To all my blog readers, I have been very delinquent in making this blog into a useful form of communication to keep you up-to-date on my life, and I apologize. I trust, however, that you’ll be happy to forgive me and enjoy this post.
Before I start, here’s a message from Lomie, my littlest coworker, who just joined me: bn
vgyj
5kk,
She typed this interspersed with pointing to all the balls (circles) on the screen and turning on and off caps lock many times. I bribed her with a chance to borrow my shoes, so I could finish this post. Recently my shoes are one of her favorite things, along with the book Goodnight Moon and the song “Ducks Like Rain.”
(The following was originally composed as an email to be printed and shared on the fireplace at Jubilee)
Greetings from Deokso, South Korea, where I am sitting at my new desk in a freshly painted new office, trying to adjust the window for the optimum amount of fresh air without too much rain splashing in from the sign board outside. I can still make out the train station and the one tree beside the railroad tracks through the rain, but the mcdonalds sign is much clearer in the foreground. I just heard everyone oohing and groaning, so I got up and joined them to see a picture of the stream near our house inches away from overflowing onto the road. The Connexus teachers are all boiling eggs in the kitchen because they are going to make deviled eggs as their “friday activity” in class today. Fridays are always fun days for them: either games, crafts, or cooking projects.
A month ago today I was sitting in a classroom taking notes about circle processes during our Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute Summer Training. I’m the only one in the office whose full-time priority is NARPI, so the two and a half weeks of the program were both the peak of my workload and of my work-related excitement for the year. The administrative details of housing and registration and payments were quite stressful at first, but soon things settled down and I was able to enjoy meeting the NARPI participants from all over Northeast Asia and in the second week I was able to join the NVC and Facilitation class as the course documenter. Some highlights of NARPI for me were course activities that I was able to join, such as image theater, social times like meals and whitewater rafting, cultural sharing like Mongolian dancing and a Korean hand game, and the food which was traditional Korean and so healthy and fresh: mostly grown on property at our venue the DMZ Peace Life Valley. And then there was the field trip!! We were hosted by this great little town that calls itself a “tomato peace village” and joined local teens in an elaborate scavenger hunt. Now scavenger hunts are usually one of my favorite things, but this one will be hard to beat: we harvested wormwood and potatoes, made potato pancakes and tomato shaved ice dessert (tomato patbingsu), made good-luck totem poles topped with ducks (sotdae), and even caught little fishes by hand in a kiddie pool. All this with mixed groups of local teens, Connexus teachers and NARPI participants, staff, and volunteers from China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US. Wow. So much fun.
Since the training, I’ve been busy organizing receipts, writing the NARPI newsletter and MCC reports, painting our new office, and getting to know the three new Connexus teachers and one new Korea Peacebuilding Institute (KOPI) staff member who have joined us since the NARPI training. There was also a church retreat last weekend, and I shared a presentation with the church members about Jubilee. Life has been pretty busy here, but it has been enjoyable. I’ve been really glad for the community spirit that is building, for evening hang-out times and for the sharing at our Thursday morning devotions.
You can read our NARPI newsletter at: http://www.narpi.net/01_About_Narpi/NARPI%20Newsletter-%20Fall%202013.pdf
My NVC and Facilitation course group at NARPI
(Photo credit Jin Song Lee)
At the Grace and Peace Mennonite Church retreat
(Photo credit Minji Park)
kaiaalicia 