A Big Onion to You All!

Actually, I mean to say hello. The Korean word for hello sounds exactly like "onion". The good news is that yesterday was payday in Korea for all government employees. The bad news is that the Korean won has tanked against most other currencies and now stands at 1257 to the dollar. Not as bad as its low point of 1550 last month, but a far cry still from the 1040 level it held on my arrival in February. (Memo to self: Next time insist upon payment in dollars.) The U.S. greenback may have more value as toilet paper or as a trash can liner, but at least it's stable (sort of) and Canada and Mexico aren't playing with fireworks within 50 miles of Washington. Rest easy folks--the North Koreans are truly nutballs, but locals think it's all about getting attention from the West in the form of food and development aid. People in North Korea are starving and the only way to get a guaranteed meal is to join the army because they're fed first. People in the South do their best to try and get provisions to family in the North, but the success rate is presumed to be low and almost impossible without building a distribution network that operates on bribery. I work with teachers at the school who have multiple generations of relatives in the North whom they've never met (much like East and West Germany before 1991) and probably never will. For a society in which the concept of family is the cornerstone of everything (and I do mean everything) it's especially saddening.

There is good news on the education front. All of my third graders passed their English tests this week although a few had to be coached through it. My first graders have progressed all the way to letter "F" in their workbooks and have functional vocabulary skills with about a hundred words. All students are becoming operational with "Damon's Basic 40" expressions that allow them to ask and answer basic information gathering questions, talk about the weather and have a rudimentary conversation. The smartest and most focussed among them are really flying with English and the rest are in various stages of trying to escape "no child left behind" status. All in all, a pretty typical bunch of kids.

The rice paddies around the school were planted and flooded about a month ago and rice stalks have already grown up about a foot above the surface. I've been told that in the upper part of South Korea they can havest two rice crops per year and in the warmer southern part of the peninsula where the growing season is longer and warmer they can get three crops in a season. The school has a big garden tended by the students and evry school's food budget is predicated, in part, on each school raising a certain amount of its own food for noon meals. Imagine trying to get U.S. students to do that. Students are also responsible for cleaning their school. Best of all, no one complains. The educational model has more similarities than differences with the U.S. However, where contrasts exist, they are very notable.

I'll wind this edition down for now and be back again later. Love 2 All---Bill