Hosive

around this time every year, i used to preach a graduation sermon to my graduating high school students about what a different world they are about to enter. the inspiration for the series of messages came from the show ‘a different world’ which was a spinoff of ‘the cosby show’. the themes of my talks were the same on the cosby sequel: there is another world out there and its beyond what you can imagine.

something mind boggling has happened in burma/myanmar. a cyclone slammed into the country last week and the projections include 100,000 dead and millions displaced. articles are a-plenty about the situation. i’ve included a few links from diverse sources:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBw5sUoXe5e0Q25UniUtc29D2lYQ

http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/pray-for-burmamyanmar/#comments

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/893E25D5-625D-4ECC-A56C-FA267738DFA1.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/08/myanmar/index.html

meanwhile in this country….its a different world…..we do not have to worry about water, shelter or burning our dead….instead many are preoccupied with what to do with our $600/$1200 rebates from the government. i was challenged by a passing comment that i heard: most folks are only thinking about how they are going to spend it on themselves….and not thinking about how they can bless others.

i think i know what we’re doing with our rebates.

if you are thinking of giving, two groups that our church has worked with on the issues of disaster and relief are world vision and samaritan’s purse. we sent a team down to new orleans to aid with the clean up and rebuilding. we also have been sponsoring children(all in the one village)in rwanda. so we like both of these groups and trust their work. both are receiving donations.

perhaps this is a visual parable to how different a world i live in….i was struck by the amount of packaging and waste needed to get me my replacement headphones. shure sure makes some fraking good headphones. and they have a great warranty….replacement or repair up to 2 years! my left earbud went out and i happily sent it back in for an exchange

to my shock, i got this packaging limo for my headphones. look at all that plastic, cardboard and bubblewrap needed to get me quality sound! i also got 5 copies of instructions in 5 different languages! rather than “waste” time with shipping different booklets to different countries, they give everybody every volume!

i live in a world where headphones get better treatment than…………

(for those unfamiliar with parables……you may have to do some work to connect it to (your own) real life)

it’s over! to the displeasure of my sweet t, our trip to korea ended and we were headed home(with a big box of seaweed)…..and this is my last post about the fatherland! it’ll center around loki events as in Loki, the Norse god of mischief: weird and surreal cultural things we encountered in korea.

no better place to start than home sweet home….theresa’s aunt’s home where we stayed. i always tease visitors about the “security” cameras that we installed in the rest rooms for their safety(they don’t really exist. really). but how about a security window so that we can check in on you and your progress. i’m not kidding. take a look yourself:

here’s a view from outside the bathroom window and a view of the window as seen inside by the user. what diabolical man with a devious haircut is spying on my sweet t? but seriously, who puts a window in a bathroom….a viewing window???

here are some pics from the folk village showing ancient life including…..some weird rocklifting, manly demonstration of strength that’s got all the boys excited…and uh-oh, someone’s coloring outside the lines!

a friendly nutritional guide to what to eat and not to eat during pregnancy: fish, chicken and rice: good! but beware of duck, horse and dog lest your child inherit their characteristics! eeek!

we are posing with the standard zodiac characters that match up with our birth years….but we noticed the korean attempt to address a typical dilemma in translating the animals into american english. the words selected maybe technically correct but come across offensive. for example, who wants to know be known as a serpent? (though snake is not great either)……but the “rooster” has always generated junior high level snickers.

but all that is fixed with snippets of paper and glue sticks! you can see someone wanted to see what rooster was hiding….and tried to peel the paper with no success. but…….

if you look real close….you can read the secret word underneath……..

from the ultra clean, ultra cool seoul subway system:….nothing seemingly funny or strange at first glance…..just gas masks for the thousands of people riding the subways in case of chemical attack….except….

wah, wah……there’s only 18 of them……the other people get a fire extinguisher.

some bathroom fun…though they say men and women……they both look pretty feminine to me! if i had to pee real bad and there were no words, i would have to pause before running into one of the bathrooms and hope i got it right.

more bathroom humor and my only mockery of korean english…..another confusing mixed message as you look for relief.

even more potty humor……..its poop on a stick. i mean mr. poop on a stick. nothing says i was thinking of you in korea more than this souvenir!

we started this with the can…let’s end with it……a sophisticated one! look at the space age options on this thing! my favorites are the booty washer and dryer. i did not try it. nor did i try the wash my dress option.

but good times in korea overwhelmingly exceeded strange moments. it was a great, great trip(see the multiple earlier entries). i hope to return one day. and even though my sweet t is mad at me at the time of writing, she is still my favorite thing from korea.

when theresa informed me that we would take a trip to the south of south korea….to the farmland where her dad lived…and where her uncle continues to grow crops, raise animals….a place where the family grew up bathing in a lake ten minutes away….i balked. i envisioned squatter toilets or worse…an outhouse; sleeping in a barn…and critters! lots of critters running around my room as i try to sleep. i was not looking forward to this. especially with no information….and only with what i could imagine.

but even though the farm was old schoolish….with them making kimchi the old fashioned way in large jars outdoors, with them growing their own veggies, fruits, soy beans…theresa’s aunt and uncle lived in a modern two storied home with terraces, heated hard wood floors, critter free bedrooms and yeah! a toilet in a modern bathroom….sorta. if you notice….the bathroom is also the shower. it was a little strange showering….like…where do i put my clothes? it also felt weird because i was getting the whole room wet….but you’re supposed to.

but the real story for me is the generosity of theresa’s family. despite $100 per tank gas prices and treacherous weather conditions, they cheerfully took us all over gyungju to see the sights including the fields and fields of cherry blossoms that this region is known for…all because i mentioned in passing that i heard about the cherry blossom festival. gyungju is a few hours drive from their home!

the next day, they took us to an incredible sight in their back yard. not that far from their farm was a buddhist temple built by a family friend. i was respectful since i usually am not that thrilled with visiting temples especially with the burning incense that makes my senses revolt. but it was stunning….the family friend made all these buddhas…..

they took us to see some other natural sights including a few amusing moments. they made us rub the buddha mostly for baby luck hoping that it would help us in our fertility. we also stumbled across a stone tribute to an old school korean game that i saw in college and on fat albert called buck buck. i kid you not….you stick your heads in each other’s crotches while others jump on top of you to try to break the chain.

i tried to join in and paid for it.

i was overwhelmed by their generosity. they stuffed us with snacks, both korean and american because they didn’t know what we would eat so they got a variety; they paid for every meal including soondiboo, pork bbq and a traditional korean meal with tons of little dishes…they even stopped to get the signature read bean cakes of the region for us. they gave us money. they bought us tickets for the fast train back to korea so we could have more time back in seoul.

then they asked us to forgive them…..if they did anything wrong.

????????

they did nothing wrong. they opened their home to me. they lavished generosity on me. they made every effort to show love. their humility humbled me. their desire to welcome me into the family left me silent.