Sunday, September 21, 2008

Summer in Korea and the 2nd Semester

When we walk down the main street, we pass the JoyYang Gate. It was part of the ancient wall, and entrance to the old city.

On the other side of this gate is down town, Hong Seong. This is 7 minutes from our apartment and then another 7 minutes slow walking, we are in the centre of town.

After being in Seoul for the long weekend last week, we realised what a big city it is. We are happy that we don't have all that traveling to do here in our town. We can reach most places by walking. For anything further, a taxi is not too expensive.

Summer in Korea and the 2nd Semester

We have been in Hong Seong now for 7 months. The Summer here gives HOT a new meaning. We tried to walk slower, do less, and just do the minimum. Any effort resulted in a feeling of being in a Sauna after a long exercise. Well, almost. And then, one fine day, it was cooler and it has been cooler ever since. The Autumn here is fantastic. We really enjoy our early evening walks in the neighbourhood. We greet all the older ladies sitting on the sidewalks, having a chat with their neighbours. We try and dodge the truck spraying a white cloud of "stuff" for the mosquitoes and after crossing the bridge, we're back at our apartment.

During the Summer vacation, we did Summer Schools for 3 weeks, out of the 5 weeks. It was heavy going, but rewarding in a way. We did not do our regular curriculum, but tried to do fun things like making puppets, skits, and songs.

I (Rykie) am now trying to learn Archery, after seeing it on the TV a lot during the Olympic
Games. My School, Hong Ju Elementary, has a coach who is helping me, while I teach her a bit of English.

We still run a 2Him Fellowship on Thursday evenings. Pieter does a Bible Study on basic christian values. There are a few regular school children who attend, as well as 7 adults. We need prayer for these evenings. We hope that more will join us. Joseph is our interpreter and we appreciate him and his family's commitment to us. He also teaches with Pieter.

The new semester has started. We find that the students are now used to our way of doing things. We are also now used to their loud way of going about in the passages. They have settled down and we are enjoying the teaching.

BIG NEWS: We have DV two weddings coming up at the beginning of 2009. We are looking forward to our first leave in S A. Sune is planning to get married to Dewald Fourie and Erik found his future match, Marguerite Swart. We are very happy about the new developments. Pray for us that all the plans to put things in place (e.g. finances and practical issues), will go smoothly.