Day 4

(Note: Sorry no more pictures for the mission posts. I ran out of batteries and no one had any spares. :( )

Day 4: Mountain lake trip

When the morning dawns today, we all have an excited feeling for the coming day. The previous night, Pastor Daniel has told us that since the kids don’t get to travel much, we were going to treat them to an outing and go with them to a mountain lake park to have our classes and have lunch. So, after breakfast, we get on a special chartered bus and head out to WLH to pick up the kids and travel together to the park. I actually end up in a smaller van with about 15 others. To get to the lake, we have to pass through a security checkpoint with policemen checking our van. When they catch sight of me, the only “white” face in a crowd of Asians, they demand to see my passport. I try to explain I don’t have it with me, as all our passports were being carried by Pastor Yoon for safekeeping. They start to protest but then as most of can’t speak a word of Chinese, they finally just wave us through. I feel a huge sense of relief, having been thinking that I was going to be taken out of the van and taken to a police station and perhaps jeopardize our mission trip. Jae Young is laughing at my freak out conjectures, but once we get through and she sees how really freaked out I am, she starts to reassure me that everything’s ok. The rest of the trip is uneventful but extremely bumpy. The road we are traveling on is under construction and trust me when I say that construction in China is in a whole nother league than the US.

At the lake, we travel across the lake in a ferry boat, after which we set up our lunch things at the main big pavilion and separate into smaller pavilions for our lessons. Today, our class is learning the first half of the alphabet. Jae Young’s alphabet flash cards prove effective and entertaining. We get to the letter G before we break for a game or two and then troop over for lunch which is chicken, kimbab, fried potatoes, and kimchi (of course!). We also have squid (which I don’t partake of) and boiled eggs, along with watermelon for dessert (also a delicacy for the kids-they ate several slices each).

After lunch, a lot of the kids start an impromptu soccer game, which happens quite frequently, and after a bit, I decide to join in. All is going well and the students exclaim how good and strong I am (sidenote: In Asia, girls who are into anything physical and can play sports are considered in this light). Then, in a scramble for the ball, I get tripped up and skin my knee on the dirt playing field (pitch if you’re British). Ok, in America when one gets a skinned knee, you might dust it off, spit on it, and go on about your business. Not so in this case. I keep playing but soon I hear shouts of “Teacher, teacher…Vanessa Teacher! Your leg is bleeding!” I brush them off saying “I’m fine, it’s ok. Really!” “No, it’s not ok!” they insist. “You need medicine, you need a doctor!” Finally, surrounded by a dozen concerned kids, I am literally forced off the field and into the care of Jae Bek’s mom, who is a nurse. She clucks over it and daubs antiseptic on it “Oh, it stings!” the kids say knowingly, wincing in sympathy. She winds gauze around the wound, tying it off with the warning to take it easy. Jae Young comes over and makes fun of me for making light of it. In fact, it becomes a running joke the rest of the trip that I am not really human but rather machine who feels no pain. “Teacher, you are Robo Cop!” the students tease. Pastor Daniel says “Vanessa is bleeding-“Oh that’s ok, I’m fine”. Vanessa’s leg is cut off-‘That’s ok, I’m fine!” And so on it goes.

Soon after the soccer accident, we board two lake ferries for a trip around the whole lake and end up being dropped at the base of the mountain trail. The kids are raring to climb the mountain so everyone gears up and starts hiking up the steep stairs. I am climbing with the kids who are still concerned about my knee and wondering whether I should be hiking. I think, I’m going to put their worries to rest once and for all. I start hiking at my fastest pace and soon I’ve passed everyone except the kids who started first. About two thirds up the mountain, I catch them and pass them with a cheery wave and a assurance that my knee feels just fine. Up at the top, I relish the rush that comes from climbing and conquering the steep path. The kids come staggering up one by one. All of our legs feel like jelly now. But after a brief rest, a group of us go bounding back down, arriving at the bottom filled with a euphoria born only of being able to enjoy God’s creation at its finest. There are cold water bottles and icy popsicles waiting for us in the cool shade and we rest our rubbery legs and fan our hot sweaty faces as we wait to the others to return. When everyone has descended, we walk back to the pavilion and gather up our things for the return trip. As we bump along the pothole filled road, we sing worship songs in English and Korean, and Jae Young and I belt out a rendition of “You Raise Me Up” that will not be forgotten!

Upon our return to WLH, we gather in the front room for final good-byes and the kids are a little sad because we are not coming out to the house tomorrow but traveling up to the North Korean border. But we cause excitement for them by telling them that after we return in the evening, we are meeting up with them at their favorite restaurant and treating them to dinner. We wave goodbye out the van till we can’t see them and arrive at the hotel exhausted but happy from the events of the day. In Pastor Daniel’s room, we teachers have our daily planning meeting before bed. Pastor Daniel tells us all the things we will be doing the next day but I am sitting by Jae Young and we keep talking to each other and not paying attention, so Pastor Daniel has to repeat some of the information because we didn’t catch what he said; in English or Korean. He laughs good-naturedly and dubs us “Dumb and Dumber” because together we make each other dumb. Eventually though, we get everything straight and head to bed, full of excitement for what the next day holds.