Friday, September 18, 2009

Rykie's book


It often happens that we have free time during the morning if classes are suddenly cancelled etc. and I decided to make use of it in a constructive way. I enjoy writing songs, but never attempted to write poems or plays. I started writing a Christmas Play for Primary school children. I included songs and translated it into English. Now the play is in both languages. I then wrote one poem after the other and it became such a wonderful experience that I wrote about 20 English and 20 Afrikaans poems (not translations). We decided to have it printed and bound into one book. So now I have a few copies of my book called: Sing, say, play and Sing, se, speel. Later I hope to have a CD with the songs on as well. A friend helped me to do the songs on the computer with a very amazing song writing program.

Johan and Susan Loubser came to visit us (teacher's in Korea from Mooreesburg) and bought my first copy.

Pieter's surgery


It became necessary for Pieter to undergo surgery. He has been struggling with a hernia for some time. On the Internet he found a hospital: Seoul National University Hospital, and called them. They have a department for foreigners and it turned out the Lord led him to the best hospital and best surgeons, according to Koreans. The surgery occurred on the 2nd of Sept and by the grace of God he is doing extremely well and is back at school. We are very thankful to the Lord for undertaking for us.

The Professor who did the surgery could speak English well and most of the nursing staff too. The receptionists at the International Health Care Section is fully bilingual. That helped a lot to make us feel comfortable. We stayed over in a hotel for the first night after Pieter was released from Hospital. So it turned out that the operation was on Wed and he came out on Thursday. On Friday we travelled back by train. All went very well.

Pieter's birthday


Every Summer and Winter holiday we have to conduct Vacation Schools. Pieter did a Summer School at Yong Bong Elementary School which was well attended. It so happened that the last day of Summer School, coincided with his birthday. So the students and teachers gave a big birthday party for him. They gave him a Pierre Cardin fountain pen (which he hasn't had for years) and a huge cream cake - not that he should eat cream cake.

School Life


Every now and again we have a highlight at school.
Pieter is at a new school which has 2000 students, but also teaches at a "farm school" with 70 students. Rykie's "farm school" was too small and closed permantly. She is now at one school, close to our home and enjoys it.
Rykie: One of the things I always wanted to do, was pottery. I had the opportunity to go with a Grade 6 class and enjoyed it.

Martus came to visit. Praise the Lord!


It was wonderful to have Martus here for 3 weeks during his Summer holiday. We did many things together, such as visit Seoul (twice) and stay over for the weekend. He came to visit our schools and attended some classes with us. He also took the train and had his own adventures by train. He visited Daejeon and Yongsan and found the browsing around in the electronic market very interesting. Time went by just too quicly.

Soccer is one of Martus' passions. He found the World Cup Stadium and took us there as well. What an impressive place!

Back again

We are back again in Hongseong for the 2nd year. We are still teaching at the same schools and things are going well. We are right now attending an English Church in a city, Cheonan, which is an hour away by train. We try to go regularly.