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.