October 3, 2009

• The Harvest Moon Festivities 2009

  

  Dear Folks,

     Here is my youngest son getting an introduction to two aunts on the maternal side of his family.  He had a great time yesterday, getting loads of attention.  He gets bored with the same surroundings so it was great for him to visit his maternal grandparents and drink up the attention.  Below is another scene from that home.

  

  This is the kind of food we have, and we eat in the middle of the living room floor, in shifts.  Men eat first, with women and children eating later.  It's always been that way with cultures here, long before South Korea was ever a nation. 

  Now, My Little General is peeking in my office.  Everybody likes to come in here.  

   

    We visited my parents-in-law's home yesterday to celebrate the Harvest Moon, part of a three-day holiday left over from pre-Korean, pre-Christian, primitive festivities and beliefs.  Nobody believes any of the basis of this holiday anymore, but we indeed enjoy getting three days off. 
  

   

  My older children are getting taller. 
     Actually, my family likes it; whereas, none of my students enjoy it a bit.  They don't know their families and relatives very well, and don't like them, prefering their friends.  Too, there are no computers at the grandparents' homes, so they get rather bored eating and watching grandma's favorite soap operas, something we avoided by playing outside on the playground under a brilliant blue sky.  I did some juggling, which made my arthritic back and fingers feel supple and young again.  I even woke up feeling good.  Maybe I'll juggle some more now. 
   
     We had a good time outside, where we took a lot of photos.  I will send some, and also upload some onto my photo site:  www.flickr.com/photos/wnlong. 
   
     We are getting closer to our grand exodus to the U.S. of A., perhaps one year later.  Right now, I'm just trying to organize my photos better.  They are a mess.  I spend a lot of time with my burgeoning brood.  We will probably look into doing some adopting, one or two girl South Korean babies, before too long.  Gotta keep that brood a burgeoning, now.  I'd better get off the horn and take our children to church now.  We never miss a beat on that count, much like my father did for us when young, that and we don't miss a single bedtime Bible reading/prayer session. 
   
     My mother said to me this week that she can't imagine what it must be like to grow up without that.  She says that to lack faith in God must just make people helpless in their daily lives.  I agree; I would not want to go there.  I can see the relative eviscerating effects more starkly around me here in South Korea, where people grew up in a culture that has had considerably less Christian influence over the years.  It is impossible for the average secular-minded, ostensibly "non-believing" American, growing up in such a protected culture, thriving in a milieux of such heavy, long-term Christian influence, to fully realize the debt and advantages he carries. 
   
     It takes about ten years of adult life lived in a different culture to begin to get a good handle on it all, and that only happens when you make your paycheck entirely on the private market, where you enjoy no power advantage in monopolistic, captive audience demand.  When you truly have to serve people in a market where they are completely free to reject your services, then you get to know them.  Otherwise, you are at a colossal disadvantage, which is what foreign workers labor under here in the colleges and school systems, and even private hagwons, where they are hired to stand up, pat their bellies and rub their heads, parroting for the gawkers.  It is absurd and does not serve those who would truly want to learn English.  

  • 11:24 pm
  • 1 Comment