What can we do as consumers?

As many of you know - I spent some time in Uganda at the end of May and into June last summer doing some mission work.


Many of you also know that the International Aid that has been received into many of the different countries of Africa have proved useless due to the corruption of the governments of the countries. Even some of the best economical analysts say to STOP giving direct funding just because it's going to take a process built within the societies in Africa to start a change headed in the right direction.

I came across this a few days ago and wanted to share it with you:
Crisis in Congo

Be sure to listen to the audio clips as well, because it gives a lot of insight to what some of the photos are depicting.

Bottom line, though, this photo journalist offers a very simple solution as consumers - ASK before you purchase your gold and diamonds.... find out where they come from. Awareness of this issue is going to be one of the biggest ways to help stop the funding of the people's and children's armies.



The scenario depicted in the film "Blood Diamond" isn't far fetched guys.... if you haven't seen it.... I encourage you to watch it.



Also - for a popular site with some information on the situation in Uganda - visit Invisible Children



Blessings!

Are we there YET?! (To Spring, that is)

Seoul's weather has been very similar to the up and down cyclical temperature patterns of Boise. It will be warm and sunny one day (or two, if we're lucky) and then it will get cold and gray. And in today's case... it's SNOWING! It has snowed maybe 3 times the entire time I've been here and I'm quite surprised to see that it's snowing outside today.

This last weekend Sharon and I set out to brave the Namdaemun market. Many of you may have seen coverage from the news about the Namdaemun gate fire. The fire was started by a man who's 70 years old and was angry at the government for disputes about monetary value of property. He set this National Treasure on fire a few weeks ago and Koreans are heart broken and angry. Here are some pictures from the blaze:

We went over to the gate and there has been a large wall built around it, but here are some pictures of the area.






There were so many people out on this day! We got back home after a few hours and were utterly exhausted just from sensory overload!

I had some good food and fellowship yet again on Sunday - I was finally able to treat myself to some Shabu Shabu! Shabu Shabu is actually a Japanese hot pot dish made with thinly sliced meat and vegetables, cabbage (sometimes tofu), different types of mushroom. Anyhow... it's one of my favorite things to eat. It's absolutely delicious. From L to R: Cathy, Me, Rachel and Hilary.


Here's some pictures from later on that evening. L to R: Ruda, Trevor, Jess B., Cathy, Rachel and myself:

Lunar New Year Activities

So last weekend I had the opportunity to take some time to travel. We had Wed - Sun off for the Lunar New Year. Thursday I headed to Everland (One of Korea's amusment parks, very similar to Disney Land) and went to Caribbean Bay - which is an indoor waterpark/spa... very fun to say the least. And very relaxing!


Since I didn't take my camera inside, here's a picture of what we experienced: Lazy river wave pool, tube slides, the works!


There were many different hot tubs filled with different scents for different things... we also got mud masks and spent time in what's called a "beauty capsule" I wouldn't mind another trip for sure.

Friday I spent some time shopping with a new friend, Boram - So we went to Myong-Dong and shopped and worked our way through the very busy crowds! I have found I really enjoy shopping during my time off. Thankfully I don't buy everything... but Seoul has lots of places to shop! Later that night I ventured off to meet Ryan and Collin (friends from training) down in Busan, which is down at the southern tip of S. Korea. It's a big beach city and I'm definitely going back in the summer to work on a tan! It was a 3 hour KTX train ride. I was excited to experience the bullet train..... 300 kph! Here's a picture of the beach down in Busan:

Ryan and I on Sat morning at Haeundae beach.... I'm desperately wanting McDonalds for breakfast this day.... so we were plowing through the streets trying to find one, but stopped for a pic. More of our training group friends were supposed to make it, but ended up not catching the train in time.

We did some damage with the fireworks on the beach on Friday night. Roman candles aren't illegal, so we had lots of those, too!

This is Ryan and myself at dinner - WE WERE STARVING!!

We also took a trip to the Busan Museum of Modern Art!

Pushing with all my might....

High Five! This was a statue with a bunch of cartoon characters on it.

PIPER!

I received a very encouraging email from a friend this week and in it contained some quotes from Christian author John Piper. I enjoyed them so much that I really wanted to share them with all of you. These were encouraging this past week as things seemed to have become a bit monotanous lately and also coming back from vacation I was not looking forward to going back to work. These last few weeks have been a little rough. Lots of up and down stuff. But I'm thankful for any hurt or frustrations I may have been experiencing... it helps to remind me I'm ALIVE! : )

Enjoy-

Piper writes something his professor in seminary shared dealing with "overcoming our bent toward blindness for the wonders of the ordinary".

He states:
-At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above me and about me.

-I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding 24 hours, but rather a unique event filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.

- I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.

- Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life in the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, soe stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega.

I really enjoyed this and I hope you do too. I'll update ya'll on my trip to Busan shortly once I get my computer fixed..... yet again. I'm getting closer to purchasing a Mac. : )

Blessings!

Weekend Fun

This is some footage from Hil and I messin around on the equipment in a park....

Please disregard the silly shoes/coat combo.

Saturday we all met up to surprise Cathy for her birthday. She was under the impression her and I were getting together for a coffee date. Little did she know everyone would be waiting at Starbucks to greet us and take her out to lunch!

Cathy, Yunsun and I

Here's lunch - a table full of side dishes. It was fabulous. I fall more and more in love with Korean food every time I eat it. I always have thought of myself as a picky eater.... but ironically enough, I eat pretty much anything. It shocks the heck out of people! Even Koreans are surprised at what I'll eat. Here's my take on it - it probably won't kill me, so why not?!

Happy Birthday Cathy!

Later on in the evening we headed to a fabulous penthouse (ish) suite where Michelle is housesitting and had a fabulous dinner party. We enjoyed an amazing dinner, great dessert (chocolate cupcakes with nutella frosting) and some good laughs playing Apples to Apples and some random game we decided to make up. I'm so blessed to spend my time with all these people!

This upcoming week is the Lunar New Year - which means I nearly have the whole week off. Working only Mon and Tues this week. I was very interested in doing some traveling but it's just so busy and expensive to travel during this time of the year. It's the big holiday here. Bigger than Christmas for the Koreans. So instead, Michelle, Justina and I will head out on the big town of Seoul to take part in some pampering and exploration of the city.
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Here's another photo of some of my students: Jimmy (I like to call him Jiminy Cricket), Mark and Andrew (I call him MISS Andrew.... he calls me Mr. Korea) Andrew is actually kind of a hard student to have in class for some teachers, but we've come to a very good understanding of each other and have a really good time. He's actually become one of my favorite students! : )

We only have a few more weeks left in this term - I'm going to miss having these boys around every week!