The Roberts in Korea

This Past Weekend

Last Saturday night Sarah attended the annual TCIS Drama Awards night celebration.  The event was attended by primarily high school drama students but since Sarah had an ensemble and solo part in the high school musical, “Godspell,” she was invited to attend.  Sarah borrowed a pretty black dress from a friend for the evening and it is a good thing that she did because she was honored at the event with the award of “Outstanding Vocal Ensemble Member.”  We are proud of Sarah.

On Saturday, many of us from TCIS boarded a bus and traveled two hours west to attend the wedding of the middle school secretary.  The bus ride to the wedding location was enjoyable.  The roads were lined with the green trees and bushes of springtime and the stalks of rice were beginning to poke through the flat sheen of water that covered the fields.

The wedding hall was elaborate, complete with fluorescent lights, chandeliers, a smoke machine, a bubble machine and a very loud sound system.  Becca played piano in a middle school ensemble that provided music for the wedding.

On the way home from the wedding we stopped at a “hue-gay-soh” (rest-stop) for an ice cream treat.  On the backside of the rest stop facility was a beautiful view of the hills and valleys of the area.  Here is a picture of Dina with our friend, LeeAnne.  We arrived back in Daejeon from the wedding at about 5:00 p.m. and then that evening Ryan chaperoned at the high school prom.

Not Too Busy to Smell the Flowers

These have been busy and good days here at TCIS.  Here is a great picture of the moon rising over the top of one of the TCIS dormitories.  The month of May is non-stop around here, but it is a good type of busy.  It is a busyness that is productive and that is leading to the completion of a school year and for some the culmination of an International School experience.

As we were walking home from school the other day, we realized that the roses were out once again.  This is the third May in a row that we have enjoyed the roses along this sidewalk here in Daejeon.  The first time we smelled these roses we were visiting Daejeon to lead the music at the Elementary Spiritual Emphasis Week.  The second time was at the end of our first full year of living in South Korea and now here we are, at the end of our second full year in Daejeon, stopping to smell the flowers again.

Over the past couple of weeks Becca has been busy playing musical instruments.  Two weekends ago our school hosted a Missions Symposium and Becca and some other students played some background music during the opening reception.  Last week Becca participated in the Spring Middle School Band Concert and during the concert the teacher presented her with the award of “Communicator” in the band.  We are proud of Becca.

Middle School Retreat

A couple of weeks ago Dina, Becca and Sarah boarded a bus and took part in the Middle School Retreat weekend.  They drove four hours to a place called "Sunday Beach" and they had a great time of playing games, swimming, worshiping God and just hanging out with friends.

Sunday Beach is located on a large river in South Korea.  On Saturday afternoon all of the kids and some of the adults took the plunge and went for a swim in the large but slow moving river.  Earlier in the day they had a game time that included a game where groups of students were given a huge bag of M and Ms and their job as a group was to separate the candy into color groups and spell a word with the different colored letters...the trick was that they were only allowed to use their feet.  It was a fun time but a big waste of M and Ms.

On Saturday night there was a big bonfire.  Actually, it was a HUGE bonfire.  The kids had a good time roasting marshmallows and avoiding the sparks from the fire.  On Sunday morning Becca and a friend led the morning worship on the bass and the guitar and then they boarded the bus for the long ride home to Daejeon.  It was a great weekend.

Guangzhou 8

On Wednesday afternoon Jason Cooper and I took a trip into the inner city area of Guangzhou that I will never forget.  With the help of some of the local Chinese people that were in attendance at the conference that we were participating in, we got some taxi directions to a very traditional and poor part of the city of Guangzhou.  The taxi driver seemed a bit hesitant to take us to this portion of the city.  It wasn’t an issue of safety as much as it was not a common place that foreigners wanted to visit.  He kept saying that he would drive us around because the streets were very dirty to walk around on.  He was right, the streets were very dirty, but we got out and walked around.

It was amazing to see the life of the Chinese people go on all around us.  The streets were very narrow, the shops were tiny and there were people everywhere.  People were buying, selling, delivering, carrying, talking, playing cards, sleeping, playing with their small children and playing with their pet cats and dogs.  The people did not seem to care that we were walking around their  neighborhood.  Life was too important to stop and gawk at some out of place foreigners.  It was apparent that the people in the community that we visited were very poor, yet not a single person asked us for money or tried to push us into buying something from them.

Some of the narrow streets and alleys that we walked down allowed us to get a glimpse into the living conditions of the people in that portion of the city.  Many of the living spaces were a single room that was only eight by eight feet square.  We saw families huddled together in these small rooms, sitting on the floor eating dinner, talking and…laughing.

The houses and buildings that the people were living in were extremely old and very run down.  It was hard to believe that some of buildings were still able to stand given their condition.  After seeing the deteriorated buildings in Guangzhou it is easy to imagine how so many people could die in a large earthquake incident like the one in Sichuan, China.  There was an element of simplicity and survival in the people and the place that we visited and their lives and situation had a profound impact on me.  The people had so little yet within the area that we visited there was a distinct sense of community and the people seemed happy.

Guangzhou 7

On Wednesday afternoon Jason and I had a break in the conference in the afternoon and instead of going to our rooms and taking naps we jumped in a taxi and went to one of the “innermost” parts of the city of Guangzhou.  This was an area of town that was indicative of the way that most of the people in the large Chinese city live in daily life.  This was not a tourist area—there were no souvenir shops nor were there any tourists or foreigners to be seen in the area—except for us.  In a later post I will share some more pictures and comments about what we saw and experienced in our visit to this very fascinating place.

The taxi ride to this area of town took about forty minutes.  Along the way there were lots of sights to see.  Above is a picture I took from the taxi that gives you a tiny idea of the huge volume of people that live, move and have their being in the city of Guangzhou.  The picture is not one of a group of people that are just getting out of a stadium after attending a crowded concert or sporting event—they are just people that are walking and riding their bicycles to and from work and/or home.

In our visit to the “inner-city” of Guangzhou we did walk through some local market areas where they were selling lots of interesting things that were associated with oriental medicine.  There were bags and bags of dried leaves, stems and roots, and there were all kids of strange and pungent smells associated with the products.  We passed by more that one outdoor shop where a person was sitting smoking something out of a very large, three foot long bamboo pipe.  The people smoking the large pipes looked very old but at the same time rather healthy.  I am sure it is good for you.

Posted in this blog post are some pictures of some of the items that we came across that were for sale at the oriental medicine markets.  For a very reasonable price we could have purchased some dried lizard skins, a huge bag of dried seahorses, and a bundle of dried snake skins.  These were just a few of the very unique things that we found for sale in the market area.

One shop that we came to was filled with all kinds of large jars and even some huge vats.  Upon closer inspection we found that the huge vats were filled with dead pickled snakes.  The vats were covered with transparent glass tops and it was surprising to see that the snakes were HUGE.  Many of them looked to be five to eight feet in length and about three to four inches around in diameter.  They were all dead but it was a bit creepy.  The girl in the shop took us over to a display case and tried to sell us a bottle of wine—snake wine. It was tempting... but we said no and quickly moved on down the street.

Guangzhou 6

The city of Guangzhou is a place of contrasts.  The roads are filled with expensive luxury cars but the sidewalks are even fuller with people walking, pulling carts and riding old bicycles that are rigged to carry loads of wood, water bottles, boxes, etc.

The trees, flowers and vegetation in the city are green, beautiful and tropical in nature but the skies are a gray/brown color and the sun is hidden behind a think blanket of unregulated pollution.

The retail prices on food and other items are seemingly low and advertisements are alluring yet the expendable cash of most of the people seems to be even lower.  Money and time is not wasted on extravagant things and treats.  This is quickly evident to me as I observe the street sweeper methodically do his job in the front of a relatively empty Starbucks coffee shop.

The poor, run-down, crumbling houses and apartments cower in the shadows of the new glass and steel skyscrapers all around them.  Both of them in their differences speaking loudly of an ideology that looks good at the outset and works well for a season, but over time deteriorates into ruins.

Guangzhou 5

Tuesday was a busy and good day for us here in Guangzhou.  Jason and I made our presentation to the conference attendees on Tuesday afternoon.  We spoke about the history of Christianity in South Korea, the current state of Christianity in South Korea particularly within the context of Christian Education and we  each shared a bit about our schools, Taejon Christian International School (TCIS) and Gyeonngi Suwon International School (GSIS).  It was fun sharing about our experiences and adventures in South Korea.

Speaking of adventures, this city of Guangzhou is a never ending adventure.  On Tuesday we went and visited a nearby university campus and enjoyed a walk around the huge campus of over 30,000 students.  Education is a very important thing to the Chinese people.  From one of the taller buildings on the campus I got a good picture of just a small part of the freeway overpass system that is here in Guangzhou.  At one point in our travels through the city we were traveling in the top lane of a four road, stacked overpass system.  When the road system is not able to meets the needs of the huge city they do not have room to widen the road, rather they just build another lane of traffic that runs parallel to the previous road.  It is amazing.

On Tuesday evening we went to a downtown shopping area and had some of fun walking through the shops, seeing the huge crowds of people and even buying a few things at very cheap prices.  There was never a dull moment while we were all shopping as the store merchants were merciless in their efforts to get our attention and encourage us to buy products from them.

Guangzhou 4

The city of Guangzhou is huge, with a population of 15 million people.  The city seemingly never ends.  However, it is just a small drop in the bucket compared to the country of China which has a population of 1.6 billion people.

The two primary languages used in China are Mandarin and Cantonese.  Here in Guangzhou the primary language is Cantonese and the primary type of food served here in this city is Cantonese Food.  We are eating all of our meals while at the conference in the hotel dining room and we are eating lots of delicious Cantonese food.  The variety is amazing and each meal usually includes about ten different entrees that are served in the family style manner.

On Monday evening we boarded a bus and went downtown to participate in a river night cruise of the Pearl River.  It was quite an experience.  The Pearl River is a very large and polluted river that runs through the center of the city of Guangzhou.  The river is lined with lots of elaborately lighted sky scrapers, office buildings and it is crossed by many unique bridges.

It was a lot of fun to sit on the top outer deck of the river tour boat and drink tea and eat watermelon while enjoying the lights of the city and the good conversation of some very interesting people from Australia. 

Guangzhou 3

On Monday of the conference we spent the day listening to presentations from various individuals from Christian schools from all over the world.  It has been so inspiring and such a blessing to hear of God’s working in places like Canada, France, Africa and Romania. 

I was particularly impressed with a presentation by Daniel Neuhaus from France.  France is a place and society that has all but shut God out.  However, Daniel and others continue in prayer and service to God within the context of churches and Christian schools and they are shedding the light of Christ in a very dark place.

Marcus Chibisa from Zimbabwe, Africa shared about his service for the Lord at Gateway Christian school.  His story was a strong testimony about the role that a Christian school can play in the lives of individuals and a community.  Marcus was imprisoned for his faith for one year in the 1970s and he praises God for the experience as he was able to share Christ with his fellow prisoners and he feels the experience gave him strength and skills to serve as a Christian leader in his country.

The conference is an experience that is hard to explain.  The connections that are being made between Christian people from around the globe are amazing and hold great potential to further the work of Jesus Christ in the world.

Guangzhou 2

After Jason Cooper and I settled into our hotel on Sunday afternoon we went on a little trip to a downtown area that we had spotted earlier.  We pulled out a little bit of RMB (the currency here in China) and we jumped in a taxi.  The traffic here is a bit crazy and the taxis are ok except for the bars that they have up between the driver’s seat and the rear seat passengers.

We had a good time walking around the shopping area.  We saw lots of people in the mall that we visited and we even found a Starbucks and bought a Guangzhou collector cup.

As we walked along the street we were both overwhelmed with the volume of people that filled the sidewalks.  They don’t seem to pay much attention to us foreigners (except for the street vendors).  

The weather here in Guangzhou is in the 70s and it is a bit muggy.  The skies are tainted with the gray-brown haze of pollution.  The conference began for us last night as all of the participants gathered for dinner.  There is about forty people from all over the world in attendance at the conference.  We had a great meal of Cantonese food and we had a wonderful time of fellowship.  The people that sat at our table for dinner were from Africa, Australia, France, Hong Kong and…Idaho, USA.