them or if I do notice it, to not really pay attention. The first difference happended morning I went for a bike ride around our neighborhood "dong" about 9:30am and was surprised to see the streets deserted. A few shops were open but most were still closed, including our local grocery store which doesn't open till 10am. It's just part of the culture that people do more at night then in the morning. I recall the first day we arrived in Cheonan and being surprised at the many people on the street at 11pm including children. I also remember the shocked look on my Korean friends face when I told her my children went to bed at 7:30pm.

This summer when we first got back to the US and were adjusting to the time change, we had jet lag and napped all afternoon, so in the evening I took the boys to the grocery store. It was probably 8:30pm, the store was empty and the few people who were there seemed to be looking at me like "why in the world are you at the grocery store, with your children at 8:30pm?" I felt like I should hang a sign around my neck saying "we are jet lagged, and slept all afternoon" to explain why we were there.

The other cultural difference happened this evening. I had just finished putting the boys to bed when the door bell rang. First of all not many people just randomly stop by our apt, especially at 8:45pm, and so I was surprised to hear the doorbell, then knocking, then the doorbell and knocking again, all within maybe a minute. Thinking something was wrong I hurried and opened the door. Two Korean men were standing there and by their motions I realized they wanted to come in. I am home alone. NO way, I'm thinking! My face must have showed that and my annoyance because they finally showed me why they wanted to come in. To change my gas meter! Now at 8:45pm?! I was here all day long, somebody couldn't have come earlier?

This was just another reminder to me that we operate differently in my culture and theirs.
Most working Koreans don't get home till after 8pm or later. In their culture it makes sense why the service men are going around at this time and why the grocery store would stay open till 12am. In the US we get up earlier, and go to bed earlier. Here they stay up late. Is one way right? No, just different.

A New Favorite

My favorite season has always been the fall. I love the change of colors and the briskness of the air. But since living in Korea I think my mind has chosen a new favorite. My feelings of anticipation are so great here in Korea while awaiting spring. Maybe it's because it's so brown and dull in the winter with everything dead and all I can see are concrete buildings. Or because it was the first season we experienced when arriving here 3 years ago and I was living in a honeymoon of cultural bliss so in my mind every spring is wonderful. It is just beautiful seeing all the flowers all over the campus and on the streets.

Today is one those days I have been wishing for all winter. A balmy 65 and perfect for throwing open the windows. It was so inspiring Joe and I did most of our spring cleaning! I love the feeling of putting away the snow boots and heavy jackets, of cleaning out all the spaces that were left to gather dust throughout the winter. Ah, a breath of fresh spring air throughout the house can do a soul good.

Memories

How is it that certain food or smells can just whisk you away into memory land? Recently a friend here taught me how to make home made bread. Mmmmm :) 9 years ago I fought a battle with the bread maker and oven. Admitting defeat after many disappointing concoctions, I gave up attempting to make my own bread and have been store buying since. Well after 9 years I thought it was worth giving it a try again. And oh, how wonderful it came out. It was while I was enjoying a little slice of whole wheat heaven, when I was whisked away to the good ol' college days when Sarah (Witters) Houk and I would travel to her hometown, Lawrence. There is special bread shop, The Great Bread Harvest Co. where I experienced what true home made goodness is made of. And the choices! Spinach feta (my absolute fave), cinnamon, cheese and chive, honey whole wheat, red, white and blue. The best part about it was they give you free samples of any kind they are making that day. Now there are "samples" a tiny two bites. And then there is The Great Harvest SAMPLE. A huge slice that could fill you up and the best part was you could have more than one! I guess for broke college kids this was just too good to pass up. Almost every time we went to her hometown we'd make a stop and get our fill of carb heaven, and buy a loaf to share with her folks. This summer the boys and I traveled to Lawrence to see Sara and her girls and on the way I just couldn't resist a stop to the bread shop to pick up a loaf to share. I have many wonderful memories of my trips home with Sara. I have to add that her mom made a great loaf of bread too and so does she. And now I hope to join the ranks of great bread makers. No more store bought loaves for me!

Culture differences

Last week Brett and I had a day together. Joe and I try and do this with the boys a couple times a month, when we each spend individual time with one boy. They are so different when you get them one on one. Brett had asked that the next time I make the trip to our beloved Costco, if he could go along. I prefer to go alone because it usually costs less money! The more of us that go the more opinions are voiced about what to buy. But I made sure he knew ahead of time that the only things going to be bought were the items on my list. Our trip was enjoyable as we dined on the lovely cuisine of hot dogs and pizza, made our way through the rows of American food items we so dearly miss and picked up our items to take home. On our train ride home we were seated across from 4 teenage boys, probably between the ages of 15-17 years old. In this particular train you can turn the seats around to face one another, which they had done. I noticed myself trying not to stare as they interacted. They were seated facing each other, with their legs up and feet underneath each other's bottoms. One boys had his hand casually laying on the boy's leg next to him. I thought to myself this is one thing I have never seen in America! In Korea they call this skinship. When you are friends with someone, one way to show your friendship is by touching. It is not uncommon to see girl friends holding hands and guys walking with their arms around each other. This happens with every age group. I have seen men is their 50's with their arms intertwined. It was very surprising to me the first time one of my girl friends held my hand. I realized how culturally different this struck me. I think the longer I've lived here the more I've become calloused to the differences and then at times like these when I feel caught off gaurd, I remember just how culturally different we think.

What to write?

I'm a wanna be blogger. I dream of writing more, of composing beautiful posts but the reality is I sit down and most of the time my mind goes blank. I read other people's blog and enjoy hearing their thoughts, wanderings and insights and then think, I should be better about blogging. I should write down the things that strike me as amusing or ridiculous, but I wonder how many of you actually want to read about it anyways. It also takes time that I just don't make. I know I have it, I just don't do it. So I'm fessing up....I'm a wanna be, and I'm ok with that. For those of you who cruise by here sometimes to check up on us, sorry it takes so long.

Finally an answer!

Hello Everyone. I finally got an answer from Firstgiving and they were able to extend my web page until December 2009. If you were waiting to make a donation it is now possible! Thanks again to everyone helping raise funds!

Water fund: Important info on dontations

Hello, if you were trying to donate on www.firstgiving.com/elenawilley, they have closed the page as of 31st. I'm not sure what happened, maybe my mistake but the set end date for the fund raiser was listed as Dec. 31st, 2008 instead of 2009. I have contacted them about extending the date and opening the fund raising page again. I hope to hear from them on Jan 2nd and will post again once I know what to do. For those of you who were trying to donate, hold on! And check back again in a day! Sorry for the mishap.

Also, thank you so much for all of you who have contacted me about wanting to help with the fund raiser! I am so encouraged that this has captured the hearts of other people too. There are some great fund raisers in the works and others who have contacted me about donating at different times in the year. Change will happen when we work together!

Two proud boys

Yesterday the boys changed their Tae kwon do belts from yellow to green. As far as I understand, to move to the next belt they need to turn in the cards that they receive for participation and knowing most of the current moves. They were so proud and excited. Brett wanted to make sure Joe and I were both there to see them receive there new belts. I have never seen another parent there, the children either get picked up by the bus/teacher or walk themselves. The other children love to talk to us when we are there. They are trying to speak to us in English and I'm trying to speak to them in Korean! They boys thoroughly enjoy going to class. Ian asks every weekend when they don't have class why they can't go. The classes not only involve the Tae kwon do moves but also running, stretching, jumping rope, tumbeling, and respect/etiquette.

Green Eggs and Ham (or granola, in my case)

In the story of Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss there is a man being followed, badgered, and annoyed by Sam. Sam is convinced that the man will like green eggs and ham if he only tries it. Many times I feel like Sam. Recently Brett asked for granola. It is not readily available in any store around here so I planned to buy the two hefty bags at Costco when I visited this week, only to be appalled that the price had jumped from $16 to $22! I decided I would try to make my own granola. The next day I whipped up some which I thought tasted pretty yummy. I was excited to greet Brett in the morning with a bowl for him only to be shot down with "that doesn't look the same" "why does it have nuts in it?" "I wanted the other granola" Brett, you may like it... Try it, try it and you may... If you know the ending of the book the man does try it and discovers he likes green eggs and ham, thus the ending to my story as well.
I have a vague memory of my mother saying she wished I had a child like me one day. She got her wish! Oh, how the tables have turned and now I will be the persistent Sam I am.

Clean Water Fund

Imagine tomorrow waking up and not having running water anymore and the only available water was more than a mile (or kilometer) away in a small pond. And that pond was also the water hole for animals (you can bet there would be some feces in it!) No showers, or coffee to start the day, only a hike carrying buckets to fill and then carrying them home--roundtrip about two hours. You could only carry about 10 gallons each time, how dramatically life would change. This is reality for millions of people in the world, bacteria are rampant and people are dying just because they don't have access to clean water, yet how quickly we are able to access water everyday for every purpose. When I read about this in a World Vision Summer 2007 magazine it forever changed my life. (Articles: Just Add Water, Water in a Child's Life, and Splashes.) I have been wondering what I can do. I am setting a challenge out to raise the money needed for a deep water well to be dug in a community by the end of 2009. The cost is $18,000! I know most do not have that kind of money but as a group of people we can raise that over the course of a year. With your help, we can make a difference together in the lives of many! I will be working on this all year, would you join me in thinking outside the box to help others around the world? Get creative and get others involved. Give a donation as a Christmas gift, a birthday present, or anniversary gift. Do a fundraiser, walk-a-thon or bake sale or help raise funds. Please pass this along. Change happens when a group of people work towards the same goal!

To learn more click on the "First Giving" widget on the top right of this page.

Celebrating 9 years

It's hard to believe we've been married for so long, yet it's gone by so fast. We had the wonderful opportunity to get away just the two of us (thank you Bruce and Susan for watching the boys!) and headed to Namisam island about 2 1/2 hours bus ride from here. The island is known for Winter Sonata, a romantic T.V. drama that filmed there. It is 5k of beautiful nature and with the season being fall, many, many colorful trees! My favorite season is the fall, probably because growing up in AZ I never saw the leaves change colors. The first year I experienced fall I fell in love with the beauty of it and look forward to it every year. As you can see we took a lot of photos of the the trees.

Tae kwon do

Tae kwon do is a big deal in Korea. There are studios in every apartment complex and it seems that all children participate in it at some point. We have been toying with the idea of Brett taking it for awhile and finally decided to start he and Ian in lessons. They will be going 3x a week. Most places do not start students until they are 5 but this place starts at 4yrs and it is directly outside our apartment. Today was our first class. There are about 7 other kids ranging from 4-8 years old. The teacher speaks a little English and between his broken English and the boys limited Korean they were able to understand. Of course all they really need to do it follow along with what everyone else is doing. I thought this would be a great way for them to be hearing and hopefully learning some Korean, meeting other kids from our apartment/neighborhood and getting some energy out. I stayed to watch and just today we learned the words for master(teacher), right and left, hand, foot and go. The kids did stretching, running races, jumping rope, and tae kwon do poses. Ian was disappointed at the end of the hour when it was done. They look so cute in their uniforms, don't you think?

Costume party

This year a group of us got together to have a Halloween costume party. We procrastinated till the last day to think of something so Joe and I's were pretty simple. Dressed as himself Joe put a cotton ball on his eye. Anyone know what the reference is? Cotton Eye Joe, ha ha. It won out over a Cup of Joe (how is the world were we going to make that?) My costume was a sign. Shirt $20, pants $25, shoes $50, costume that needed minimal effort: Priceless.

One of the reasons our costumes were simple is because we took hours making Ian's. He was the best looking Robot, for a whole 5 minutes! I can't blame him though, who wants to be confined to a box all night!
Brett went showing off his muscles as Mr. Universe 2008.

Joe said we've officially earned a new badge of parenthood: costume making.

Tooth be told

Brett lost his first tooth this month and another tooth is loose. He was pretty excited to feel it wiggle back and forth, so excited he spent the whole day lightly pushing and pulling at it. The next day it was grossly hanging on, flopping back and forth. Brett tends to be uneasy about change so I was worried that this right of passage was going to be a time of turmoil for it seemed as though we needed to yank it out. He also does not have a high tolerance for pain or blood, so you can understand my concern. To my great surprise (and relief) he decided on his own to pull it out. The 'tooth fairy' gave him 1,000 won which in the US equals about 80 cents with the exchange rate being so low. I'm sure the going rate is higher these days but he was pretty excited about getting any money. He knows it was Joe but we had a good time with it anyways.

Letting go of the training wheels

Recently a friend gave us a new bike. It was suppose to be for Ian who has out grown his tricycle but it was bigger than Brett's bike. So the bike became Brett's new bike. His old bike had training wheels on it though he didn't really use them anymore. We thought what a great time for Brett to learn to ride without the extra wheels. But when we took him to the park to try he was too worried about falling over even though I was holding the back of the bike. He begged for training wheels to be put on. After putting the wheels on we realized they were too short and didn't even touch the ground. He desperately wanted to try out his new bike and we headed out to the parking lot where he took off like a bullet and never touched the training wheels to the ground. He was so scared of trying it without the wheels but really they just gave him the "safety" he needed to boost his confidence and take off riding. It made me wonder how many times I've needed some type of training wheels to get my confidence up just to realize I wasn't using the wheels at all.

Death all around

Maybe it's a season but recently there seems to be deaths all around me. It started in our own family with grandmother, but over the summer I knew of 4 others, and just this month 2 more. It has me thinking about the fragility of life. One day a person you know is here and then their not. Right before Joe left for Tanzania this summer I had the thoughts that he was going to die. I started thinking of what life without my spouse would be like. I was devastated. What would I do, where would I live? I think these things are good to think about ahead of time but not get too caught up in them. I kept telling myself to calm down and change the subject in my head. Thankfully nothing happened to Joe on his trip and my worries where just that, and lines added to my face that weren't needed!

Everything takes extra time

I found a set of pillows I really liked at our local mega store but they didn't have enough. Since I have yet to find someone who can speak English at this store and the lady did not understand my charades, I called a Korean friend to help me order more. No problem, maybe took an extra 5 minutes. The sales clerk called my friend back a week later to let her know that the pillows had arrived. When I arrived at the store I could not find the women who would have recognized me and have known I came for the pillows. I stood and waited 5 minutes hoping she would show up. No luck. I looked for anyone who worked in that dept. No luck. I decided to call my friend that had helped me order. She didn't answer....what do I do now? Leave the store without the pillows? No way, I had gone there just to pick them up. I decided I would call another friend, explain the situation and ask them to speak to the door greeter at the store and have him page someone to that dept. Easier said then done. After calling 4 people, trying to explain the situation to one and hearing their confusion as to what in the world I was asking them to do, I decided to head home, pillow-less. Fortunately my friend called back just as I was leaving the store. I went back into the store, handed the confused looking greeter my phone, he paged someone to come with the pillows and I left happy. This little 5 minute errand only took me 45 minutes. Ahh the frustration of communication.
Since we have been back I have been asked, insinuated and told 4 times that I should know more Korean. I agree! Life would be a lot easier. Time to start studying again.

Back in Korea

It has been a busy couple of weeks for us since the boys and I returned. Two days after we arrived back we moved to a new apartment. Moving seems to be the best cure for jet lag because I spent all my time cleaning, sorting and organizing our new place that I just pushed past the exhaustion. I wanted to get it done.

Our new place is great! It is probably 800sq feet and has a 3rd bedroom as compared to our previous 2 bedroom 500 sq ft. When we first arrived back to our old apt I was shocked by how small it felt. I shouldn't have been so surprise since we lived in grandmothers 4,000sq feet house all summer. I am really grateful to have moved to a bigger place. We had asked the university to make the key deposit for us (around $20,000 US dollars) and we offered to pay our rent of $500 and utilities (at our other apt we didn't pay anything). We were pleased and surprised to find out that we are only going to need to pay our utilities. I have been thanking God for answering my prayers! We are in a different neighborhood but still close to places we know. We are now behind the university, about 10 minutes walking for Joe to his office. One of my friends live in our building and has been very helpful.

Now that we have settled in we started our new school routine. I'm tired already! I remember my friends from college and how in their first year of teaching they all seemed incredibly tired. I now understand how they felt. And I only have two children to focus on! I am hoping that setting a new routine and standard will pay off in the end and get easier once the boys get the hang of it. Until then, I am going to bed early.

We sure enjoyed our extended vacation in the US and spending time with so many people. But it's also good to be back in Korea.

What's next?

I am a planner by nature and since we moved to Korea I've been asking the Lord, "What's next?" I wonder where we will go after, back to KC or another city or country? What kind of job Joe will do and what we will be involved in. This summer God reminded me to be content where I am, he'll let me know what's next when we need to know. But I've want to know and because of looking ahead I don't always enjoy the present NOW. So this sememster I want to focus on the present. Enjoying the NOW moments with my family and friends and trying to bathe myself in patience to wait for what the Lord has next. In answer to the question everyone asks "How long are you staying there?" I say, God will let us know. I'm enjoying the NOW.