The Makings of a Great Literacy Program

Please note the student writing sample below. After being given the prompt, "I like to eat ____," my student was enthusiastic about writing a sentence that said, "I like to eat an extremely big pumpkin." Not bad for a 6-year -old ELL (English Language Learner) student! But, he got sidetracked. Had to get up and go to the bathroom (I'm pretty sure it was a #2), and when he came back, he had to hurry to finish. As you can see below, this was the result.

I wrote the word "pumpkin" in his personal dictionary for further reference.

Daily Life

Here are some images from our daily life. We have some friends coming and some going right now, so we're in a double transition!

This is our church that we attended in the fall and have been back to since we returned to Korea.

Left to Right: Pastor Casino, Jennie, Ernie, Pastor Moon, Guy I don't know

Some of our good friends here: Ernie and Jennie

Candid. :-)

Sunset in Bundang. The lovely color is due to what Michael calls "particulate matter" in the atmosphere, aka smog.

We found a hiking haven. We think we can be happy now!

Korean cemetery

These are my students. As you can see, birthdays are a big deal, due to the size of the banner. The lady on the right is my boss, Jennifer.

My students again. This is about as still as I can keep them. 2 seconds later they were wiggling! To quote a veteran kindergarten teacher, "They're lucky they're cute!"

Hand-washing saves lives--and so do gloves!

Michael and I visited a public "health" clinic for our mandatory health screening, as the capstone to our visas. It was simple: a urine drug test and a blood HIV test. But let me back up...

I distinctly remember my 6th-grade teacher telling us in a DARE class that he would always insist his needles be opened right in front of him to make sure that they were clean. For some reason this story has always stuck in my mind, and as we walked into the clinic, I told Michael that we needed to insist on getting a clean needle. We didn't realize that we would have to insist that the blood-drawing lady put on gloves!

But it was indeed that way. We watched her draw blood from other patients, gloveless, so when it came Michael's turn, he asked her to wear gloves. She went to wash her hands. "No, gloves, please. It's for you--for your safety!" he said. A confused look followed. He gestured the donning of gloves. With a sigh and a huff, she went to fetch some gloves, as though her time were being wasted. She came back, not with surgical gloves, but with food service gloves. Sigh.

My turn came, and did she change her gloves? No, she did not. I vowed that I would seize her personal bank account if I contracted HIV. Not likely, but we were both surprised that in a developed country such as Korea, basic hygiene like gloves would be ignored. "Unbelievable!" We said as we left. "Unbelievable!"

New Temporary Home

Thurday night ended up being the last night we had to sleep in what we affectionately now call the "Bordello;" i.e. Korean motel. We have inherited the apartment that belonged to the teachers we replaced at Kids' College, and as they moved out Friday night, we moved in. What a blessed change!

I took a few pictures, but please forgive the backlighting.

Here you have the entrance hallway. Cabinets and storage make up the entire left wall, bathroom is on the right.

Kitchen!

Here's the living room; it's a straight shot in from the doorway. We inherited all the furniture you see.

Here's the loft that we use as a bedroom. The staircase comes up to the left of the bed. Behind where I was standing is a desk and lamp. You can't quite stand up in the loft, but it's a fun place to sleep!

The little staircase that goes up to the loft. To the left is the kitchen and behind me is the living room.

And of course, how could I leave out the bathroom? No bidet on the toilet, so I suppose we'll always have to use toilet paper. ...We all have some sacrifices to make...sigh...

So that's the tour of our apartment! It's small, but I find it very comfortable. Unfortunately, we can't settle here because the man who owns the apartment no longer wants to rent it to foreigners (no prejudices, of course!), so we will move down to the 2nd floor in two weeks. The apartment will look exactly the same, but we'll have to haul all that stuff down there.