Wednesday, January 18

UNO, a Scavenger Hunt, and Jack, Grace, and Hannah It’s Wednesday the 18th, 4:00 in the afternoon. That means most of you are asleep as I write this; it’s 2:00 AM in Greensboro. But here in Seoul, the classroom hums with activity.

One group of students is playing a lively game of Uno. Others are playing Mexican Train (dominoes).  A few are coloring, and some are working on a jigsaw puzzle. A highly competitive game of Twister has also broken out. All of them are, in theory, practicing their English as they play.

The classroom is warm, even though it’s cold outside. The walls are adorned with vocabulary words, Bible memory verses, letters and numbers. Since this is game time, the 24 students drift in and out. And so do their teachers.

Earlier this afternoon JIm R. led a hike/vocabulary scavenger hunt. The students enjoyed the walk, and learned the English words for pine needle, leaf, pine cone, stone, and so on. Jim was in his element.

Many of our students have adopted English names, which is very helpful to their teachers, who aren’t good at pronouncing Korean names! I’d like to tell you about a few of them.

Jack projects a “too cool for school” image. His English is very limited. He is good at small acts of service, which he performs quietly, without being asked. He often brings me a chair when we’re gathering for small-group time. Today he saw another teacher collecting trash in the classroom, and took over that task.

Grace, at age 26, is the oldest of our students. She is determined to learn English. She is hungry for one-on-one help. Last night after class I sat with her and we worked through some very sticky issues in English -- like the two different pronunciations for “the” depending on whether it precedes a vowel or a consonant. Try explaining that to a non-English speaker!

Hannah often looks sad. I learned that she’s only been in South Korea for a month, and doesn’t have any friends here. I’m praying that one of the girls will befriend her, if not this week, then soon.

In general, we think it’s going well. We’re all a little tired. We get started at 9:00, go until lunch, then come back and go all afternoon, then do a little more after dinner.  And then we sleep really, really well!

We’ve had rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day here at the camp. And kim-chi. I for one am starting to long for a burger. Or maybe some French toast.