Gordon & Susan Welch

Chapter 16: Primitive Control of Dental Caries

2011-12-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

In the first paragraph of chapter 16 we read:

We are concerned now with discovering whether the use of foods, which are equivalent in body-building and repairing material to those used by the primitives will, when provided to our affected modernized groups, prevent tooth decay or check it when it is active. p.253

!! What ?? He's now going to tell us if we can stop tooth decay by the food we eat? Yup.

Price has categorized the dietaries of the primitive peoples he studied:

Dairy (high Alps Swiss, Arabs, certain Asians)
Animal organs and eggs (North American interior natives, Andean tribes)
Seafood (Islanders, coastal peoples)
Small animals and insects (Aborigines, African interior tribes)

Each group he observed used foods from two or more sources, and the sources don't really matter - only the adequacy of the minerals and vitamins present in those sources are important. He writes that we should obviously focus on foods near us, but understands that "It would be fortunate indeed, if our problems were as simple as this statement might indicate." (p.254) He then lists three problems to overcome:

Strength of character and will power to eat what our bodies need rather than the foods that we like.
Sedentary lifestyle of the modern = little energy needs and little hunger.
Nutritional content of food.

To the first problem, I have no answer... It seems that each of us must struggle with our own character and listen to our own bodies. Perhaps we can find good ways to support one another in this struggle. I am surprised that in 1939 he wrote that 25% of the energy of the North American diet was supplied by sugar. (p.256) As our diet has changed over the past few years, Susan and I have noticed a change how "sweets" taste to us.... they're easier and easier to resists.... but not entirely, yet.

The second problem is an interesting one, and perhaps we live in a time when more people on earth are sedentary than ever before. Each person controls what they do during their day. Bodily movements, while perhaps subtle, are one of the most important aspects of "exercise". While I pity someone with a desk job, I, too have had such jobs in the past and found a simple way to overcome the lack of movement: walking to work and sometimes hiking on weekends.

The third problem is one I am trying to solve in my work. As I work with my animals and plants, I am seeking to improve the soil (and thus the nutrient content of my food) based on what I see working in nature. This relates back to chapter 15 and the quote about wild animals having perfect health. That's what I want to replicate in my farming. That means rebuilding the nutrition of the soil.

Price mentions that drying foods better preserves the vitamin content than canning. While in the past we haven't done a lot of canning, this advice might keep us from investing too much in canning equipment and have me build a solar food dehydrator instead.

He writes a bit about what he did to improve his patients' diets and seemed to universally recommend butter oil and cod liver oil, a 1/2 teaspoon 3 times per day. He believes that they are more powerful when given together. For certain these are nutrient dense foods, but it seems to me that those who live near the sea did not have dairy, and those who had dairy did not live near the sea. At any rate, it is a reparation formula for nutritionally deficient moderns, not a part of the diet of primitive peoples.

So was his program of nutrition for his patients successful? If one can believe what he writes, it was:

Clinical data demonstrate that by following the program outlined dental caries can be prevented or controlled when active in practically all individuals. This does not require either permission or prescription but it is the inherent right of every individual. p.271

The last part of this quote is the second to last sentence in the chapter, and it speaks to me on several levels. Simply, it is an empowering statement and a radical idea, coming from a man who's living was earned "fixing teeth". Teeth fixers earn they're living from people with bad teeth, not perfect ones. Why was he so eager to have people fix their teeth and prevent dental problems? I think the answer lies in his love of humanity. In all of his writing I feel that he loves the idea of humans living in a natural state and eating natural, local foods - and he recognizes that this possible perfection comes not from commerce, but as an "inherent right."

Beef Horn Broth

2011-12-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Fern the Highland cow

Fern's horns

Beef Horn Broth

So the other day I made a beef horn broth from a Highland cow named Fern. It's taken me a few days to get up the gumption to try it as I had never read or heard of anyone doing this before. I probably added a bit too much water for the amount of horn, so it didn't gel solidly, but nonetheless it gelled nicely. It smelled okay, so I heated up a little in a cup and added some salt. The result was actually very smooth. It wasn't what I was expecting (which was something I was prepared to spit out!). What to do with it now?

Chapter 15: Characteristics of Primitive & Modernized Dietaries

2011-12-27T20:47:00.003-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

As I farm in a permaculture context I look to nature for the prime example of the way plants and animals grow. What this means is that I forget whatever the experts have said and look at what exists in as natural a form as I can find. This is my way of farming - observation. It was also Weston A. Price's way of doing science. Nowadays science has been largely relegated to observations that can be made in a lab, but the vast majority of what exists cannot be studied in a lab. So as Price travelled, he looked at peoples with good health and recorded a bit about what made them healthy. Here he notes a general concept that I have held for a long time:

As a further approach to our problem, it is important to keep in mind that, in general, the wild animal life has largely escaped many of the degenerative processes which affect modern white peoples. We ascribe this to animals instinct in the matter of food selection. It is possible that man has lost through disuse some of the normal faculty for consciously recognizing body requirements. In others words, the only hunger of which we now are conscious is a hunger for energy to keep us warm and to supply power. In general, we stop eating when an adequate amount of energy has been provided, whether or not the body building and repairing materials have been included in the food. p.230

There are many things which differentiate us from the lower animals, but it could be that we have tried to distance ourselves from their world, too much. We all have cravings at one time or another, but rarely do people pay attention to these cravings. A few years ago, Susan was craving salt... not just a little, now, but she was eating handfuls of salt. Unfortunately, we didn't think anything of it at the time and until it was almost too late. Uncontrollable salt cravings may indicate a diagnosis of Addison's disease. And so every craving has an underlying reason. That reason may be innocuous, serious, or even life-threatening, as in Susan's case.

The point here is that moderns are not very good at listening to what their body's tell them. And in some cases they ignore their bodies. I confess that I have often recognized that my body has been telling me that it is tired, but it translates into "hungry"... and I eat something sweet to keep me going on into the night. I should have just stopped what I was doing and gone to sleep. Most of those occasions happened at university while I was studying. The pressures and volume of study required is not good for the human body... so I am glad I gave up that life.

Here in Chapter 15 price gives a summary of all foods from the groups studied. There are things here that are not in the preceding chapters, so it is worth wading through the repetitive text. This is the goldmine of information that one could use to build their own diet. In fact, I'd say that a person could reasonable skip the whole of the previous chapters and pick up the book at chapter 15 and do pretty well.

I was quite surprised to read that Price is complaining about vegetable oil being a big problem, since he published in 1939. I was under the impression that it came into widespread use in the 50s. So I did a little digging and found that cottonseed oil was common at the turn of the century and that Crisco vegetable shortening started selling in 1911. So it's a lot earlier than I had thought. I've been having to dismantle my timeline for processed foods lately and create a new one. I'm actually working on a processed foods timeline that I hope to share at some point. For now, I'll direct the reader here to a massive database of the history of food.

So what was the reason that vegetable oils, among others, were so commonplace by his time? It has to do with that phrase again: MODERN FOODS OF COMMERCE. And here the key ingredient in transportation. Price lists the foods that are good for transportation:

white flour
sugar
polished rice
vegetable fats
canned goods

Today, our transportation system is vastly quicker than it was in Price's time and we can get fresh salad greens all over the continent from southern California in a matter of days. If I wanted to, I could sell the organs from my pigs to someone who lived in Maine. And yet it seems we are left with the legacy of the development of our food system and even more boxed, bagged and canned food than ever.

He mentions it merely in passing, but it is clear to Price that vegetarian or vegan diets are not an option for those interested in optimal health:

As yet I have not found a single group of primitive racial stock which was building and maintaining excellent bodies by living entirely on plant foods. I have found in many parts of the world most devout representatives of modern ethical systems advocating the restriction of foods to the vegetable products. In every instance where the groups involved had been long under this teaching, I found evidence of degeneration in the form of dental caries, and in the new generation in the form of abnormal dental arches to an extent very much higher than in the primitive groups who were not under this influence. p.250

The last sentence of the chapter was inspiring at first:

The space of the entire book might be used for discussing the nutritional wisdom of the various primitive races. It is a pity that so much of their wisdom has been lost through lack of appreciation by the whites who early made contact with them. p.252

But then a sort of aggravation came over me. I got to thinking, "Why didn't you write that book, then?" Or why didn't somebody... And is it even possible to every get this knowledge back?

One of the most common complaints I hear about this kind of diet from people with whom I share these ideas is "It'll be so much work to even find these foods. If you can even find them." And I haven't had a ready answer for them, until now. Price writes that "The primitives have obtained, often with great difficulty, foods that are scarce but rich in certain elements." (p.231) So it is not unreasonable that we too should work hard to find foods to nourish our bodies? Humans cannot live in unmitigated convenience. So back to the farm work it is then...

A video that's helpful...

2011-12-12T12:24:00.001-08:00

This here video is funny and close to how we think... we're not paleos, but much of the thinking is the same... one major difference is that dairy and grains are good for us, contrary to paleo diet - with the caveat that dairy must not be heat treated and grains must be fermented. Anyway... I thought the video was cute, so I wanted to share it...

I like the way Paelos think... at least they're trying to understand what humans were meant to eat. God provided all we need in relatively simple forms.

Chapter 14: Isolated and Modernized Peruvian Indians

2011-12-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Again, Price reminds the reader of the plight of the natives he is studying - and with clear disdain for the white perpetrators. Do these look like healthy people? I think the average contemporary North American would have no ability to discern. If we are to regain our health, we must be able to discern good health from poor health.

Of an Amazon tribe he writes, "In the entire group associated with this chief I did not find a single tooth that had been attacked by dental caries." (p.224) That would be 0%! I'm not one for sarcasm, but that seems to be all that comes to mind...

My, those poor, uncivilized, naive, backwards barbarians - perhaps we should go down and help them modernize so they too can enjoy all the benefits that we do!

The native foods of the Amazon Jungle Indians as Price records were: fish, animals, birds, water fowl, eggs, plants and fruits... nothing special listed here... and no details... but there's probably not much that modern folks would recognize as "food".

So I'm trying to get my head around what should be recognized as healthy and what should be recognized as food. When we look at the cupboard or fridge and declare: "There's nothing to eat!" what is going on? Why is it that at times like that it has to be instant snack food or it feels like we might die? Or is it that we're tired? Or overhungry? Or undernourished?

At any rate, how do we get past those moments? Perhaps we should prepare some healthy snacks ahead of time? Or perhaps develop more will power? Or maybe it has something to do with eating proper meals on time each and every day?

Chapter 13: Ancient Civilizations of Peru

2011-12-07T12:09:00.002-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

photo by alex.val

How did Weston A. Price's mind work? It seems he wasn't just an average fellow. When he looked at Maccu Piccu, he knew that it "probably represents the highest development of engineering, ancient and in some respects modern, on the American continent." (p.209) But he wasn't content with that observation - indeed, anyone might readily see this - but Price wanted to know what kind of people were capable of making this place. That is what drives him - he wants to know how great peoples are great, from a health standpoint. He wants to know what sort of human beings were strong enough and healthy enough to make Maccu Piccu.

Figure 83

Figure 83 (p.212) shows a perfect arch in an ancient skull. The 3rd molars (wisdom teeth) are formed perfectly and nothing is out of place. There's hardly a North American today that can say the same! Price asks the reader to look at the "broad sweep of the dental arches and freedom from tooth decay." (p.213)

I don't remember the history of my teeth and don't have a comprehensive record, but I do know that I have had many trips to dentists and many fillings. As for wisdom teeth, I must have had two pulled on the bottom, as I have 16 teeth on my top and only 14 on the bottom. Susan had all of her wisdom teeth pulled (surgically extracted). They just looked at the x-ray and told her parents that there was no room for them to come in - so they were pulled before they even broke through the gum line. The same for her friends.

my teeth

My dental arch is poorly formed and my teeth have always been crowded. As you can see from this photo, my 3rd teeth top & bottom, left & right are all sticking out and too long. When I was young, I had the nickname of "Dracula" because my canines stuck out even when my lips were closed. Also, you can see a gap between my upper and lower front teeth - even though my jaw is clenched shut. And this is after having had an appliance in for several months when I was about 12. Part of the problem has been my enlarged tongue, which continually pushes those teeth apart, but it is clear that there were other problems in the development of my arches.

According to Price, the ancient Peruvians ate seafood, plant food, llama, alpaca, guinea pigs, potatoes, corn, beans and quinoa. Sounds pretty good to me!

Chapter 12: Isolated and Modernized New Zealand Maori

2011-11-22T18:31:00.002-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...
The Maori are being described here as the most perfect people. We are told that a previous researcher found 1.2% of the population had dental caries, which Price calculated to be 0.05% of teeth. Wow.

"The breakdown of these people comes when the depart from their native foods to the foods of modern civilization, foods largely consisting of white flour, sweetened goods, syrup and canned goods. The effect is similar to that experienced by other races after using foods of modern civilization." (p.188) This quote could be from any of the previous chapters as well. It is such a pattern that has become apparent. As is the result produced from this change: "Particularly striking is the similarity between the deformities of the dental arches which occur in the Maori people who were born after their parents adopted the modern foods, and those of whites." (p.189)

As I looked at figure 72, I thought I could have been looking in the mirror. It started me thinking... just what foods did I eat when I was younger? How has what I've eaten changed over the years? For me, it is part of a larger question: Do I have a culture? I ask that question here because our food comes out of our culture... and if we don't identify with a culture, how do we identify with a food tradition? Or do we even have one?

In the last chapter, I noted the connection that Price had discovered between commerce and health. It seems it became a fundamental part of his thinking as he continues to use the term. In the caption to figure 74 he writes, "It is much easier for the moderns to exchange their labor for the palate-tickling devitalized foods of commerce than to obtain the native foods of land and sea." (p.190, my underlining) This is an observation so far removed from contemporary society that it is almost incomprehensible at best and wrong at worst. Most people don't think of trading their labor for anything, but in reality, that's what pay is. So what should we trade our labor for? What would it have been better for the Maori to trade for?

Chapter 11: Isolated and Modernized Torres Strait Islanders

2011-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

MODERN FOODS OF COMMERCE

This headline is a phrase that stuck out for me in this chapter - more than a phrase it seems it has become a mantra... It might need a bit of work to fully understand it, though. By modern, it is meant that the traditional ways of the ancestors have been ignored in favor of processes developed for mass production. Food is an interesting label to apply to these items... they might better be referred to as poisons. And commerce, which we think we know... is so pervasive now that to the vast majority of people it seems to be the only way to exist. Commerce is the buying and selling of goods - it is not an exchange of goods of equal value, but an invention of the rich and powerful to make themselves richer and more powerful. Commerce is what the U.S. Congress regulates - and yet everywhere commerce has usurped individual rights and made many dependent upon handouts. In short, this phrase, "modern foods of commerce", has a deep, dark meaning that Weston A. Price discovered.

Throughout the book, the photographic evidence of the effects of these poisons is presented. What struck me in this chapter, was the captions that went with those proofs. Figure 65 has this caption:

The contrast between the primitive and modernized natives in facial and dental arch form is as striking here as elsewhere. These young natives were born to parents who had adopted our modern foods of commerce. Note the narrowed faces and dental arches with pinched nostrils and crowding of the teeth. Their magnificent heredity could not protect them. p.176 (my underlining)

And figure 62 shows a group of native school children contrasted with white school children on Thursday Island:

Note the beautifully proportioned faces of the natives, and the pinched nostrils and marked disturbance in proportions of the faces of the whites. The dental arches of the natives are broad, while many of the whites have very crowded teeth. The parents and children of the natives used native foods while the parents and children of the whites used the modern imported foods of commerce. p.171 (my underlining)

It seems to me that it is as if the captions for this chapter could have constituted the meaning of the whole chapter, apart from the statistics. The caption for figure 67 reads:

As everywhere these whites prefer the modernized foods and pay the penalty in rampant tooth decay. They are in pathetic contrast with the superb unspoiled natives. They are within reach of some of the best foods to be found anywhere in the world and yet do not use them; a typical characteristic of modern whites. p.178

It is as if there are no breaks between the chapters, such similar information, data, evidence, and conclusions are found. Chapter 11 aptly follows chapter 10, as Price continues his connection with modern foods and tooth decay: "The result of our examination indicates that dental caries on these islands shows an incidence which has an apparent direct relationship to the length of time government stores have been established there."(p.169) So why don't the natives just not buy food from these government stores? They were forced to buy food there.

Now it is true that they were not forced to eat the food they purchased at the government stores, but who buys food in order to let it go to waste? No, these people were forced by the government system to use their labor and resources to trade for credit at the government stores for the government supplied food - even though the people had all the food they needed around them. Modern governments are little more than complex businesses which seek to oppress their people under the guise of helping them. But it was always thus... rare indeed has been the leader who cared about the commoner. One of the differences in our day is that the commoners have little desire to be unenslaved. They are content with entertainment and chemical dependencies to see them through. It is true that most people have had a huge shift in their standard of living... but at what cost to their freedom?

In speaking of a particular island (Murray Island), Price writes that "the natives of this island are conscious of the superior food of their locality and wish that their people were not required to purchase food from the government store." (p.173) How many of us could look at our surroundings and be able to wish the same?

Chapter 10: Isolated and Modernized Australian Aborigines

2011-11-17T18:05:00.000-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Weston A. Price began his world travels for this project in 1931, so I have gathered - the present chapter is his reflections from a trip he took to eastern Australia, Figi, Samoa and New Zealand in 1936. He compared inland populations to coastal populations and found that even though the foods they were consuming were different, the results were the same.

On the first page, Price describes needing to study children between 10 and 16 because "the deciduous dentition or first set of teeth may be in normal position in the arches with a correct relationship between the arches, and the permanent dentition show marked irregularity." (p.146) This was one of those "of course!" moments for me where something I've felt before has been put into words by someone else. Most babies look at least moderately healthy (of course many don't look healthy at all here in the U.S.), but almost all adults have poor teeth and are sick in some way. There's so much available to us at birth and in those first years of life that sustains us through even poor nutrition for a few years, but then later on, if it's not corrected, serious problems erupt.

It is always striking that the same patterns of deformity and degeneration manifest throughout the world, regardless of race or location:

One of the most important phases of our special quest was to get information that would throw light on the degeneration of the facial pattern that occurs so often in our modern civilization. This has its expression in the narrowing and lengthening of the face and the development of crooked teeth. It is most remarkable and should be one of the most challenging facts that can come to our modern civilization that such primitive races as the Aborigines of Australia, have reproduced for generation after generation through many centuries-no one knows for how many thousands of years-without the development of a conspicuous number of irregularities of the dental arches. Yet, in the next generation after these people adopt the foods of the white man, a large percentage of the children developed irregularities of the dental arches with conspicuous facial deformities. The deformity patterns are similar to those seen in white civilizations. p.155

It is difficult to believe that less than a hundred years ago white people thought it okay to put other races in small plots of land and limit what those people were allowed to eat. It happened in Canada and the United States with the first nations, and then later with the Japanese during World War II. It also happened in Australia:

One can scarcely visualize, without observing it, the distress of a group of primitive people situated as these people are, compelled to live in a very restricted area, forced to live on food provided by the government, while they are conscious that if they could return to their normal habits of life they would regain their health and again enjoy life. p.160

He continues with his assessment of their situation two pages later:

The rapid degeneration of the Australian Aborigines after the adoption of the government's modern foods provides a demonstration that should be infinitely more convincing than animal experimentation. It should be a matter not only of concern but deep alarm that human beings can degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition, particularly the dietary products used so generally by modern civilization. p.162

It concerns me even now... or most especially now, as my reading of this book is to improve my family's health. I find myself to be unable to be fixed. That is to say, I have medical issues which are the result of poor prenatal nutrition and poor nutrition during my youngest years. In short, I cannot do anything about these problems because their cause prohibits a remedy. So we are starting to learn while our children may not end up being perfect, they will absolutely enjoy better health than their parents - because of better nutrition.

Price ends this chapter obviously deeply saddened by what he has seen happen to the Aborigines, writing "They demonstrate in a tragic way the inadequacy of the white man's dietary programs." (p.166) I found my own diet to be inadequate and I still struggle with its inadequacy... constantly making corrections and finding that the old cravings are hard to deal with... One of the common threads between all the peoples Price studied is their isolation. What does that mean for my family in 2011?

한이 무엇인가?

2011-08-27T01:08:00.001-07:00

내가 볼 때는...

한이 그리움

한이 행복

한이 섭섭함

한이 말하고 싶은데 말을 못함

한이 가고싶어도 못 감

한이 후회

한이 희망이며 기대

한이 아쉬움

한이 슬픔

한이 아름다움

한이 이런 것들 외에도 한이 있다.

잘 살펴보면 한이 인강의 처지다.

위태산

"Grass Fed" is not sufficient

2011-08-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

I have not found reference to this anywhere, so I want to post this for the world to know: grass is not enough for ruminant animals. These days we see reference to grass fed beef, grass fed pork... and so on. While that is definitely an improvement over feedlot or factory conditions, it is not sufficient to supply the full range of nutrition for animals. There needs to be a mixture of forest, swamp, meadow, and riparian areas to provide the full range of nutrition for cows, sheep, pigs, etc. Animals, like humans, are very resilient. Human beings can exist on Oreo cookies and pasteurized milk with some mac and cheese thrown in... likewise, animals can exist on crappy rations and artificial light and come out looking like meat - but the nutrition isn't there.

Have you ever heard or experienced that grass fed beef (or whatever) is lean and a bit tougher than feedlot beef? Well, that's not a good thing. It's because the animal didn't have the best nutrition.

I'm not saying that grass fed is a gimmick, but ultimately people desire good tasting, well developed, easy to chew meat. And generally speaking, grass fed cannot provide that. Ever had wild venison or elk? You'll know what I'm talking about.

Grass is not enough.

Chapter 9: Isolated and Modernized African Tribes

2011-07-12T13:46:00.004-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

I have noted previously Price's respect for the native peoples he has encountered. This is again apparent in these next few chapters as he describes the wisdom of these (otherwise known as primitive) peoples. In 1935 he travelled through central Africa, looking at the teeth and general health of primitive peoples and compared it with those who had modernized and who were foreigners. That he understands the plight of the African people and evil of slavery is apparent as he makes this astute and careful observation:

While slavery of the old form no longer exists in the so-called civilized countries, in its new form it is a most tragic reality for many of the people. Taxes and the new order of living make many demands.... This naturally has produced a current of acute unrest and a chafing under foreign domination...

The native African is not only chafing under the taxation by foreign overlords, but is conscious that his race becomes blighted when met by our modern civilization. I found them well aware of the fact that those of their tribes who had adopted European methods of living and foods not only developed rampant tooth decay, but other degenerative processes. p.142-144

Early on in this chapter he states an important finding:

If any one impression of our experiences were to be selected as particularly vivid, it would be the contrast between the health and ruggedness of the primitives in general and that of the foreigners who have entered their country. That their superior ruggedness was not racial became evident when through contact with modern civilizations degenerative processes developed. Very few of the many Europeans with whom we came in contact had lived in central Africa for as much as two years without serious illness or distinct evidence of physical stress. That the cause was not the severity of the climate, but something related to the methods of living, was soon apparent. p.118

So what are the methods of living that bring health? What are the methods of living that bring disease?

He begins to answer the question when he notes that the native peoples of Africa had immunity to the diseases that were rampant around them, but not to degenerative processes. Those degenerative processes were noted in those who had modernized their diets, but not in those on traditional diets.

It is telling to note Price's observation of the husbandry methods of the Masai. He was clear that, unlike American dairymen who select dairy cows on the basis of the quantity of milk, the Masai select based on the quality of the milk. Bigger and more is better for economic gain, perhaps, but certainly not for wellbeing. And to those who might say that we need quantity in order to feed everyone, I would answer that if the quality were better, not so much food would be required to meet nutritional needs.

This quote reveals the stark contrast in what he saw as the differences between those who ate traditional diets and those who were on white man's foods:

Native Hotel Staff at Goma, Belgian Congo. This group consisted of the inside and outside servants of a tourist hotel on Lake Kivu.
An examination of 320 teeth of ten individuals revealed twenty teeth with caries, or 6.3 per cent. It is significant that all of these carious teeth were in the mouth of one individual, the cook. The others all boarded themselves and lived on native diets. The cook used European foods. p.133

By this point in his travels, Price has begun to see patterns with the use of modern foods. Here is one:

While the primitive racial stocks of Africa developed normal facial and dental arch forms when on their native foods, several characteristic types of deformity developed in children of the modernized groups. One of the simplest forms, and one which corresponds with a very common deformity pattern in the United States, involves the dropping inward of the laterals with narrowing of the upper arch making the incisors appear abnormally prominent and crowding the cuspids outside the line of the arch. p.136-137

This describes my mouth precisely. Often others have referred to my teeth as 'Dracula teeth' as my cuspids (canines) stick out so much from crowding. It was embarrassing in the past, but now I know the reason for it. No one ever told me it was because of nutritional deficiency. I suspect many people would even deny it was so; they'd say it was just a random genetic anomaly and nothing could be done about it. Well, post facto there is nothing that can be done, except try to remove wisdom teeth and then try and realign the whole of the teeth (whilst they later on get loose), but there is much that can be done to prevent these abnormalities. Although, thinking about it now, it's likely that these former abnormalities are the new normal - but we mustn't forget that it isn't the way our bodies were designed. We were designed perfectly and given all the tools we need to maintain that perfection.

Price beings to close his chapter on Africa by speaking about wisdom and food. In our modern society, wisdom is not something that is considered applicable to food. Food is thought of as sustenance, perhaps something to enjoy, and everyone knows it's best to eat a 'balanced diet'. But in the past, our ancestors did not have the health problems that we have today. Sure, they didn't have the same standard of living, and perhaps they died younger - but they enjoyed good health. I shall contemplate on this paragraph for some time to come:

In my studies of these several racial stocks I find that it is not accident but accumulated wisdom regarding foods that lies behind their physical excellence and freedom from our modern degenerative processes, and, further, that on various sides of our world the primitive people know many of the things that are essential for life―things that our modern civilizations apparently do not know. These are the fundamental truths of life that have put them in harmony with Nature through obeying her nutritional laws. Whence this wisdom? Was there in the distant past a world civilization that was better attuned to Nature's laws and have these remnants retained that knowledge? If this is not the explanation, it must be that these various primitive racial stocks have been able through a superior skill in interpreting cause and effect, to determine for themselves what foods in their environment are best for producing human bodies with a maximum of physical fitness and resistance to degeneration. p.145

And in what seems to be his characteristic style, Price goes from such eloquent philosophizing straight back to percentages and ends the chapter telling us that the spacing of children was achieved through plural marriage. This is certainly not one of those books that has been so heavily edited that you can read the first and last chapter of each chapter and get the entire book. There's weeding through detailed statistics to find the nuggets of commentary. But then, it is those statistics which brought Weston Price to his commentary.

Chapter 8: Primitive and Modernized Polynesians

2011-06-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

From page 105:

A trader ship was in port exchanging white flour and sugar for their copra.

They have largely ceased to depend on the sea for food.

Tooth decay was rampant.

All the Pacific islands that Price visited in this chapter could be considered paradises for their climates and available food. And yet the inhabitants were duped into trading something healthy and valuable (copra) for something worthless and poisonous (white flour and sugar).

The chapter is basically the same story of trader ships bringing disease and tooth decay wherever they stopped throughout the Pacific islands. The chapter ends with this:

The incidence of tooth decay varied from 0.6 percent for the most isolated groups to 33.4 percent for the modernized groups. Those individuals living in their native environment on their native foods have universally normal facial and dental arch form reproducing the characteristics of the race. Those living on the normal environment except for using the imported foods of white flour, sugar, sugar products, syrup, polished rice, and the like, have in the succeeding generations marked changed in facial and dental arch forms. p.116
What this says to me is that in order to fulfill genetic potential, that is to make use of all of the appropriate possibilities provided for us by our genetic makeup, nutrition must be perfect. (Assuming no poisoning has taken place.)

----------------
Lately, we have been trying to eat less and less and less refined foods, but it is so very hard in this society. Anywhere we travel, the food that is available is practically all refined. And at home as we eat, we're still drawn to the quick and easy. Potato chips are the latest craze in our home. I hate potato chips, but we've been eating a lot of them. At the same time, we have all the produce from the garden available to us, as well as flours from our grain mill and our pastured pork chicken and eggs - oh and our friends' raw goat milk. So my question is... we know what foods poison us, and cause us to be undernourished, and yet the draw is so strong. We've cut back on sugar to a great extent: any recipe is automatically cut by 50% and it tastes great to us. But what to do for the rest of that 50%? We eat a lot of honey - and some malted grains, which helps a lot, but coming up with recipes which don't use sugar is sometimes difficult. Our current dilemma is mousse. By definition it needs the sugar... maybe honey could work? Should we try it, or abandon all hope?

What do I know?!

2011-06-13T11:38:00.003-07:00

In my last post I wrote that Piggy-Pooh's club hoof would never be normal. Hah! Silly me. I have to look hard out there to see which piglet she is! She's 100% healed. The scar on her back leg - there's no sign of it. Her club foot - has straightened out. She's as happy as a pig in mud!

A new addition to our family!

2011-05-27T10:21:00.003-07:00

This past Saturday, our main sow, Clover, had her first litter. 10 piglets, 9 of which are flawless, and one which got injured somehow before we got there, so we took it home for a few nights... it's now back with mama and doing fine, although it has a club foot, so it'll never be normal.

Piggy Pooh at the infirmary

Clover decided to give birth under a large Douglas Fir just out in the field... since the pigs don't really have any other shelter at the moment other than the trees. But those trees are so massive that they provide excellent rain protection and all is well with all the piggies. Here's a photo from the day of with mother and babies doing well about 6 hours after birth:

Clover my Tamworth sow

Check out videos at www.farmergord.com/pigs

Chapter 7: Primitive and Modernized Melanesians

2011-05-15T14:43:00.002-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

If the causative factors for the physical degeneration of mankind are practically the same everywhere, it should be possible to find a common cause operating, regardless of climate, race or environment. p.94

This quote from the first page of Chapter 7 struck me somehow. This chapter is not much different from the previous ones, in that Price finds a group of isolated people and finds them to be in exemplary health. And the closer to the white man he finds people, the more tooth decay and poor health in general he finds. But he is now starting to make a generalization and see the pattern in his own work.

Everywhere the white man's processed food of white flour and sugar go, disease and poor health follow in a proportionate measure.

In this chapter we have primitive diet = 0.42% tooth decay, modern diet = 30.1% tooth decay.

The change in nutrition included a marked reduction in the native foods and their displacement with white flour products, sugar and sweetened goods, canned foods and polished rice. In the succeeding generations after the parents had adopted the modern foods, there occurred distinct change in facial form and shape of the dental arches. p.104

Last night I ate a piece of carrot cake that was from a grocery store. I enjoyed supper and was thankful for the feeling in my stomach - I felt satisfied. But when I ate that cake I was almost sick. How can I learn to say "no thank you"? The host made an interesting comment to this effect: I don't know of any cake that's healthy. Well, I think I can come up with one, but it involves sourdough and no sugar. We've been enjoying applesauce cake lately that is made with pretty much only sourdough and applesauce. It's delicious and sweet and there's no sugar in it! It's not that difficult once you know what is needed and have a bit of a system going.

And if I haven't made the comment before, let me make it now: freshly ground flour is not healthy. Freshly ground flour is only good if it has been soaked and sourdough is the easiest way I know to do this.

Chapter 6: Primitive and Modernized North American Indians

2011-05-07T20:53:00.003-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

One of the nice things in reading this book is the great respect that Price has for all of the peoples he visits. He treats them as equals - and even superiors at times. Although some of the terminology he uses would not be used today by scientists, it is clear that he always means respect while using those contemporary words. Here's an example of this respect:

When I asked an old Indian, through an interpreter, why the indians did not get scurvy he replied promptly that that was a white man's disease. I asked whether it was possible for the Indians to get scurvy. He replied that it was, but said that the Indians know how to prevent it and the white man does not. When asked why he did not tell the white man how, his reply was that the white man knew too much to ask the Indian anything. p.69

What follows is an account of how he then asked the Indian and they went to the chief to get permission to reveal to Price the knowledge. Permission was given and Price learned that when they kill a moose, they are careful to save the adrenal glands, dividing them up between family members. These powerful, yet very tiny organs are crucial to the hormonal balance of the body, but they also contain huge amounts of vitamin C. I have tried to look for the adrenal glands in the past few pigs we've butchered, but have been unsuccessful in finding them. I know pigs have them because they are sold as a beneficial supplement for human adrenal gland problems.

In several Indian groups that Price looked at, he found zero evidence of tooth decay. Zero. Wow. Not even one cavity or used to be cavity among thousands of teeth. How can evidence like this be ignored? And yes, I use the word evidence for observation. Because all science is observation. Even controlled double blind experiments are nothing more than observation. What is observed is just made up under artificial conditions, often completely separate from what exists in the real world.

Matters of childbirth are important to Susan and I, so we were very interested to read his account of the reserve at Brantford, Ontario. It is a fairly well off population, so they could afford many luxuries including much white man food. Here he is talking of the director of the hospital on the reserve:

He stated that in his period of contact he had seen three generations of mothers. The grandmothers of the present generation would take a shawl and either alone or accompanied by one member of their family retire to the bush and give birth to the baby and return with it to the cabin. A problem of little difficulty or concern, it seemed. He stated that today the young mothers of this last generation are brought to his hospital sometimes after they have been in labor for days. They are entirely different from their grandmothers or even mothers in their capacity and efficiency in the matter of reproduction. p.75

This explains a lot. And should give all women great pause. Childbirth is not meant to be like what it is for so many women today: "an illness". (This term will be familiar to those of you with health insurance.) Clearly teeth are Price's primary interest, but as the book goes on, more and more he relates stories about the whole health picture involved in eating a traditional diet versus the modern diet.

I was going to write next about a section he wrote on the Eskimo and Inuit, but I though instead I would produce a quote from a recent New York Times article which it just as useful:

In 1984, Canadian physicians published an analysis of 30 years of cancer incidence among Inuit in the western and central Arctic. While there had been a “striking increase in the incidence of cancers of modern societies” including lung and cervical cancer, they reported, there were still “conspicuous deficits” in breast-cancer rates. They could not find a single case in an Inuit patient before 1966; they could find only two cases between 1967 and 1980. Since then, as their diet became more like ours, breast cancer incidence has steadily increased among the Inuit, although it’s still significantly lower than it is in other North American ethnic groups. Diabetes rates in the Inuit have also gone from vanishingly low in the mid-20th century to high today.("Is Sugar Toxic?" New York Times April 13, 2011)

Time after time I am reading about a progression from traditional diet to refined foods ending in health disasters. There is an interesting line in this chapter that does offer a glimmer of hope, though. Price relates the practice of a doctor to the Northern Indians who routinely sends them away from white man's food and back to a traditional diet: "Indeed he reported that a great number of the afflicted recover under the primitive living and nutrition." p.84 So how can we get back to more primitive living and nutrition?

Chapter 5: Isolated and Modernized Eskimos

2011-04-12T09:25:00.004-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

In my last post from Chapter 4, I asked a question at the end, basically: Is there a safe level of modern, processed foods? Interestingly, Chapter 5 begins to answer that question for me. In this chapter Price talks about basically 3 kinds of diets in Alaska at the time he visited:

1) fully native (primitive) food
2) partly native food, partly modern
3) fully modern

It would seem to me, initially, that partly on 'store grub' and partly on native food might provide the benefits of both, but it seems that there aren't any benefits to 'store grub' and that the protection that native food might provide can be erased by a partial 'store grub' diet.

The fully native diet, which consists of almost nothing other than fish and seal (fish dipped in seal fat!), produced cavities in populations he studied like 0.1%, 0.3%, 0% .009%, while the partial diet showed a much higher rate of cavities: 11.6%, 21.2%, 16%, 6.3%. Those on a fully modern diet had a still higher rate above 30% cavities. So it seems that there is a significant difference in the outcome of the three diets. From his comments we can learn that it is not only cavities, but the total health outcome of the three diets is different, also.

Here he partially describes the health produced by the primitive diet:

One does not get a conception of the magnificent dental development of the more primitive Eskimos simply by learning that they have freedom from dental caries. The size and strength of the mandible, the breadth of the face and the strength of the muscles of mastication all reach a degree of excellence that is seldom seen in other races. p.60

One is continually impressed with the magnificent health of the child life which is illustrated in Fig. 10. In our various contacts with them we never heard an Eskimo child crying except when hungry, or frightened by the presence of strangers. ... I was told that the children of the Eskimos have no difficulties with the cutting of their teeth. p.61

Price tells of one woman who had given birth to 26 children - and yet had no sign of tooth decay. Are we impressed by the excellent health of the people around us? What does that mean about our diet?

Price describes the diet of the Eskimos he visited as sea foods, stored greens and berries and plants from the sea. All the nutrients they needed to grow and maintain excellent healthful bodies was contained in those foods. Today we are told to eat "a variety of foods". Apparently that isn't required!?! (He seems to make the case for a very limited set of foods in each chapter.)

So I'm not sure I like where the answer to my question is going, but I must accept it nonetheless.

Chapter 4: Isolated and Modernized Gaelics

2011-04-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Black House on Isle of Harris (by Kevin Donner)

Korean thatched roof house (초과집)

Price visits the Outer Hebredies, off the coast of Scotland, in this chapter. I am so very much intrigued by the "black houses" of these people - I believe I would like to live in one. I have always loved thatch roofs (they are used in many traditional Korean buildings) but never really thought about how they were constructed, so I went looking and found several different ways, some involving only framed roofs and others with a full roof under the thatch. The wind blows a lot (all the time?) on an island and I imagine it's not all that warm there even in the summer and indeed, the photos of the people show very happy, healthy looking folks. I would like to live there in that way. The key to the "black houses" is that they burn peat inside the house and the smoke wafts up through the thatch thereby depositing soot on the thatch. It not only helps waterproof the roof (even though thatch is waterproof), but also the thatch is composted back onto the fields, thereby releasing the minerals that were in the soot. It's a great system with a proper experiment by Price to show the excellent growth of oats through this fertilizing method. However, by the end of the chapter we learn that the government has convinced the people to abandon their ancestors' way and build modern housing. Sigh!

In his study of these people, Price notes the excellent health of those still eating the primitive diet of oats and fish along with the poor health of those who have switched to eating modern refined foods, imported from the mainland. He found one area were those on a traditional diet had 0.7% evidence of tooth decay and those on the modern diet had 16.3% tooth decay. Here is the diet he observed in the healthy:

A dietary program competent to build stalwart men and women and rugged boys and girls is provided by the residents of these barren Islands, with their wind and storm-swept coasts, by a diet of oats used as oatcake and oatmeal porridge; together with fish products, including some fish organs and eggs. p.53

And the diet of those with tooth decay:

A seriously degenerated stock followed the displacement of this diet with a typical modern diet consisting of white bread, sugar, jams, syrup, chocolate, coffee, some fish without livers, canned vegetables, and eggs. p.53

I'm beginning to see a pattern here... a nutrient dense, limited set of foods, prepared in traditional ways gives practically perfect health; whereas the refined foods of modern industry give way to poor health and disease. That much seems clear. I'm interested to find out if there is any safe level of refined foods. I mean, is it okay to eat a sugary donut once a week, or ice cream once a month? Or perhaps only at holidays? Or is the answer that one should never have these foods? I think another way of putting that last question might be: are these foods poisonous?

Chapter 3: Isolated and Modernized Swiss

2011-03-22T20:39:00.002-07:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

The third chapter of Price's book is a beautiful read that awakens pleasant feelings in my imagination yet at the same time arouses feelings of empty longing for a time and place unreachable. The Loetschental valley of Switzerland sounds like a place I would have like to have lived at that time. I wonder what it is like today, and what the health of the people there is like today.

No trucks nor even horses and wagons, let alone tractors, are available to bear the burdens up and down the mountain sides. This is all done on human backs for which the hearts of the people have been made especially strong. p24

According to Price, their diet consisted of rye bread, milk, cheese and meat once per week, with very few vegetables. Fascinating, really. Modern diet gurus all preach the mantra of much fruit and vegetables with a balance of other foods. How is it possible that people could be healthy on what every modern nutritionist would term woefully inadequate?

When one has watched for days the childlife in those high Alpine preserves of superior manhood; when one has contrasted these people with the pinched and sallow, even deformed, faces and distorted bodies that are produced by our modern civilization and its diets; and when one has contrasted the unsurpassed beauty of the faces of these children developed on Nature's primitive foods with the varied assortment of modern civilization's children with their defective facial development, he finds himself filled with an earnest desire to see that this betterment is made available for modern civilization. p.30

This sort of comment is enough to prove to me that the diet of my youth was wrong. But it is difficult to find people of good physique in North America anymore. Even among the conservative Anabaptists, like Amish and Mennonites, many of their people eat a diet high in sugar and vegetable fats; often one can be served "vegetables" at supper which is nothing more than instant flavored gelatin. There are a few though. We know one family where the children have never even seen a candy. Such blessed children they are! I hope they never do know what a candy is... or at least I hope their teeth never touch one. The people of the Loetschental valley surely didn't know what candy was.

They have been born and raised in the Loetschental Valley or other isolated valleys of Switzerland which provide the excellent nutrition that we have been reviewing. They have been taught little regarding the use of tooth brushes. Their teeth have typical deposits of unscrubbed mouths; yet they are almost completely free from dental caries, as are the other individuals of the group they represent. In a study of 4,280 teeth of the children of these high valleys, only 3.4 per cent were found to have been attacked by tooth decay. This is in striking contrast to the conditions found in the modernized sections using the modern foods. p.32

So now I must even question the use of tooth brushes! I have for a long time known that fluoride is ineffective at preventing cavities and is actually very toxic to the human body, and learned at an early age that it is more important to brush the gums than that teeth, but I had not questioned even using a tooth brush.

High immunity to dental caries, freedom from deformity of the dental arches and face, and sturdy physiques with high immunity to disease were all found associated with physical isolation, and with forced limitation in selection of foods. This resulted in a very liberal use of dairy products and whole-rye bread, in connection with plant foods, and with meat served about once a week.

The individuals in the modernized districts were found to have wide-spread tooth decay. Many had facial and dental arch deformities and much susceptibility to diseases. These conditions were associated with the use of refined cereal flours, a high intake of sweets, canned goods, sweetened fruits, chocolate; and a greatly reduced use of dairy products. p.39-40 (note: "dairy products" refers only to raw, unpasturized diary)

I find it difficult, at times, to comment on Price's writing, because it just speaks for itself, so clearly. Even though I was raised to think "scientifically" and trust only in repeatable experiments and provable statistics, I have always intrinsically known that observation is often a better indication of the truth of a whole system. For example, the DNA in one of my chickens is the same throughout the bird. The DNA is the same in the foot, as the feather, as the beak, as the comb, as the heart; science has done a wonderful job explaining that, but what it has not even attempted to do is explain how the foot knows to be a foot, the heart a heart, the beak a beak, etc. There are mysteries that science cannot explain, that observation leads us to simply call it a chicken.

So how should we respond to such claims by Price that the poor, unlearned peasants were much healthier than the studied, monied, city folks? I'm not sure it's appropriate to respond. I think the better thing to do is to, like Price, observe, take it in, and learn.

Chapter 2: The Progressive Decline of Modern Civilization

2011-02-25T21:58:00.002-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Price opens this second chapter with the admission that humanity is declining, rather than improving its health. He quotes Alexis Carrel from his book L'Homme, cet inconnu (Man, the Unknown):

Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavors to make us believe. Indeed, the number of deaths from infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases.

Where we see this clearly is average life spans. Up until very recently, they have been increasing in the Western world. But this increase has come at tremendous costs - as people age they are not as healthy as people used to be - this raises tremendous quality of life issues. Degenerative diseases allow the host to live a long time, but get progressively worse. Do we have disease-free, healthy old people around?

Price talks about cavities being a "strikingly modern" disease. From what I understand, so is cancer, heart attacks, MS, MD, diabetes, ADD, ADHD and so many other problems. It begs the question: why? What has caused these many problems with the human body to become so prevalent in the past century? Price asserts in his book that it is a nutritional problem.

He contradicts the understood wisdom of the experts of his time that the unique facial form and development of a particular group of people comes only from their environment and changes only over a long period of time. He writes:

It is important to keep this viewpoint in mind as the succeeding chapters are read, for they contain descriptions of many changes in physical form that have occurred routinely in the various racial groups, even during the first generation after the parents have adopted the foods of modern civilization.p13

So which is it? Does appearance change over long periods of time, or can it change in one generation, based on nutrition? In my own life I have seen clearly the effects that a modern diet has on the Asian. Having lived in Korea for 10 years, I am very familiar with the structure of their bones and faces as they are in their native country. I am equally familiar with the changes that take place in the second generation Korean Canadians or Americans - they look distinct and I can tell if they are native or foreign-born almost without exception upon the first glance. The pictures in Price's book are exceptional evidence of the changes that he noted and prove beyond a doubt the truth in what he writes.

Unsafe to eat - I guess I should be dead

2011-02-25T19:02:00.001-08:00

I found this page on the FDA's website that declares that any pasteurized dairy is safe to eat and any unpasteurized dairy is unsafe to eat.

Here's a snippet from that page:

from the FDA's website

I guess I should be dead. Susan should be dead. Daisy should be dead. Everyone who consumes raw dairy should be dead according to the FDA. I shall refrain from commenting too much, but just let me leave two words: lobby & propaganda.

Traditional Mead: A quick word about Sulphites.

2011-02-24T18:46:00.002-08:00

I learned something very interesting today...

If you get headaches from wine, especially red wines (white wines are sulphited considerably higher than reds), you are most likely experiencing a histamine reaction (grape skins).

This is from the site of a fellow named Doug at my local homebrew shop who has the site traditionalmead.com. Hmmm... I always thought it was the sulfites...

Here is the full article from the Main Street Homebrew Shop site.

How we eat breakfast

2011-02-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

our own pastured Tamworth cured pork belly (bacon)

A few posts ago I mentioned that our diet is about 40-50 percent fat. Breakfast accounts for much of that. First, we start with fatty lard and grease the pan well, then we add fatty home-cured bacon from our own pig. Then we add more lard and add a pancake, some hash browns and some eggs... lots of fat... FAT IS HEALTHY!

... of course the other things in the food we eat are healthy too, but I'd say breakfast provides about 3 tablespoons of lard for each of us adults (less for Daisy, obviously).

The pancakes are sourdough, of course, and we grind our own flour, which is really not that difficult. And they taste fantastic, too.

our own pastured eggs - raw yolks

crispy hash browns fried in lots of lard

Then, of course there's the matter of what beverage to have at breakfast... we don't have any pasture for cows yet, so raw milk is a precious thing in our home. So we usually turn to the diner standby: coffee. Not so very good for us, to be true. Susan's been buying decaffeinated lately, and that's much better. We've also been experimenting with roasted barley and chocolate malt together as a substitute - and it's pretty close in my opinion. Susan doesn't think so; nonetheless, it's a healthy option that we both like. There really isn't anything like coffee, though...........

sourdough pancake with flour we grind ourselves

A bright sunny day

2011-02-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

A winter's day without rain in Portland is like... well, I'm not sure it's comparable to much but here we are enjoying it:

Chapter 1: Why Seek Wisdom from Primitive Peoples

2011-02-10T23:14:00.001-08:00

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

The introduction gave a good overview of the book, perhaps it gives away too much and is too bold for in introduction, but it is what it is and it makes no qualms about the conclusion of the research. Chapter one sets the scene for how to approach the book. I think the best advice to the skeptic is given here:

It will be easy for the reader to be prejudiced since many of the applications suggested are not orthodox. I suggest that conclusions be deferred until the new approach has been used to survey the physical and mental status of the reader's own family, of his brothers and sister, of associated families, and finally, of the mass of people met in business and on the street. Almost everyone who studies the matter will be surprised that such clear-cut evidence of a decline in modern reproductive efficiency could be all about us and not have been previously noted and reviewed. p6

It is true that looking around we can see examples of malnutrition in many people: friends, neighbors, even family members. Susan and I received a photograph of a large family this past year's end and it is remarkable how apparent the physical health of the children is different. There are seven children in the family and without prior consultation, Susan and I both picked out the same child as the healthiest. This is not a discrimination against the others, merely an observation as to who is obviously the healthiest, and by extension, the nutrition of the mother and father before the birth of each child.

At any rate, I read the above quote in the book and said to myself, but of course - all anyone has to do is look around and see that there are healthy people, and unhealthy people - and there is a reason for it - IT IS NOT CHANCE!

Ammendment

2011-02-07T07:16:00.003-08:00

In my last post on the introduction I wrote that Price had no idea that his concept of the role of genetics in reproduction was correct... well, upon a bit of reflection, I think I'll reverse that... I think he did know that he was correct. What he may not have been able to do is articulate it in 21st century terminology.

It is only very recently that mainstream science has begun to catch up in terms of thinking on genes and reproduction - and my feeling is that pop science might never get there. It's too easy to not want to take responsibility for our own good nutrition. I suppose there isn't agreement on what is good nutrition, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say: Does a person look healthy? Is a person diseased? The answers to these questions help our understanding of what is good nutrition.

For the past several months, Susan and Gordon's diet has been somewhere around 40-50 percent fat - almost all from our own pastured meats and our lard (the rest is from store-bought butter and from far away made virgin coconut oil).

Also, my wife reminded me that Adelle Davis, although in some ways was a product of her times, was most certainly enlightened as to her view on genetics and reproduction. Here's a quote that should show that and which really encapsulates succinctly the essence of this project:

The hereditary potentials of children rarely achieve their full expression. The controlling factor is often the nutrition of the genes and chromosomes, which is limited by deficiencies existing in either parent before conception. Such damage can be irreversible and last the lifetime of a child, yet not be obvious at birth. -Adelle Davis in "Let's Have Healthy Children" (New and Expanded 1972) p.15-16

Introduction

2011-01-19T20:37:00.000-08:00

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: Introduction

A critical examination of these groups revealed a high immunity to many of our serious affections so long as they were sufficiently isolated from our modern civilization and living in accordance with the nutritional programs which were directed by the accumulated wisdom of the group. In every instance where individuals of the same racial stocks who had lost this isolation and who had adopted the foods and food habits of our modern civilization were examined, there was an early loss of the high immunity characteristics of the isolated group." p1

The major point of his book is summed up here: the peoples he met were healthy before meeting civilization's food - and there was significant degeneration after starting a "civilized" diet.

While it has been known that certain injuries were directly related to an inadequate nutrition of the mother during the formative period of the child, my investigations are revealing evidence that the problem goes back still further to defects in the germ plasms as contributed by the two parents. These injuries, therefore, are related directly to the physical condition of one or of both of these individuals prior to the time that conception took place. p2

Our society says that pregnant women should eat healthy, get some non-strenuous exercise, not drink alcohol, not smoke and rest a lot. Some might add to that the taking of a daily pre-natal multivitamin. Most of that is good advice, but if we're talking genetics, by the time conception takes place its mostly too late, and by the time most women find out they're pregnant, it's way too late. Nutrition should be a lifelong thing, of course, but it should be especially important to both men and women of reproductive age. A good book on this subject is Ramiel Nagel's book "Healing Our Children". Another, albeit somewhat less enlightened book is "Let's Have Healthy Children" by Adelle Davis.

The forces involved in heredity have in general been deemed to be so powerful as to be able to resist all impacts and changes in the environment. ...defects...are products of the environment rather than hereditary units transmitted from the ancestry. p3

Price had no idea, but he was very correct here. And this is very unpopular, literally. The popular conception of genes and heredity and DNA is that we inherit our genes from our parents who got it from their parents and so on... and there's nothing that could have been done about this and there is most certainly nothing we can do about it.

Nutritional Genomics is a new area of science that is proving and explaining what Weston Price found years ago: what nutrition we provide our body with determines not only which genes are turned on or off, but also how our genes are copied; that is whether they are copied correctly or incorrectly.

Many diseases are caused directly by the poor copying of our DNA. This is mutation. And mutations are not random (read: disease is not random) - they are always facilitated by a particular cause. Have you ever used a photocopier that is running low on toner or used a rubber stamp that didn't quite get ink all over it? The end result is a poor copy, one that is difficult to read... Imagine then that the reader of that copied document needs to make sense of it... the reader will supply information to fill in what is missing. Some of the time what is supplied might be correct, but certainly some of it will be wrong. This is what happens with genetics. Our genes are constantly being copied by our body - all cells regenerate - so if we don't provide the correct nutrition, it's like not having enough toner in the photocopier: the copies of our genes will be poor and when they get read the next time, they might provide information that is poor enough to cause disease.

So heredity exists insofar as what genetic possibilities are present in an individual, but remember that we have many genes which are "in waiting" - this in how it is possible for a diseased person to produce healthy offspring. If it were not so a diseased person could only produce diseased offspring.

Mainstream science and media have only recently started acknowledging this truth which throws out all of 20th century genetics. Here's an article by the BBC. Ever heard of genetic screening for pregnant women? "Oh, your family has a history of disease x, so your baby might be at risk for disease x." And the pregnant woman suddenly becomes very sad and considers aborting because of the potential that her doctor has presented, even though she had had a good feeling about her baby. This is a cruel practice and now out of date, as genetic screening is completely useless in the face of the results of proper nutrition.

And by the way, science no longer knows what genes are... in speaking of the last few decades of the 20th century, Evelyn Fox Keller says:

“The stability of the DNA, the fidelity with which it’s replicated turns out to be… not to be a property of the DNA, but a property… it’s an achievement of the cell. It’s established by a very complex set of molecular motors that are constantly proofreading and editing and fix.. and repairing the DNA. And as to development, well, what we knew about learned about development the more dynamic the process became where you know all these different parts of the cell… different components of the cell… are involved and activating and transcribing and or determining or specifying which parts of the DNA are to be transcribed, how they’re to be transcribed, how they’re to be translated. The simple idea of going from DNA to RNA to protein to us, was just… was falling apart." from an interview with the CBC Radio program IDEAS: How to think about science, Paris, 2002.

What we were all taught in school about genes is pretty much out. In fact, genes probably don't exist anymore. Well, at least the concept of a gene doesn't exist. See the above interview or Evelyn Fox Keller's book, "The Century of the Gene" for more of the story. I would also commend the work of Rupert Sheldrake, Barbara Duden and Silya Samerski.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price

2011-01-19T17:03:00.001-08:00

Modern Western medicine does well what it does, and we have all but eradicated many diseases, but more than ever before in the history of humanity, we are unhealthy. Since the industrialization of food, there has been a sharp change in the major diseases that have afflicted humanity and there has been a steady trend toward physical degeneration. How few people around us go through life without a major medical problem. And yet this is not the way we were created to be. God created us in perfection and provided us with all the nutrition we need in order to build and sustain our bodies in perfect health.

Susan and I believe that we are products of this degeneration. Susan battles autoimmune diseases and has been diagnosed with Addison's disease. I have suffered from weak bones and lethargy throughout my life... and kidney stones since my early twenties. In spite of these this situation, we have radically altered our diet in the past few years. So much so that we go into grocery stores and barely find any food in them. There is a bit, but it's very hard to find. The milk, cheese, eggs, bread... no way... none of it is really fit to be called food - it is nutritionally deficient. Then there's the vegetable oils - pure poison - along with all the rancid flour and chemical laden drinks and snacks. But I get ahead of myself... we'll get to all that later. For now, let it suffice to say that we are trying to turn the tide of our physical degeneration and regain some physical health for the rest of our lives and hopefully even rebuild what has been lost.

Last summer we welcomed Daisy to our family - a wonderful gift from God. Susan and I were eating very densely nutritional foods before she conceived and Susan did her very best to build Daisy in the womb, in spite of the hormonal challenges that her (as yet not fully managed) adrenal insufficiency caused. Daisy was born at home without any chemicals, vaccines, monitors or anything of the like... her birth was glorious and perfect - and she is physically perfect: growing well, alert, active, vibrant, curious...

Over the next few weeks I would like to share my thoughts on a life changing book which has helped consolidate our thoughts on all these things and has brought direction to our nutritional tendencies. The book is "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A. Price, a dentist who travelled the world looking at groups of people who had essentially perfect health at a time when North American society had already lost much in the way of health. The book is old (1939), but it is worthy and has sparked much recent interest and even a foundation to disseminate its principles: The Weston A. Price Foundation. I plan to provide a few quotes from each chapter and give a few thoughts. Along the way, I also hope to share a bit of how we have changed our diet and why.

So even though it seems radical, unorthodox and perhaps kooky, we believe that there is a way of eating which God intended for our bodies and that way will prove best upon scrutiny. What you will read here will likely go against everything you've ever been told about good nutrition - what the USDA says, what your doctor says, what the media says... The ancestors knew best what civilization has made us forget.

Update on Kidney Stone

2011-01-19T02:17:00.000-08:00

Since my last post on kidney stones, I was hospitalized for a stone blocking my ureter. This is because the stone was trying to get out.... my body was cleansing itself - this was evidenced by the fact that I had passed a stone recently; however, there was a stone left in the kidney - a rather large one! This stone was a bit too large to fit down the tube: it was between 8mm and 1cm. The hospital kept me alive, but did not remove the stone. I credit the herbs and an intense regimen of lemon juice and apple cider vinegar with having dissolved the stone. At a checkup a few months later there was no sign of a stone on the x-ray, according to the radiologist. I peed out a whole lot of calcium. I had been collecting my urine each time and the container was encrusted with a calcium deposit - and that was my stone!

I've had a wee bit of pain in the past year, and I'm now submitting to the care of naturopathic medicine to try to further cleanse the kidney, and further refine my diet. The plan is that after the kidney has been stabilized, I will switch to Chinese medicine to try to support the rejuvenation of the kidney so as to regain full function. If I can stay away from coffee things should go well. Right now I'm taking non-diuretic kidney supporting herbal teas. In listening to my body, I can feel the ups and downs throughout the day of the functioning of the kidney. It tells me how it likes each and every part of my day... and I intend to give it what it wants.

Back again...

2011-01-10T17:53:00.005-08:00

After a year and a half hiatus, we've decided to put a bit of our life online again. Obviously, we've been very busy... here's the changes since the last post:

Gordon was in hospital for kidney stone blocked ureter, then sepsis and spent time in ICU...
Susan thought she might loose her husband in ICU, totally drained her adrenal glands, ending up in the ER & diagnosed with Addision's disease
Gordon came south
Daisy was born
We've started farming on our own

Life continues, and is so much more better now that we can live together and enjoy our new life with good food from our farm. God has blessed us greatly.

Kidney Stone Natural Cure

2009-06-12T19:19:00.008-07:00

Doctors of modern Western medicine perhaps mean well, but there is much that we have forgotten from our Western traditions, and much to be learned from others.

I have had kidney stones since at least 1996, with my first hospitalization for them coming a few years later.I have had every kind of medical procedure for kidney stone removal that I am aware of: the basket they shove through your penis, through the bladder and up the ureter; lithotripsy; and invasive surgery. I have missed months of work waiting for hospital treatments over the years, and spent thousands of dollars on treatment. And yet every few years my stones reminded me that they were there, always lurking, ready and waiting to cause pain when they moved and potentially blocking the ureter, killing my kidney. The first time my ureter was blocked, I was the recipient of a stent - and I've never been the same since.

About a month ago I had another attack. I passed a stone on Saturday morning when I awoke, was quite excited and thus went about my day gleefully, but that night I became tired quickly and then the pain started. I couldn't move all Sunday. I did go to work on Monday, but wasn't fully productive and tired quickly. Tuesday I called in sick, staying in bed all day, rolling around in pain. Mostly I find the fetal position helps, but really, no position is good for any length of time.

I was determined not to go to the hospital, because I knew how long that process took, and what they could do for me in the interim: strong painkillers - no thanks! So then I was blessed with a thought... why not try herbs? So I got online and looked up what was good for kidney stones and drove to my local natural food store, The Pantry, in Mission, BC. I really shouldn't have been behind the wheel as I was preoccupied with the pain and probably swerving a bit. But I put my mind to it and reached the store. I could hardly stand and they had me sit. I asked for what I thought would be good and they got it for me. Then the owner of the store saw me and asked what was wrong; she recommended a couple of other things, and then I was on my way home. I hadn't eaten since Saturday afternoon, so having a bit of fruit juice really helped give me energy for the drive home.

So when I reached home the first thing I did was make a magnesium tea. I was shaking with the pain, but within just a few seconds of taking the tea, I was considerably calmed. It was an absolutely amazing feeling. It was almost like I had received a shot of morphine, but I wasn't cognitively impaired.

These are the other things which I purchased that I then made tea out of:

Celery seed - balances acid/alkaline; lowers uric acid; antiseptic; diuretic
Gravel root - expels gravel (stones) from kidney
Marshmallow - softens things up
Uva Ursi (Bearberry, & many other names) - powerful urinary antiseptic, diuretic; painkiller
Corn silk - relaxes ureter, prostate and bladder
Horsetail - excellent at expelling stones (not to be used if kidney is inflamed)
Chanca Piedra - from South America, meaning "stone breaker"

These things work... if you want to deal with your kidney stones... spend only a little money, or collect some of these yourself, and cure yourself with God's pharmacy!

I haven't passed a stone since starting on these; the stones are dissolving...

To the end, they will fight, kicking and screaming!

2009-05-03T11:58:00.002-07:00

I cannot let this go by, since I posted a bit back about the new White House garden. The garden is to be free of agricultural chemicals (as all food should be). However, it seems that the agricultural chemical folks have taken exception to this. How sad their plight is... but even sadder will be their fate... unless they realize how they poison and destroy everything.

Of course, raw milk is available in B.C., too!

2009-05-01T20:52:00.003-07:00

I recently became a shareholder in a cowshare operation in Chilliwack, British Columbia, called Home on the Range. The milk is expensive at (CAD)$17.50/gallon, but at least it is wonderfully available on this side of the border. Okay, the price is rather outrageous, it's about what we paid for organic heat treated milk in Korea (by the pint). But for the time being I'm willing to support the raw dairy movement here. Here's a good article describing the situation for Home on the Range.

In other excellent raw milk news, the lovely Susan, recently found a lovely Oregon cow to provide her with milk. The cow's name is Opal and her milk is fine, indeed. Sweet and rich (around 6%). Susan pays (USD)$10/gallon to Opal's caretaker. Susan is really enjoying the milk and hoping it will help her body~

It is really quite fascinating: on the West coast of North America there are 5 jurisdictions (4 U.S. states and 1 Canadian province), all with very different raw milk laws:

-Alaska: raw milk sales are illegal; cowsharing is legal (as of February 2009); "pet milk" sales are legal

-British Columbia: selling raw milk is illegal; cowsharing is done by about a dozen farms (from what I can tell), but most are given cease and desist order (which they don't comply with). There is a court battle looming, pending the judgement of the Michael Schmidt case in Ontario. Nobody here knows what "pet milk" is.

-Washington: raw milk dairies (and there are lots of 'em) are licensed to sell and distribute their milk by the state: this means you can walk into a grocery store and buy raw milk off the shelf, right next to other kinds of "milk products". Of note, local jurisdictions may prohibit raw milk sales. Also, raw milk delivery is legal.

-Oregon: goat and sheep milk sales are totally legal on-farm and in stores. Cow milk is limited to on-farm sales and the farmer musn't have more than 3 producing cows. Of note, state law prohibits advertising on-farm raw milk sales.

-California: raw milk is legal to sell on-farm and in stores. Of note, state law allows local jurisdictions to prohibit raw milk sales.

So, British Columbia is at the bottom of this pile, eh. Something's got to give soon here in B.C., with so much going on underground.

Raw Milk is Available in the Fraser Valley (Sumas)

2009-03-21T18:50:00.009-07:00

Okay, I've been preparing a longer post about the raw milk situation in British Columbia, but it requires more research and time. So for now, let me at least put this out there for anyone who just wants to get real milk: it is legal to sell in Washington state stores. Today I purchased 4 gallons of raw milk @ 4.79 (USD) for each 1/2 gallon at the IGA grocery store just across the line from Abbotsford. It's in Sumas just a few hundred metres from the border on the right-hand side. They also have unpasturized beer, btw (Stone, Sierra Nevada and New Belgium).

The milk is from Jackie's Jersey Milk.

If you live in the valley and can't cross the border and want some... find me on Facebook~
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EDIT: I no longer am interested in this - I will produce my own now. And I'm no longer on Facebook:)

Now here's some real change!

2009-03-19T17:12:00.003-07:00

The new president of the United States has a sensible wife: she's putting in a garden. (NYT article) Now if only Gordon-Conwell Theological seminary would do the same... oh, the money we'd all save and the good food we'd have. As soon as it stops raining here on the West coast, I'll be getting my garden in.

Raw Milk, please

2009-02-21T23:06:00.004-08:00

Why is raw milk illegal for sale in Canada? Oh, I know the answer to the question, but there are so many reasons why the answer is wrong. Raw milk is safe, healthy - and delicious!

I want to be a farmer. I guess I'm farming now... but I mean a real farmer... more on that later. For now, let me say that one thing I want to do as a farmer is sell raw milk. This is legal in many jurisdictions around the world. If you think it's something unsafe, fit only for nostalgia and underdeveloped nations, then please.... think again. Raw milk is legal for sale in several U.S. states, including California! The laws vary quite a bit, but one of my fondest memories of Maine is walking into a store and buying raw milk in a glass bottle that was produced on a horse-powered farm. Wow. That's not 100 years ago... it's right now - and I believe - the future, too.

For now, we have a hero in Michael Schmidt.

Someday soon, perhaps Canadian governments will allow freedom of choice for our food~

What a trip!

2009-02-04T19:06:00.004-08:00

...and it's finally over. My, we were on the road for a long time!

To make the long story very short:

1. We left Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary without finishing (It wasn't a good place to be)
2. We bought a car (gasp!)
3. We got in the car and drove and drove and drove and drove, stopped for a while, then drove and drove and drove, and finally stopped again.

To elaborate a wee on No.3... We drove from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia, then to New York, then down the eastern seaboard to Florida, across the bottom of the U.S. to California, and then up the west coast to British Columbia, where Gordon worked on a farm, and Susan then went to Florida to work in a maternity home for teenagers. Well, a few months later, Gordon got on a bus, then his bike, then a train, then his bike, then a kind man's car, then the bus, then the train, and finally we met up again in Florida, and got in the car again... basically heading west via Tennessee. Again California, then up to Oregon for Susan where she now works as a nanny, and to British Columbia for Gordon where he again is working on a farm.

Oh, my, that is the condensed version of the past year. With so many miles that car is showing signs of wear... It was good to see most of North America - we sure learned a lot about what it looks like - and what people are like.

So, back in the land of blog we are. Peace~

Fall Weather

2007-09-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

After a long hot, dry spell - that would be a drought - we finally had rain. Not enough, mind you, but at least it has kept some things alive.

And we are alive, too! It is a lovely season here in Massachusetts - autumn, that is. The weather is warm and great for studying outside. And that is what we do each and every day - study.

We study the Bible, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. What a lovely time it is~

God's Garden

2007-08-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

One of the nicest things around the campus here at GCTS is the abundance of food that the Creator has supplied for us. It is also the most underutilized aspect of the campus, and perhaps the most ignored blessing of Providence in North America.

When we first arrived in June we were still able to pick a few dandelion greens and plantain for salads. All summer long dandelion and clover flowers have been available, too. In mid-summer we were eating as many blackberries as we could pick. We've made choke-cherry syrup from trees on campus and I'm in the middle of picking black cherries to make jelly this week.

This is one of the great joys of not owning a car - life is a slower pace so I am permitted to notice things that car-riders zoom by. We are enjoying riding our bikes around the neighbourhood - to church and to the stores. There really is no need for a car here!

At any rate we are blessed to be able to partake in the natural foods that the Lord has offered... and all without leaving campus. We look forward to the next few months bringing continued sustenance.

The Blog is Back~

2007-08-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hellow Blogosphere... Gordon & Susan are, indeed, back... now that the summer courses are finished.

A short review. We left Korea. We travelled in Japan. We visited with Susan's folks, then Gordon's. Then we decided for sure on going to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and made the move to Massachusetts. It's been a wild past few months, but it was worth it! We got to see friends and family all over.

So I've just make it through my first 2 courses at GCTS: Hebrew I and Hebrew II. Grades will never be revealed for I believe this is either vain or self-deprecating~ But I could hardly have worked any harder. I did battle with poison ivy during the second week of each course. But by the time the second round came along I knew what to do to keep it at bay: super hot showers and lots of baking soda and calamine lotion (Oh, and lots of loving care from Susan!).

Earlier this week Susan finished her first two courses, as well: Theological German I and Theological German II. From what I understand, it wasn't very theological to say the least, but I'll let her tell that story.

There's so much to say... but I'll leave it there for now...

This is a photo of one of the highlights of the past few months.... Rhubard Pie that Susan made in Nova Scotia... mmmm... fresh rhubarb.

Massachusetts State Law: Student Insurance Farce

2007-08-17T22:09:00.002-07:00

Massachusetts just put through a terrible law that every resident has to have health insurance. There's no poor exemption, but oh, there is a "religious exemption", but there's a complication because there's another law requiring all university students to have health insurance. So even if we get state exemption as residents, there's another law to contend with... and the school could care less - I suspect they get a kickback from all the students who sign up for their insurance company's health plan. To top it off, there is a waiver if you have health insurance from another company - but it must be a US based company. Sooo..... even though Nova Scotia will cover me here while I'm a student... it's useless as far as the government of Mass is concerned... even if it covered dental, vision.... everything... it would be deemed "insufficient coverage" and I would still have to buy into their plan... What a farce!

So... we're trying to find out if Susan can get the free state coverage ... .I'll have to pay their "tax" of $1300 for this year - if Susan can't get free coverage, we'll be out $2600.... argh! And the bugger is... this is just a basic plan here... it doesn't cover the "illness" of pregnancy, and tons of other stuff... like a basic checkup.... it's really only emergency coverage with a deductible.... What a terrible place.... and no one at the school cares! They just want to make more money and do what the government wants~

If we had known this beforehand... we wouldn't have come~

Hello, Japan!

2007-03-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

We have safely arrived in Tokyo after spending a few days further south in the city of Fukuoka. It's wonderful to be back, and this time we even get to visit a good friend from university.

We'll spend a few more days here visiting and exploring Tokyo - tomorrow we have a date to visit the fish market! - and then we'll be flying home. Amazingly, our flight leaves from Tokyo at 2:30pm on Thursday and, after changing planes in Detroit, we arrive in New York city at....... 2:30pm on Thursday!

I expect we'll post a few more pictures of and comments on both Korea and Japan to wrap things up shortly after arriving home.

Thank you, to those of you who have prayed for us and sent us words of encouragement this past year. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Goodbye, Korea

2007-02-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

We have already left Yeosu behind and are on our way home! Tonight we are in the city of Suncheon, just a bit north of Yeosu, in order to catch an early train east in the morning. It's late now as I'm writing.... we're sleeping in shifts, having left our alarm clock behind as we finished our last-minute packing to the sound of the landlord marching around the apartment and yelling at us to hurry up and leave.

Our hotel, the "Luxury," is quite nice, with a spacious room and bathroom, refrigerator, hot and cold water dispenser, television and computer - and all that for 30,000 won (that's $31.91 US or $37.35 CAD). It's not the greatest neighborhood (what is it about train station and bus station neighborhoods?) but things are quiet - too bad we can't both sleep! I seem to sleep really well on the train though, so I'll look forward to that.

Though I'm happy to be leaving this country alive and in one piece (thank you God) I do wish there had been a little more time at the end to say goodbye to people and places: the mountain near our home, the tofu lady, the ddok lady, the fruit lady, and so on. (Though I did manage to tell the fruit lady when we were leaving, so I'm sure all the market ladies know!) I worked through today, so it's been rather hectic getting packed and ready to go. We're not good at packing... not good at some aspects of living, it seems. It is certainly a reality check to have to put all the pieces of your life in boxes - the scary part is, we left boxes of our life with both sets of our parents before we even came. We desire to be simple but when we look at the mountain of possessions we spend time and money purchasing and maintaining... it doesn't look like we're doing very well. We have vowed to go through our possessions ruthlessly when we arrive back home and sort out those things which are only a hindrance. For now though, we just have to get home!

Sometimes, this is a great country....

2007-02-26T02:28:00.000-08:00

After talking about it for a long time, we decided that I should get a pair of prescription sunglasses. Today I went to the glasses shop to do it, two days before we're planning on leaving! At home, of course, that would be impossible, or at least outrageously expensive. Not here.

I walked in at 6:00 this evening and asked for a vision test to make sure the prescription hadn't changed - it's free here. In Canada I paid $40. Same in the US, except my parents always paid for it (thanks Mom and Dad). With a little help from our new electronic dictionary, I was able to convey what I needed and the salesperson was able to ask me the necessary questions. I spent a few minutes trying on frames (the hardest part was convincing him I really didn't want the over-sized rectangular neon blue ones), then selected the lenses I wanted. He told me it would take three or four days, and I explained that I was leaving for the United States in two days. He went to check with someone, came back, and informed me I could pick them up at 5:00pm tomorrow. Not bad, eh?

More Good News

2007-02-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

Hello again friends... as Gordon has often reminded me, I have not posted in a great long while. Fortunately he has done more than his share of keeping the world updated on our goings-on! Unlike myself, he has had quite a few days of vacation to end the year with - a benefit of working at a school rather than an institute. Somehow, when he is home all day, I seem to get less done than ever!

(Note..... I drafted the above exactly one week ago, and in the middle Gordon came home from wherever he had been and needed attention. Now, one week later, I am finishing!)

This week I received wonderful news via my parents: I have also been accepted at Gordon-Conwell for the same degree program as Gordon, a Master of Arts in Biblical Languages. While Gordon has been spending his free time lately reviewing Greek, I'm still working on Korean, so I'll have plenty of work to do when we arrive home re-learning the Hebrew and Greek I once upon a time knew.

It is a joy to study the word of God, and we are both truly looking forward to studying at a Christian school, rather than a secular institution. When I began my undergraduate study I had not intended to major in religious studies; I chose Biblical Hebrew and Greek electives my first semester just for fun - the options for a first-year student admitted in July. I guess there were a few other options... (Fortunately I ended up dropping Greek and signing up for the summer session the following year, where I met my lifelong study partner.) It was a learning and growing experience then, and I pray that continuing our studies in a setting where we will be surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ will continue to stretch and mold us into better servants of the Lord.

Cutting 2 wires saved my iBook G3 600MHz

2007-02-21T18:54:00.000-08:00

I was just given a gift of $1000. Wow. What a gift! Now, it was not in the form of cash, or anything material. It was knowledge. Knowledge that saved us over $1000 dollars. For the past few months I have not used my iBook because I thought that it had died. I was sad, as it had been around the world several times and seen me through a lot. It had its innards replaced once and I had an intimacy with its internal works like a macho man with his hot rod.

Symptom: The computer kept on booting, but then after a few seconds it went to sleep and wouldn't stay awake. This was even after having had the Apple iBook logic board repair.

Fix: Cut two wires. What could be more simple? Only two screws to remove and two wires to cut. Amazing, simply amazing.

I had scoured the internet for months trying to find a possible solution to the problem, but there was no solution to be found until an hour ago when I stumbled upon this discussion thread in the Apple forums which pointed to this site with detailed instructions.

Here's a photo of what it looks like:

And for those who stumble across this in a search to fix their iBook: be confident. As you can see from the serial number in the top right of the photo, my iBook was covered under the logic board replacement program - but it still had this problem - it was easily fixable with the snip of the two wires pointed to in the picture. Remove the keyboard and follow the instructions for removing the airport card and the metal plate under it, then look for the connector in the above photo and snip the two wires closest to the keyboard connector. Make sure the battery is out and the power disconnected during the operation. And there you have it - a fix for your iBook video problem, which really wasn't a video problem after all.

What a fabulous find! I'm so happy - I wanted to share it in the hopes that someone else can benefit from this info, too. I was just about to throw out the computer because we are packing to move back to North America next week. Had it been just a few days later, this information would have been absolutely worthless to me - as it is it was worth a thousand dollars - the price of a new computer. And this means more money for school! Yeah~

Sunam Temple & Suprise Food

2007-02-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

Monday of this week was the third day of the lunar new year holiday here in Korea, so we finally got ourselves out of Yeosu.

We went North (the only direction possible on land) to Suncheon and Sunam temple. The first thing we did was find a place to eat and did we eat! This picture shows Susan before lunch.

This photo shows how happy food can make a person. When all these side dishes arrived on the table we were thrilled. Susan exclaimed that it was the most side dishes we've had yet. We imagined that the hole in the middle of the table was for the soup pot and that we'd also get rice.

But oh my, how many side dishes were yet to arrive! Susan got immediately busy counting. How many can you find? We very much enjoyed our meal and couldn't finish all the food before us. It was all a bit salty, as is the tendency down here in the Southern part of the country. We got ourselves out onto the trail and enjoyed a lovely walk up to the temple.

Our building and street

2007-02-18T00:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally figured out that we, too, can use YouTube - so here you are ~ our first video - it's of our building and street and a little garbage, too.

More on Grocery Stores

2007-02-10T01:41:00.000-08:00

These are exceptional, as we can get these things much more cheaply, but these are the prices on the normal packages of these products in a grocery store near us called Lotte Mart.

These dozen green beans cost about $2.90 USD ($3.44 CAD).

$1.59 USD ($1.88 CAD) is the price for these alfalfa sprouts. That should do what, two sandwiches? (If you're being stingy, adds Susan.)

$2.33 USD ($2.73 CAD) will get you three radishes ~ are they made of solid gold?

This might need some explanation... It's not really about the price of things. This display is of beer and other such alcohols. What Susan is wondering is which one of the alcohols comes from the cows on the top of the display... There is actually yoghurt on the other side of this refrigerated kiosk. (Susan has questioned my use of the word kiosk here, so let me guide you to this website which will give you the Canadian definition.)

Market Shopping

2007-02-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

Susan will have tons more to say about this than I, but I had this photo from last summer that we took at one of the markets here in Yeosu and I though it would be good to put it up. I'm sure we'll take more photos before we leave.

Shopping in the market is so much cheaper and fresher than in the supermarket - there are significant bacterial and chemical problems with putting food into plastic, and that's beside the environmental impact. When we go to the market we can come home with no plastic bags - no plastic at all in most cases; but a trip to the grocery store - not so: absolutely everything comes wrapped in plastic.

Oh... funny thing we saw at a grocery store last week: the display bin of croissants was running out, so the lady took a bag of prepackaged ones, opened it up and dumped it out into the display bin - where they were then repackaged for customers (seemingly more fresh, perhaps?).

Anyway, I look forward to reading Susan's final musings on shopping here.

a true biblical scholar?

2007-02-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

You know the Bible 100%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Try it out for yourself! You, too, might be a biblical scholar!

Buying Bottled Water is Wrong

2007-02-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

I remember even when I was young, there was no such thing as bottled water. I also remember that there was an expression that was used of an exceptional salesperson: "He could sell bottled water." Little did I know that we would be in the situation we are today - that people don't trust the tap water and only trust bottled water. Today I read a news report that quoted the Canadian scientist/environmentalist David Suzuki with the following statements:

It's nuts to be shipping water all the way across the planet, and us — because we're so bloody wealthy — we're willing to pay for that water because it comes from France.

I don't believe for a minute that French water is better than Canadian water. I think that we've got to drink the water that comes out of our taps, and if we don't trust it, we ought to be raising hell about that.

Not only does bottled water lead to unbelievable pollution — with old bottles lying all over the place — but plastic has chemicals in it.

Plastics are ubiquitous. I don't believe that plastics are not involved in a great deal of the health problems that we face today.

I wholeheartedly agree with him - the only thing I would add to what he says is that this earth is not ours to mess with. It is a gift from God, not ours to pollute. We are permitted to use what is here, but we are required to have careful stewardship over it. As the psalmist wrote:

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24.1)

By polluting the earth we are destroying ourselves and the planet. There will come a day of reckoning and we will be questioned. Proper stewardship of this planet in our day needs to be a fundamental Christian tenet.

Susan and I spend a lot of time thinking about all our choices when we purchase things. Especially food is an important one. Plastic bags are reused and reused until they have holes in them. And we use cloth bags for carrying everything possible. Sometimes we buy juice in plastic containers, but not often. We try very hard to limit our consumption of products that are in plastic. We can buy our milk in glass and we reuse those bottles for all sorts of things. There are so many little ways in which we can change what we do and will greatly benefit the planet - God's planet.

Obstacles to Faithful Interpretation

2007-01-31T17:09:00.000-08:00

I came across this excellent list of obstacles to faithful interpretation of scripture in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.

Various influences from our modern life and culture hinder faithful interpretation of the Bible. These are:

1. A pace of life so fast that we do not take time to study the Bible.

2. Culture and thought so heavily influenced by Western individualism that "private interpretations" become the norm, thus making testing by the community difficult.

3. Final appeal to individual human reason or personal private experience as the judge of truth, hence resisting the role of the community in the interpreting of the Bible.

4. National allegiances and/or concern for material security that makes us unwilling to freely respond to the Bible's call to faithful discipleship.

Reflection: Which of these obstacles most threatens your congregation's faithful interpretation of the Bible? How can these obstacles be overcome?

This presents the main reasons why many Christians don't get their understandings from the Bible (even preachers). Numbers 1 and 4 give me pause today. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, would do well to consider if these obstacles are present in their own walk of faith - and if so, meditate and pray for change.

I like to teach

2007-01-30T01:21:00.000-08:00

And I like children. Most of the time, I really do. I only have two weeks left with my grade fours and I'll be spending the next few days planning for those two weeks. I haven't posted much about school at all this year, and I suppose that's been an oversight. Especially as it has really been my life for the past 11 months.

One thing I can share easily is these photos of the fall arts festival. My grade fours made some wonderful things like these kites. (Don't forget to click on each photo to see it enlarged.) The teacher of class #4 (there are 8 classes in our grade) taught his students to make traditional Korean kites. He's also very good with calligraphy and teaches that as well. It's so interesting to see the eight different teachers with eight different classes creating eight different worlds within grade four. Even though all the textbooks are the same, the children's experiences are all different.

Also at the arts festival there was a huge concert where many clubs shared their musical talents. Here are some photos of just some of the clubs:

This was my favourite of the day. These girls are mostly from grade four, but some are younger. They were singing traditional Korean children's songs. It was so refreshing because most of what the others were doing was pop music. One of the girls in the Dongyosarag (동요사랑) club has autism. I enjoy teaching her, even though it is a challenge. I must say, though, that the biggest challenge is in teaching the other children to get along with her. It took almost the entire first semester to show them that loving her and sharing with her was the best way. Autism is a marvelous thing. Hong-sun (her name) scores perfect in math and Chinese character tests, but very, very, very poorly in every other subject. A mystery indeed - perhaps one day we'll understand.

This photo is of the girls playing the Gayageum (가야금), a stringed instrument played seated. Complete with traditional clothing - it was a treat. I just wish the students had more respect and listened - so many were just talking with their friends during the concert - especially the singing group above.

The pride and joy of Yeodo is their orchestra. They have about 80 members in the orchestra and dozens more students who study music, but aren't in the orchestra - it's competitive. Right now the whole orchestra is touring Europe: France, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. I translated the orchestra's pamphlet for their tour (30 pages) and the write-ups on some of the members and former members is amazing, but then there are amazing musicians everywhere. What I would like to know is why the same enthusiasm and passion isn't given to children's study in other areas. I know now that I would have liked to have been pushed more to study when I was younger.

Here was a surprise that I didn't know about. A recorder orchestra, complete with accordions. I didn't know that there were so many different kinds of recorders. Some of them are as big as oboes! The recorder is something that every kid at our school learns how to play. Sometimes there are so many practicing after school that I can hardly think. But they work so hard at it and it usually sounds alright, so I don't ever mind.

This was the performance that stole the show. This style of percussion music is very popular here in Korea now. There are groups at every school and university in the country. It's called Samulnoli (사물놀이), which means, playing with four things. Those four things happen to be good percussion instruments and the rhythms are constant and driving with songs going on for what seems like ages.

It was a wonderful day, that arts festival.

Memories

2007-01-26T00:30:00.000-08:00

Having lived in Korea for most of the past ten years, I have some memories. One of the really nice ones was the three months I spent learning to build log buildings. I never thought that I, a Canadian, would be learning how to use a chainsaw and building log homes here in Korea - but I did. In the Spring of 2003 I spent three months at this school, one of several such here.

One of the projects we did was to put up this structure. It's not really a gazebo, but it is a very useful structure. My class didn't actually build the thing, but we put it up. It sits along the riverside in the city of Jinju where old men sit all day long chatting and playing games. This photo was taken in the fall one day when Susan and I went to Jinju for a day trip. The men were so intent on their discussion that I didn't want to make a scene by taking a photo, so this isn't the best shot, but you can see the typical Korean roof - those things weigh a ton - literally. They never loose their shingles - even in typhoons!

We also worked on a house, but didn't finish it - that was for the next class. I don't think I'll ever build a log home, but you never know, eh - and the skills I learned should serve me a lifetime. These days I'm interested in learning to build using cordwood or straw bales. I'm leaning towards the latter for both cost and longevity. Mother Earth News has been great for exposure to these construction methods. Just for curiosity, I checked out their book section, and they have dozens on straw bale building. I couldn't believe it. Perhaps someday... It's Greek for now, though.

Time for Recovery

2007-01-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

The next two weeks I don't have to go to school - finally I have a vacation. I'll let my body recuperate from having worked straight through since September, and get started on reviewing for heading to Gordon-Conwell Seminary. I guess I'm on for cooking, cleaning and packing to go, too.

There was a news item here in Korea today that brings home Susan's recent post about the death penalty: "Court clears victims executed for treason in 1975." In that story eight Koreans that were executed in 1975 have been cleared of the charges. A lot of good it does them now, eh.

To add my own thoughts to Susan's musings on the subject, I, being a Christian, do not support the death penalty, but, also because I am a Christian, do not expect any government to follow the same way. If a government happens to have a Christian policy, then that is by mere coincidence, not design. I believe the Christian walk is apart from society. Yet we all live within a state, whatever form it might take. Paul, in his writing in the book of Romans, chapter 13, speaks about the Christian in relation to the state. "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities." This means everyone, including followers of Christ.

I have always paid my taxes, but I have never voted. I will follow laws insofaras they do not contravene the law of heaven. I have citizenship in heaven, and I happen to be living on Earth, subject to whatever ruler happens to be in power. Whether in Canada, the States or Korea, that ruler is always different, coming and going. But as for my citizenship in heaven, it is granted by a ruler whose reign will never end.

God is not Lord of only some spiritual "part" of me, but Lord of all my life. The way of Jesus Christ is given a place to direct each part of my life, not those parts which I choose. That means some very difficult choices sometimes - and it means there will be opposition from family and friends. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace to the world - rather he came to bring peace to those who believe in him. The corollary of this is that only those who have decided to follow Jesus are to be held to obedience - those who have not should not be compelled to the same standards. Certainly there is a kind of worldly wisdom which come from experience in the world - I'm not talking about that - but rather ethics and morality. These things are different for Christians; radically different from the ways of the world.

A Plan

2007-01-19T00:47:00.000-08:00

Finally, as we're in our second to last month in Korea, we have a plan. I was starting to get a bit anxious, but the Lord knows just when to give us what we ask for - and did I ask for something. Praise the Lord for His greatness! I have been called - and I respond.

I have been accepted to study in the Master of Arts in Biblical Languages (MABL) program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Susan will now apply and we are planning to head there this summer. The school is in Massachusetts, just North of Boston, on one of the commuter rail lines.

The Biblical languages are Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, to start with. There are others which provide invaluable resources for following the textual history of our Scriptures and for deepening our understanding of the cultures which are part of the Biblical world. Coptic is the main other language I want to study, and I suppose latin will have to be a part of study at some point. It is all so very exciting.

Susan and I met studying New Testament Greek in the same class three summers ago. It was a solid start to a friendship of believers. Now married, we still share our love for the original languages of the Christian Scriptures and wish to become fluent in them. These languages are not necessary for every follower of Christ to know, but their fruit (translated Bibles) is imperative - as is the the ongoing work of scholarly Biblical interpretation for the Church.

We will spend the next few months reviewing what we learned in Montréal and getting ready for what will come. Only a few weeks left here. We'll be buying airplane tickets next week (although we'd both rather take a boat).

My Bike

2007-01-16T02:25:00.000-08:00

I used it to go to work.

2000 kilometres.
Four holes patched.
Three times brakes replaced.
Twice hit by a car.
Once stolen.

I wonder how I will go to work tomorrow morning?

Too Much Whipped Cream!

2007-01-15T04:52:00.000-08:00

Usually every weekend one of us is sick. Fortunately, it usually works out that only one of us is sick each weekend, so we each have opportunity to care for the other. I must say that Susan does a marvelous job!

Thanks to our Nova Scotia parents' gift of a bag of pecans, Susan ventured, yet again, into the as-yet-underdeveloped-world of cast iron fry pan baking and whipped up a pecan pie that was gorgeous. And it cooked in less time that it requires in an oven! I hear that she's close to starting a cooking blog specializing in cast iron frying pan cooking, so stay tuned.

It was hard to top off that pie, but we really topped it off. As you can see from the picture... perhaps this will leave a few drooling, no? Susan suggested that most nutritionists would have a heart attack if they saw the way we eat. I suppose so, but then, we get lots of exercise and don't really eat that much normally... I mean, I do feel much better now, so it must be a kind of medicine, right?

On the taking of life

2007-01-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Last summer, Anna Quindlen wrote an editorial for Newsweek regarding the death penalty ("The Failed Experiment," June 24, 2006). She began with the following:

You brush up against a lot of weird stuff in the course of child rearing, but one phenomenon that always had me scratching my head was the parents who hit their kids to teach them that hitting was a bad thing.

At the time, the Supreme Court was hearing an argument regarding whether death by lethal injection was painful or not. As she argues, that's really not the main point. I thought of this article as I saw the many news stories appearing after Saddam Hussein's execution regarding his "undignified" treatment by guards. Tell me, why is it not okay to insult someone if it's okay to kill them?? I'm scratching my head here.

Recently Gordon discovered a "homesteading school" in Texas that offers classes in cheesemaking, blacksmithing, beekeeping, sewing, pottery, and all kinds of interesting things. We briefly considered the logistics - hey, we could spend a couple months in Texas, maybe even work there for a year and take these exciting classes! But then I remembered why I don't want to live in Texas. How could I in good conscience pay taxes to a state that uses them to kill people? Most Christians believe the Bible teaches to pay one's taxes and pray for one's government. So does it matter what what the government does with tax money? Are we responsible for their actions? Some choose not to pay taxes for this reason, whether by illegally reporting or by living below the poverty line. (If this was my goal, the latter seems a better option!) I'm still mulling this over, so don't look for a definite answer on my position yet. In the past I have paid taxes, I have prayed for the government, and I have also pleaded for forgiveness for the sins of my nation.... instinctually I would rather have nothing to do with it. We are called to be a separate people, to live apart, to consider ourselves only citizens of God's kingdom. That's tricky when traveling abroad, and I have to wonder if it was easier in the days before passports. :-) But no matter where we are, we must carefully consider if our choices are honoring God or conforming to society.

A different way of doing things

2007-01-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today I went food shopping. First I went to the natural foods store we frequent to buy rice, greens, and Mandarin oranges. Then I went to the market to have rice ground to make ddok, and to buy a few other things. While I was waiting for my rice to be ground, the lady I usually buy fruit from wandered out and observed the box of oranges on the back of my bike. She is one a few people who has from the beginning insisted on talking to me as if I understood everything, which used to intimidate me a bit, but now I understand enough of it that it's enjoyable. Our ensuing conversation went something like this (and I'm filling in quite a few blanks in my real conprehension here!):

Fruit seller: Where did you buy those oranges? Why didn't you buy them here?
Me: They're organic oranges. They're very good.
Fruit seller: You bought them at the natural foods store over there, didn't you?
Me: Yes. They're very delicious.
Fruit seller: Oh yeah? Let's see! (Removes box from bicycle and inspects the contents.) They're pretty ugly if you ask me. You know, I can sell you organic oranges too! So how much did you pay for them?
Me: 13,000 won.
Fruit seller: You paid 13,000 won for that box? That's really expensive. That's too expensive. Why on earth did you pay 13,000 won for a five kilo box of oranges? And ugly ones at that. I can sell you a ten kilo box for 15,000. Organic.
Me: Well, these are very delicious.... they're the most delicious oranges I've ever tasted.
Fruit seller: Are they now! Let's have a comparison. Come with me. (Takes me into her stall and selects an orange.) Now, this is an attractive organic orange. See how nice it looks? And I bet it's just as delicious as yours. Here, taste. (She splits the orange in half and gives half to me, and half to the woman attending to my rice next door.) It's just as good, isn't it?
Me: It is delicious. Quite delicious.
Fruit seller: So you're going to buy them from me next time? Remember, ten kilos for 15,000 won!
Me: Thank you... I'll remember that.
Fruit seller: It's just as delicious as yours, isn't it?
Me: Yes, I suppose it is.
Fruit seller: Aren't you cold?
Me: No.
Fruit seller: You're not cold? It was snowing this morning! Look at me, I'm wearing a hat and three sweaters and a coat, and you... you're hardly wearing anything!
Me: Well, I'm not cold. (I point at the bicycle and try to convey that, lugging five kilos each of rice and oranges up and down the hills of Yeosu keeps me pretty warm.)

My rice was finished so we ended here. Will I buy the oranges from her next time? Maybe. I'm not sure it was *quite* as delicious as the ones I had already bought, but then, it was almost half the price. I do truly appreciate her taking the effort and sample to try to convince me, as well as recognize that her income is a lot more precarious than that of the natural foods store owners. I love the market. These days most Koreans prefer to shop at huge, Western, Walmart-style stores where they can drive up and buy everything in one place. I wouldn't want to see the markets disappear, but they are... I can't do much and we're leaving soon, but still I am conscious of the effect our choices have. We want to choose organic for the sake of our bodies and the earth, but we also want to support small businesses that are on the brink of extinction - if we can do both, I think we should.

Brain Power

2007-01-04T01:44:00.000-08:00

My brain power is severely lacking at times. Severely. It scares me.

Anyway, I sent a package of irreplaceable items through the mail to the following address:

Susan Welch
c/o George Cameron
3111
U.S.A.
-------------------------------
niiiiiiiiice......

The what sort of brain lapse this was I know not. The girl at the post office must not have looked too closely, either, eh. The one saving grace is that I did put the correct phone number on the mailing label. I did try to correct the situation and there was a fax put in and I was assured that the full address would try to be added to the package - where ever it is... So I hope that happens. If not... The return address is on the package so it will come back to the school here.

Argh... Have a nice day, everyone... if you can remember - which I'm sure we all can - except for me.

A Peaceful 2007

2006-12-31T16:36:00.001-08:00

New Year's Greetings to everyone!

We wish you a helpful reflection on 2006 and a peaceful hope for 2007.

It was a major life decision for Susan and I to come to Korea in 2006. We were at a crossroads and had my school loan to pay off and the complicated reality of having different citizenships - so we chose to come to a third country. It is a place where I have worked, studied and lived for almost ten years. It is now a place that we have decided to leave.

In the midst of eating tons (tonnes?) of received Christmas chocolate, buckets of tea and coffee, listening to and discerning the voice of the Spirit, we feel it is time to head back to North America. We're still waiting on word from the first seminary I've applied to, and we should learn of acceptance or not within the month of January.

So, since we've got plans to head back and only limited luggage space, we're hoping that those who have generous hearts in terms of mailing things to us here will be satisfied holding on to things until we are back. Susan tells me that emergency shipments of chocolate are still okay, though.

We are encouraged to think of the possibilities that 2007 brings and look forward to sharing the year with all our friends and family. Be well and trust in the Lord!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T21:44:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a safe and blessed Christmas, wherever you may have been. We had a quiet weekend at home, enjoying some special food and gifts from our family as we gave thanks once again for the birth of our savior.

We received several books, and three days later I've already finished one! It will, I suspect, be read again and again: Extending the Table, by Joetta Handrich Schlabach. It's a cookbook and more, full of recipes and stories from around the world. Some stories are humorous, others heartbreaking; the recipes all look delicious. Resonating throughout the book is the spirit of caring and sharing the resources God has given us on this earth. Many of the contributors have spent years in the developing world on assignment with Mennonite Cenral Committee, and share their experiences of learning true frugality, and learning to receive from the most poor... who are often the most generous. I highly recommend the book.

One story made me laugh because the same exact thing happened to me here many months ago, when I was still learning how things work in the market. Wanting to buy a few limes in the market in Kenya, the woman picked up a handful and began to haggle over the price. The seller seemed to be asking a high price, but eventually she agreed to pay it - only to discover that she had not just purchased a handful, but the entire pile, which was then helpfully stuffed into her purse, pockets and skirt by the seller. Tip for future market goers: you can't buy three potatoes, you have to buy the whole lot. Go to the grocery store if you only want three. If only there were limes in Korea, I would gladly buy the pile!

Bicycle Parking in Fukuoka

2006-12-21T03:08:00.000-08:00

Riding my bicycle to work and home everyday sure keeps me in shape. I put on at least 10 km every day. It's tough climbing some of the hills, but in the end, it's worth it for my health. (I'd rather be farming to keep in shape, though.)

I remember our trip to Fukuoka, Japan, this past September. It sure was a sort of bicycle paradise. Here's a photo of one example of bicycle parking in Fukuoka. There are parking lots for bicycles all over downtown. Most of them seem to be for a fee. But things are totally different in Korea. At school here in Yeosu, I have to park way at the back of the parking lot off the edge on the gutter cover so my bike doesn't get damaged. And half the time I have to get off my bike at some point or another during a ride to get out of the way of some car that has parked on the sidewalk/bike path.

Oh, and today I almost got run over only twice. It was a slow day.

Episcopal Church Split

2006-12-19T02:21:00.000-08:00

It's been a good while since there was any sort of major split in the church. For the past 120 years the spirit of ecumenism has been prevalent as churches merged, and merged churches united. But recently there have been several hot issues that are finally breathing some theological debate back into the lives of normal Christians. The most significant of these is probably the issue of homosexuality in church leadership.

This week we have read about the split of some Episcopalian churches in Virgina - aligning themselves with the bishop of Nigeria, rather than their local U.S. bishop. Some are large, old (400 years!) churches. It is somewhat ironic that folks whose ancestors held slaves are now choosing to align their faith with an African bishop. But when the Spirit moves, big changes can follow.

All the churches in North America are wrestling with this issue - and have been for decades. Recently it even came into the so-called evangelical churches through the much publicized resignation/firing of Ted 'Art' Haggard in Colorado. The Presbyterian churches the Methodist churches, all are dealing with ministers who marry/bless same-sex relationships contrary to church rules. Somehow, there always seems to be something happen to let the issue drop into oblivion and things continue. These churches are living as 'two churches within one' because of the division on this and similar issues.

What it really comes down to is hermeneutics - Biblical interpretation. There are two issues:

1) Many post-moderns don't accept the authority of the Bible in their lives and any arguments from Scripture are null and void. For these folks, personal experience is the only thing that matters.

2) For those who still allow the Bible some position of authority, the issue is then one of interpretation. Strict post-modernism allows the reader to create meaning in the text, disallowing the author any claim to the meaning of a text.

But why would someone write anything without having a particular meaning to be gleaned from it? If I write a love letter to Susan, I want her to feel my love for her through reading. If I write a letter of complaint to a company, I want them to address the problem, based on the content of my letter. If I send a birthday card to a friend, I want them to know they are special - through the card. Humans don't just scribble words on a page and allow anyone free reign over the meaning. Perhaps it is a cliche, but it is true that the Bible is God's love letter to us. It is also his letter of complaint, his rule book, his guilty verdict, his not-guilty verdict, his wish list, etc.

There is a shakeup of all the mainline churches in North America coming. And it may come sooner rather than later. Things will come to a head and decisions will have to be made by every congregation and every church member. Each Christian will have to decide how he or she will interpret the Bible, if at all.

Web Censorship in South Korea?

2006-12-17T04:10:00.000-08:00

The following website is blocked from within South Korea: www.korea-np.co.jp/pk/

This is a photo of what came up when I tried to access the site:

When I was in North America it could be accessed without problem. It's contents are related to North Korea. Can anyone out there confirm that the site still exists?
---------------------------------
EDIT: A secret agent in North America has confirmed the current existence of this site. Thanks Grandpa!

The Windowsill

2006-12-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

Our windowsill has been the place for our plants throughout the warmer weather. Now that the weather is colder those plants have been moved back to the desk and we have some more important ones soaking up what little sunlight there is (because of pollution, of course).

We inherited some lovely Solomon's Seal just after we came. We dug up most of it to make tea, but saved some roots to replant. One of them came up and so we have the beginnings of another plant. Unfortunately, we won't be able to take it back to North America - we'll pass it on to someone who will use it here. The other plants you see in the photo are wonderful basil sent from Susan's friend Anna of the botanical gardens in New York City and her mother. Thanks so much! We should soon be picking lovely leaves to add flavour to our cooking.

Things to not like about Korea

2006-12-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

I'll try to post something that I like about Korea at least as often as I post something that I don't like. For there is much that has kept me here for almost ten years... hmmm... I wonder...

This link is to another site that contains some strong opinions... much of which is appropriate criticism for Koreans to take seriously about their country and some of which is unfortunate cultural misunderstanding, but it is a good reference for those who haven't lived here: http://jetiranger.tripod.com/things_i_do_not_like_about_korea/

Recently I bought a book called "대한민국을 몀춰라," which means "Stop Korea." The book is mostly about the runaway economy and lack of respect for the environment here. A difficult read for someone who's first language isn't Korean and who doesn't follow every part of Korean culture and politics, but nonetheless an important contribution to the awareness of the populous.

But then, Korea is full of wonderful knowledge, and lots of poor practice. The children's textbooks at school tell them to put their garbage in the barbage pails, to recycle, to not fight with each other, to be safe on the roads; but what they learn from the adults in their lives is that the rules don't matter: go through a red light at a crosswalk and there are no consequences (except for a waving fist from the bearded foreigner on a bike - which really doesn't amount to much for them except a good laugh).

Recently good friends of ours in New York sent us a book entitled "The Road to Reality: Coming Home to Jesus from the Unreal World." We're only through a few chapters yet, but it is good so far. The author is anti-intellectual, so that makes for a different sort of book from Wendell Berry's work, but it is another good reminder to Christians to not be fake - to take the truth claims of the Scriptures seriously and be obedient to the commands of the Lord. Here's an excellent quote from page 23:

(Christians') lifestyles often amount to an enormous self-deception. Who they claim to be is disconnected from what they know, and what they know is even more removed from what they do. It is so unreal. It is a mysterious but deadly spiritual dichotomy.

Squash & Clothing

2006-12-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I suppose there are some good things about Korea... SQUASH! But then squash is good anywhere and anytime.

Most traditional things about the country are good. I imagine the loss of most traditional things is the fault of those who decided that things from the West were better than things Korean. It is a shame. I suspect that Christian missionaries didn't help much.

Ultimately the power of money is strong. We do need it to survive, but what is it that forces us to strive for more and more. I had a discussion with some other teachers at school the other day about clothing. They were complaining about having too many clothes and not being able to find their clothes. Complaining about having too much stuff and ending up buying a new thingamajig simply because the already purchased thingamajig couldn't be found. I mentioned to them that I had gotten by just fine with a very simple wardrobe - only sets of outer clothing... I did bring more, but I have only worn 3. They were speechless for a moment, then when they recovered, they reasoned that it was simply because I was only living in Korea for a short time. They had lived in their homes for years and accumulated stuff. "Just wait till you have your own place and accumulate stuff!" Hmmm..... other than books, I'm not sure that's a problem for us. Christians are called to live lives of simplicity - and that means disattachment from things. Not owning nothing, but not being owned by the things we happen to have.

Anyway, the picture of the squash is a traditional Korean squash. It is a beautiful pumpkin sort of thing. Just beautiful. A piece of tradition... It's not genetically modified, it's not been altered, not packaged in plastic... What is the tradition that we will pass on to our children?... What things will we leave them?...

Pastic wrapped genetically modified or natural? It is for us all to choose what we will leave.

Over a month

2006-12-15T00:46:00.000-08:00

It has been well over a month since either Susan or I have posted here - and no one has email, called or written to ask why. Not one person.

We're counting the days until we leave Korea. I suspect if I write anything more about it will all be negative.

This is a very polluted country full of many ignorant people. I suppose that could be true of many places now in the world. Perhaps we shouldn't have any children? What kind of horrible place would we be introducing them to...?

The amount of plastic, garbage, noise, concrete, asphalt, etc. is alarming. This world was created by God for our enjoyment as stewards - we are not supposed to be destroying it. And yet for most people, destroying this planet seems to be their #1 goal.

I have ridden my bicycle to school almost every day since I bought it. And the same for Susan. Cars pollute. Cars are weapons. They produce noise, too. And those are just my complaints against the cars themselves, what about the manufactuing process that goes into cars and all of their parts? And then there's the social implications... everything is too fast, no one is friendly anymore and people don't know their own neighbourhoods as well as places far away.

Argh.... Such saddness I feel for the people of this world - those who don't know what they are doing... and to whom they are doing it to... BBC had an excellent report the other day: 9 out of 10 seabirds have plastic in their guts - and they are dying from it... here's the link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/science/nature/6218698.stm

We're planning to leave Korea - I don't know what I would do if I was Korean and this was my home. It would be terrible for me. I would likely die.

I've been here for 10 years, speak the language fluently, and yet I have more questions about the society now than I did when I arrived. I have lived in over ten places in this country, travelled through most of it, and love much about the people. But their day of reckoning will come - as it will for all the world.

God did not give us brains to destroy each other. But that is what is happening... For the sake of Susan's life... her everyday safety as well and her overall health... For the sake of my own life... my everyday safety as well as my overall health...

We are leaving.

Ho hum....

2006-11-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

Let's see, last night as I was preparing to head out for my Japanese class, I saw a fire in the parking lot. Some high school students had decided that setting a cardboard box on fire with lighter fluid was a fun thing to try, so they did.... and had my voice ringing in their ears as the ran out of sight. Oh, and yesterday my mouse pad was taken off my desk. I suppose it was a student, as it was a cute design that kids might like. Ho hum... I'm now using a piece of folded newspaper as a mouse pad. It works just as well.

In teaching children so much patience is needed. It's so very difficult when they are burning boxes, stealing your things and not listening during class time. It's so very difficult. They are cute and innocent, yet they are so very violent. I tell them I don't put up with any violence in the classroom, but many students are constantly hitting each other. It is so completely habitual and ubiquitous.

I pray that something of the peace of our Lord shows through me to the children.

Foggy Rice Fields

2006-10-31T03:09:00.000-08:00

This is a photo of what the rice fields looked like one day last week on my way to school. It was a very foggy day. And the fog was exacerbated by the smoke from all the fires. Autumn is a beautiful season here, but the air is often choked with smoke from farmers who like to think that everything that isn't growing should be burned.

What is the size of our window on the world?

2006-10-29T04:22:00.000-08:00

No... this is not a Nazi symbol. It is the Buddhist wheel of life. It has nothing to do with Germany, the Jews... etc. I took this picture near one of the markets in Suncheon (순천), which is the city just to the North of us here in Yeosu. It is a very old symbol and very commonly used here in Korea. In the jewlery shops are sold, and it is common to see, rings, necklaces and other things with this symbol.

Where we come from no one knows about this Buddhist symbol; and here, no one knows about the Nazi symbol. Sometimes our view of the world is small, small indeed, and it is a good thing, so long as we remember the size of our window. God help us all in discovering our window frames.

Fix the Old or Buy New?

2006-10-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

A While back the hard drive in my computer had been acting up, so I bought a new one and replaced it. Of late, Susan's computer's hard drive had been acting up too, and my whole computer was just about shot; so we decided to leave mine and both switch to Susan's.

Well, I replaced the hard drive upped the memory and bought the latest version of the Mac OS operating system, OS X.4, otherwise known as Tiger. And I am impressed. The stability of the computer is vastly improved as it is speed. Susan tells me that it is a better computer now than it was when she first got it over three years ago.

Here's a photo of the innards of the Apple PowerBook:

Fixing old things is certainly not glamorous in our society. But I'm pleased I took the time to research how to make these repairs. The hard drive, more memory and the new operating system cost about $250, but a new computer is at least 4 times that amount. My computer went 5 years without any changes. This computer is now 3 years old and I'm sure that with these new updates it is capable of 5 years, too.

Computers are generally poor investments, but they can be very useful tools. Especially for Susan and I living so far away from family, it is a great way to keep in touch. Susan just loves the video chats with her mom. (Now if only rural Nova Scotia would get broadband, we could do the same with my folks!)

So, now that our computer troubles are over, perhaps we'll be able to post more regularly...

By they way... I still have 9 screws left from putting the computer back together... hmmm... it still works, though!

North Korea

2006-10-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of news lately regarding North Korea's nuclear weapon test. Some of you have expressed concern. Of course, we are mildly concerned, but I thought I would share the news from the Korean perspective (we get an English-language Korean daily newspaper, so these are quotes from today's Korea Herald).

Front Page Headlines: "U.S. issues tough new N.K. draft," "Scholar warns U.S. response could trigger additional tests," "Policy rift deepens over North Korea," "No trace of radioactivity detected." Almost all of today's paper (and yesterdays) was devoted to the issue.

Inside, several articles regarding the U.S. and South Korean alliance in dealing with North Korea and the South Korean who was recently elected to lead the U.N., as well as one titled "A-bomb 'just one more way to die' to South Koreans." I'd like to share some quotes from this article, which addresses why most South Koreans aren't very worried.

"Nobody wants a war and nobody expects a war."
"The stakes are much higher, but people do not sense there is a much greater threat of open conflict than there was prior to the test."
"The test was symbolic because we've assumed they have nuclear weapons for years now."
"There are already thousands of artillery tips pointed at Seoul, they already had unconventional weapons, chemical and biological weapons."

I'm not sure how reassuring that last one is, but it's a fact... South Korea and North Korea are at war and have been for many decades; North Korea has some pretty scary weapons. We're just not sure a) what would trigger them to use them, and b) how effective they would be. We don't really know what goes on in North Korea. We hear about famines and landslides and droughts (due to clear cutting all the trees). I pray for them. And we stay calm, because there's no other way to keep living.

As we see in the news every day, the world is a dangerous place to live. Nowhere is safe, because we live in a fallen world. We can only trust in our Lord.

The Bath House Experience

2006-10-06T00:35:00.000-07:00

The public bath house is a place that at first intimidated me - obviously I could not take Gordon, and although he explained in great detail what the men's side is like (what you're supposed to do, where to find the towels, etc.) I feared the women's side might be different. (Mom, do you remember that book we read??)

It is different, but good! The men get unlimited towels, the women's are rationed but sufficient (hmm, why are they unwilling to give the women control over how many towels they need?). Other than that the main difference is how popular it is! Gordon told me not to be afraid, there wouldn't be anyone there so I couldn't make a fool of myself. (My greatest fear was accidentally walking into the men's side because I couldn't read the signs. In fact, they are always on different floors of the building, so that would be pretty difficult!) Well, the men's side might be empty, but the women's side is hopping! Most times I've gone there were 15-20 people there. I get the feeling some people go just to hang out - do your exercise (there are a couple treadmills and exercise bikes, along with a television), have a shower, soak and gab in the baths, sweat and gab in the sauna, nap in the locker room. Someone had even brought their rice cooker the last time I went! The ladies come often, so they just leave their shower baskets there, as well as their athletic shoes.

People are extremely friendly and helpful... definitely expanding my comfort zone! For example, the first time I went I didn't have an exfoliating mitt. They're considered essential, so someone came over and insisted I use hers, as well as her soap. She also scrubbed my back for me! I've learned to bring an exfoliating mitt and soap and shampoo with me, but even this is not enough apparently - last time someone insisted that I use her loofah, and gave me conditioner as well when she discovered I had only brought shampoo! Every time I go someone offers to scrub my back for me. For those not fortunate enough to have someone offer, there is even a machine that will do it for you. However, this machine scares me and I don't think I'm ever going to use it.

I was guided to the choice shower (the one I had selected seemed fine... but they insisted!); they examined what I had brought and supplied anything they deemed missing. Someone was observing me shampoo and either a) didn't think I was going to end up clean enough to go in the communal baths (I hope not!), b) really wanted to touch blond hair (the kids try to pull it out, so entranced they are - all to cries of "Teacher! White fur!"), or c) was just trying to be helpful (I hope this was the case!). She grabbed my bottle of shampoo and proceeded to lather copious handfuls into my hair, spending at least five minutes working from my scalp down to the ends, falling to my hips these days. Just when I thought she was finished, she insisted on helping me rinse my hair (yes, this all felt kind of weird, but hey, why not!) and then condition it, which took about as long as the shampooing. My neck was getting a bit sore - like most of the women, she was about six inches shorter than me, so pulled down on my hair to reach my head! - but other than that, all was well. I don't think my hair has ever in my life been so clean and conditioned!

At last, I was ready for the baths. There are usually three, sometimes more in larger bath houses. One has warm, "bath temperature" water. One has hotter water. At our local bath house (less than a block away!), the hottest pool also has various herbs in the water. Sometimes there is a pool with green tea, also. All very nice! And last there is the cold pool, a bit bigger so you can almost swim, and bracingly chilly. At larger bath houses, they sometimes post the temperature above the pools so you know what you're in for, at the smaller ones, the taps are right there and you can add hot or cold water as you like (though, I dare not with such experienced women supervising!). Each pool can probably seat about eight women, though usually people are spread out among the different pools, the showers, and the sauna, so it doesn't get too crowded. I'm afraid I can't post any pictures, so you'll have to imagine!

My usual routine is to rotate through the pools every five or ten minutes, starting with warm, going to cold, then hot, then cold, and so on. It's extremely refreshing, especially the cold pool! Gordon teases me because I spend twice as long as he does at the bath house - but, I don't think he has quite the same shampooing experience as I do! Things are a bit different on the men's side, but you'll have to ask Gordon if you're wondering. :) It's quite the deal for only about $3!

Ode to Japan

2006-10-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we visited the city of Fukuoka on the southern island of Japan, and it was.... fabulous. In honor of our trip to Fukuoka, I have composed the following. It's a little corny, I'm afraid, but - I'm in love....

Ode to Japan

They ride bicycles. They walk.
There are birds in the park.

(If Korean is your first language, that rhymes. Unfortunately in Korea it is rare to find so many real birds in the park. Instead, they build bird boxes and put speakers inside that play a recording of birds singing rather monotonously. I'm pretty sure this would scare away any real birds that might land nearby.)

Three cheers for Japan!

Cars and trucks - all are clean
Even the air - is this a dream?

The drivers are patient, they don't honk their horn
To do so, it seems, would not be good form.

Three cheers for Japan!

There is no garbage in the street
Everything is tidy and neat.

Three cheers for Japan!

I crossed the road many times.
All was well, nearly sublime

(I have life-threatening experiences on a daily basis here. The day before we left I was nearly run over no less than three times by motorists who seem to think the law does not apply to them.)

Three cheers for Japan!

They drive small cars.
And no one looked at us
like we were from Mars!

Children do not point, stare, and yell
"HELLO!!!!"
Not even on the metro.

(Adults don't either.)

Three cheers for Japan!

They have plain yogurt.
Plain, with no sugar.
Truly, this is my favorite dessert.

(In fact, there was a small packet of sugar under the lid of the first one we bought, so you could add as much as you wanted - if you wanted.)

They have spices, beyond hot pepper flakes.
Maybe they even have fruitcakes?

(We brought some basil and nutmeg home.)

They have olives and cheese.
And really big trees.

(We scientifically ascertained that it would take three and a quarter Susans or three Gordons or Susan and Gordon plus two small children to give this tree a proper hug. Maybe we'll come back in a few years!)

They speak Japanese.

Duh. Yes, but.... even to us. They are proud of their language and culture - as opposed to seeking to become as American as possible. Gordon signed up for Japanese classes the day after we returned home. :)

Three cheers for Japan!

Korea Named As a Serious Polluter

2006-10-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has 30 member states and Korea ranks #1 in terms of energy used in proportion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Not only that, but also the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by the country is at the top of the list.

The environmental evaluation report was done from 1997-2005. Korea uses more energy per GDP unit than the United States.

The report singles out excessive amounts of: water usage, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Korea is a very polluted country. This is not to say that Canada and the United States are not polluted - because they are - but Korea is a small country, with little arable land and pollution will utterly destroy this country.

The Willful Desecration of God's Gift

2006-09-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

It is so very difficult to understand. The earth is being persecuted - desecrated.

For the second time this month I've had to stop and ask a bottle recycler to put out his fire. Burning plastics is not fun to walk by and I can only imagine the damage it is doing to the air, water and soil. That man recycles glass bottles, not plastic ones... another example of where the specialization of the expert fails us.

I pass at least 10 garbage piles on my way to work every day. It's 5km of nice fields, but there are piles of plastic being made ready for burning every day. How can they stand the smell? How can they think that the soil and air and water of our Mother can sustain the damage? And to make it worse, most of the garbage is bags of fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides; that means those things were used on the soil and are then in our food and in our water.

And when I arrived home this evening after work, there were 3 high school students traipsing through our garden. Why? Why don't they know where their food comes from? Why does everyone dishonour our Mother?

Perhaps it is because they are removed from not only the responsibility of growing, catching, or gathering the food, as well as taking care of the land, but also from witnessing any of these fundamental acts of humanity.

The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life. (Wendell Berry in "The Unsettling of America," 3rd ed. 86)

Balance in Health

2006-09-23T18:07:00.000-07:00

Both Susan and I are thankful for her ability to breath normally now, but we also both recognize that some medicines are only a stop-gap measure that cover the symptoms rather than the cause. Our home is filled with unnatural things: plastics and concrete. Not to mention we live surrounded by concrete and asphalt. Our water is full of chemicals (that we try to filter out). Little sunlight gets into our home, and we've no park nearby to go and rest. And the pollution; why are we polluting the earth and ourselves? I cannot understand, but I can see that it is taking a toll on our health and on our humanity, not to mention our home.

While only slightly more mystical than what I would have written, I appreciate and stand with Wendell Berry who wrote:

It is therefore absurd to approach the subject of health piecemeal with a departmentalized band of specialists. A medical doctor uninterested in nutrition, in agriculture, in the wholeness of mind and spirit is as absurd as a farmer who is uninterested in health. Our fragmentation of this subject cannot be our cure, because it is our disease. The body cannot be whole alone. Persons cannot be whole alone. It is wrong to think that bodily health is compatible with spiritual confusion or cultural disorder, or with polluted air and water or impoverished soil. Intellectually, we know that these patterns of interdependence exist; yet modern social and cultural patterns contradict them and make it difficult or impossible to honor them in practice.

To try to heal the body alone is to collaborate in the destruction of the body. Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation. (Wendell Berry in "The Unsettling of America," 3rd ed. 103-104)

Healthcare

2006-09-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted... We had a lovely break during the summer, enjoying a trip to a second island for a few days. I finished the distance class I was doing at Eastern Mennonite Seminary in Old Testament, and started work at a new job. We're adapting to a new schedule, seeing a bit less of each other, but hopefully forcing me to get a bit more organized!

Summer is leaving us, the nights are growing cool and we've begun to turn on the floor heat for sleeping. It's nice to have hot water again (we'd turned off the water heater for the summer - cold showers were welcome!) though we're having some plumbing problems and doing our bathing at the bathhouse.

Unfortunately my allergies have been problematic with the cooler air and who knows what else. So, we decided to visit a doctor. Well, I was in for a surprise!! Everything about healthcare is different - and, it seems, better. First of all, there are no "appointments" to see a doctor, you just show up, like a clinic. Except you don't have to wait for hours! With national health insurance (anyone who works, or has a working family member, is covered for a tiny percentage of their salary), it costs about $3 for a visit. Not bad, eh? There are no referrals should you need to see a specialist... in fact, there are no "general practitioners," every doctor is a specialist, so you simply choose the doctor you need to see. It's extremely efficient in all ways I have experienced. When Gordon visited an orthopedist, we were in the door and out in about 45 minutes, during which time he saw the doctor twice, had an x-ray, and physical therapy. Remember, that's with no appointments! I've waited longer than 45 minutes for a scheduled appointment in both the States and Canada.

Hmm... what's different? Well, doctors do spend less time with people, generally only a minute or two - though, they have been very patient and spent much longer than that with us, Gordon translating for me. Yet it is just as complete an examination. People are more knowledgeable about medical terminology and identifying what is wrong, so they simply tell the doctor, "I have allergies," or whatnot. Because every doctor is a specialist, they see a limited range of problems and thus, I presume, are more efficient at diagnosing and prescribing treatment. Is it better to have a one doctor that you see for any illness versus seeing different specialists for different problems? In terms of time and money savings, the latter does seem to work well here.

Medicine is also much cheaper. None is wasted - the doctor prescribed only two days worth for me, and asked me to return and tell him if it was working well or not. Two days later, he changed something, and gave me two more days worth, and so on. Once we found the right medicine, he prescribed more. Of course this is feasible because I can walk to the doctor's office in five minutes (one advantage of living in a city) and see the doctor very quickly and easily. The exact same medicine that cost me over $100 in North America was only a fraction of that here. That's not generic versus brand name, it's the same company, same label... What's going on?? I don't know the details, but I would suggest that whoever is in charge of healthcare in the US take a good look at Korea and find the answer.

Keum-oh Island (금오도) Part 2

2006-09-04T04:50:00.000-07:00

This is a shot from the website of the church where we went for Sunday morning worship on Keum-oh Island. It is a new building and it looks like the congregation has two other buildings next to it which are new. They have a lovely paved parking lot, too. On the inside it is a typical Korean church with the pulpit raised at the front and all the pews facing the preacher. Also, very typically for a Korean church, it has a large sound system that gets used to its maximum volume for the entire service. We were ready to leave before the service even started because it was so loud!

So anyway, to make a long story short, during the worship service the offering was taken forward and the minister began to pray. Before I knew he was praying he was already well into the prayer. But then what did I see? His eyes were wide open and he was moving the mouse on his computer - as he was praying in the way that so many ministers who have been trained in a way of speaking that sounds religious. I felt a strong anger rise up inside of me. As it took over I stood up and shouted to the front, asking him what he was doing. The Spirit of the Lord acted through me to rebuke this man. I asked him why he couldn't concentrate on the prayer. His eyes met mine and I saw great fear in his eyes, for he knew it was the Spirit that was rebuking him, but he could not let go of the path he had started on and proceeded to look at the congregation who had begun to open their eyes and try to understand what the noise was. He very quickly took his hand off the computer mouse, closed his eyes and proceeded to pray, continuing the prayer he had started, without any acknowledgement of his error. I was disgusted at his behaviour and lack of fear for the Lord - and this a man who was supposed to be a servant of the Lord. Fear may be the beginning of wisdom, but it is also a feeling that must be maintained at all times in our relationship with our God who also calls us friend and his own children. It might be a paradox, but it is a necessity. Even if a believer rejects that paradox and wholly embraces the friend concept, at the very least there must be an inkling of respect. All four of us stood up and left the church as I told the people that the Spirit was not with them that day and I cried out to God with such pain in my heart that I was weak in my knees and my steps were like that of a cripple.

I have never seen anything like this before in a church. That church uses a computer and an overhead projector to display their song lyrics, photos, and other things. They even have one of the young people running the computer at the back of the church, so I cannot understand even a possible need for the preacher to even have a computer up at the pulpit - but as you can see from the photo, there it sits, on its own special table up at the front of the church. Their projection screen is larger than any cross or any other thing in the church. It seems the minister was praying to some god of technology, for surely my God will not hear such a prayer.

A week after this event I wrote a letter to the minister outlining Biblical reasoning for why I confronted him, exhorting him to confess his sin to the congregation and God, so that he might again be able to pray. But for professional clergy, it is difficult to understand such things. I don't mean paid clergy (don't misunderstand), but rather those for whom being a leader of a church is just a job.

Here's the ferry that took us back to the mainland.
We left earlier in the day than we had planned becuase of the events of the morning. Although we did enjoy a few minutes in the police station where they gave us orange juice and some packaged chestnuts which had fallen off a container ship. It certainly was an eventful trip and one that will stay in my memory forever.

Let us all pray that technology will be used as the tool it is and not be allowed to interfere in any of our relationships, be they with family, friends or our Creator.

Kang Won-Yong (강원용)

2006-08-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday pastor Kang Won-Yong died from complications brought on by the heat of this summer. He lived on this earth 89 years. He was the pastor of Kyungdong Church for many years. Even though he was already pastor emeritus when I arrived in 1996, he continued to preach as often as his health allowed. His gentle power could be seen to be a result of the Spirit working through him. His sermons were powerful and timely, although perhaps a little too political at times - but this was not without reason.

Korea is a country with a very rough modern history. Pastor Kang's early life was shaped by the Japanese invasion of the Korean penninsula. He became a Christian in 1931 and allowed himself to be used by the Holy Spirit as a leader in youth Christian movements and eventually became a respected speaker, attempting to forge a third way between the communism of North Korea and the capitalism of the United States during the formative period after World War II and before the Korean War. Ultimately, the third way was rejected through the strength of U.S. influence and might. It still is the only way forward, though, if there is ever to be the reality of the unification of the Korean people artificially divided by two competing foreign ideologies.

One of the things which warms my heart is that he is well known and respected outside of Christian circles, perhaps more so than within Christian ones. This brings to mind 1Timothy 3.7 which speaks of overseers or bishops, meaning pastors, that they "must be well thought of by outsiders, so that (they) may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil."(ESV)

I rejoice in his passing, for he has served the Lord and the Lord's people passionately and truthfully during his time here.

Trip to Keum-oh Island (금오도)

2006-08-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

This first photo is of a squid catching ship which left harbour in Yeosu just at the same time we did on the ferry to Keum-o Island last week. We had a wonderful time, leaving on Saturday and returning the following day. The island is a part of Yeosu, as are hundreds of other islands. Keum-o Island is one of the larger ones. It took about an hour to travel on the ferry, but the time went by quickly.

This is me on the ferry still in the harbour. The weave on my clothes is the most comfortable in hot weather. All the people who wear tank tops and shorts are suffering for no reason. Long pants and long sleeved shirts are the way to go... and the hat helps muchly. I was the least hot in our group of four and I had no sunburns the entire trip! Yeah for the wisdom of the ancestors! I can't help but think that many deaths could be prevented and a lot of needless air conditioning would be saved if people relyed on traditional clothing styles rather than the latest fashion. Besides most traditional clothing in the world is not flashy and showy, drawing attention to one's clothes rather than one's actions and true heart. Thus this type of clothing is totally in line with our desire to live in simlicity and humility.

This is a shot of Yeosu harbour as we were leaving. The ferry carried about twenty cars and about a hundred people. It stopped at two other islands before we landed on Keum-o, and it had at least one more stop after we disembarked. The ferry had some heavy duty diesel engines and every so often there would be a huge black ploom out the back. In this shot you can see one of two air intakes. The ocean is very flat in Yeosu, because there are so many islands presumably.

At the end of our first day on the island we enjoyed a swim in the ocean. ooooooooooo how wonderful it was. Certainly warmer than the waters off the north shore of Nova Scotia! We stayed until sunset and got some good photos of swimmers in the sunset. It was good to get away from the traffic... I'll post later with photos and stories from the second day, which was decidedly more eventful.

Weekend in Seoul

2006-08-10T07:47:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of July Susan and I took 3 days and went up to Seoul. We visited the Korean Anabaptist Centre where Susan cooked a peach pie for our friends there. We had butterscotch pudding from scratch as a topping! On the advice of one of our friends there we stayed the weekend in a guest house just north of the main downtown area of Seoul. The guest house is owned by the city, but is independently operated. Here's a photo of us with the young man who was looking after the place.

As you can see, the guest house was a traditional Korean home. After living for six months in our apartment we had the best sleep we have had since coming to Korea. Upon reflection the reason was apparent. Our home is all concrete with the floors covered with linoleum and all wooden surfaces covered with vinyl; the apartment doesn't breath. In contrast, the guest house is entirely made from wood, clay and paper. The windows, doors and floors are paper. Yes, the wooden floors are covered with layers of paper, which is remarkably comfortable and very clean. What a difference building materials make in our overall health. I mean, in spite of being in the middle of a modern city of over 10 million people, we slept better than in the small city of Yeosu.

Also on our trip we visited the Korean National Museum - the largest building I have ever seen in my life! What a monster. We spend half a day there and only saw about a third of the place. There really wasn't a lot to see (we've seen much better museums down south), but there sure was a lot of space to cover in order to walk around the place.

This was one of the more interesting objects... try to guess what it is. I'll post the answer in the comments... so you'll have to click there if you want to find out.
Don't forget... if you want to look at a larger version of the photos, just click on them.

What is God?

2006-07-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

One of my precious 2nd graders came up to me before class and sweetly asked, "Teacher, what is God?" Oh my! I'm delighted. I'm speechless. I'm wondering if this is related to the classroom ban on "Oh my God." (Gordon and I are likely the first English teachers in the country to ban that phrase...)

Just how do you explain the concept of "God" to a crowd of eager seven year olds whose first language is not English? I don't know the word for God in Korean, but I suspect they do and that wasn't the issue. I did my best.

God is good.
God is powerful - hmm, do they know that word?
God made you, and God made me - probably a long shot.
God is inside, and outside, and everywhere.
I love God.
God loves you, and God loves me, and God loves everyone.
Bingo.

"Teacher, God is love?"

Yeah, that'll do!

Sunshine

2006-07-21T22:06:00.000-07:00

Finally we have seen the light! The sun has come out to play... yay! After over a month of almost daily rain, we have the respite of a beautiful warm, breezy and sunny day. I think I'll go check the garden and take Susan for a walk...

This is a photo of the garden taken today. It is difficult to see, but there was a lot of damage by the typhoon last week. most of the neighbour's the corn was blown right over, but ours had stunted growth and so was so short it wasn't really affected. The tomatoes all got busted and most of the pepper plants got squashed by a fallen branch off the Ginkgo tree. There should still be lettuce, radish, cucumber, tomato and perhaps even a few eggplants.

We hope you are all well wherever you are.

The rain continues

2006-07-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

There has been flooding all over the country, and Yeosu was on the front page of at least one of the daily newspapers one day, but we have no problems where we live. The humidity has been high, though, which has caused some problems with mold in our apartment, but Susan took care of it with vinegar and we purchased a very small dehumidifier that we can take with us when we leave.

So far the mold hasn't come back, but it seems to have tried to attack Susan and she's been fighting off something in her throat for almost a week now. She's progressing well and we're looking forward to the end of the rainy season - which should be....?

Typhoon

2006-07-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

I awoke early this morning as a gust of wind came through the window and the bedroom door slammed shut. By the time I had run around closing all the windows I was thoroughly awake - which was just as well, as I had some final editing to do on a paper due this morning.

Although I've seen pretty impressive storms in upstate New York and on the coast of Maine, growing up, I've never seen anything like this. I wish we'd taken a "before" picture of the garden but we'll put one up when it's over... everything has been completely flattened, from the staked tomatoes to the 5- foot corn to the lettuce. Hopefully they will recover? Right now I'm sitting at the desk watching the waves of water slam into the windows, feeling grateful that nearest tree is only a medium sized magnolia - and dreading having to go outside to get to school. I plan to take a taxi, but am not convinced that I will arrive at school any dryer than had I biked!

Now if only the landlord cared that the windows leak...

Green Tea Bamboo Rice 인사동 녹차대나무밥

2006-07-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

식당 이름: 오우가

대표 식사: 녹차대나무밥

위치: 인사동 2/3 지나 우측에 있는 수도약국 우측골목, 인사갤러리 지나 우측 골목 우측에 있다.

The above is the information for a wonderful restaurant Susan and I found in Seoul last time we were there. The main dish is green tea bamboo rice. It's such a simple, lovely dish, but extremely rare. They also have good beef kalbi.

Here's the info:
Restaurant name: Oh-oo-ga (오우가)
Location: Insa-dong. About 2/3 of the way up the insa-dong street there's a pharmacy on the right hand side called soo-do (수도약국). Turn right on the street to the right of the pharmacy. Go down the street past insa gallery (인사갤러리) on the right. Then take the alley just past the gallery on the right. The restaurant is just a few metres down the alley on the right. There are two entrances to two separate houses which make up the restaurant. So if the server pushes you out the door into the alley, go a few metres to the other door.

Cream and Sugar? Eyelash?

2006-07-05T18:44:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I might not have understood her. But, as I study Korean and learn to recognize more "English" words that have been adapted to Korean phonetics, I'm understanding more. My adult beginner class was learning how to describe people - hair color, eye color, etc. They wanted to know the words for "eyebrow," "eyelashes," if there was a special word for hair on one's arm, and so on. So far so good. Then one of them has a flash of comprehension, or so it seems. She exclaims, "Ah, eyelash coffee!" For an instant I'm puzzled, then I understand and cannot control my laughter. They join me, but have no idea what's so funny.

The problem? Korean has no "R" or "L" sounds, rather one phoneme that's somewhere in between the two (which is rather hard for foreigners to acquire). Thus, they have difficulty hearing whether a word has an "R" or "L" sound in English. What was she trying to say? Irish coffee. Try saying "Irish" with an "L" sound, and indeed, it's very close to "eyelash." Fortunately, last week we were learning the names of countries and nationalities - Korea/Korean, America/American, etc., so it was easy to explain Ireland/Irish.

My Favorite Subject

2006-06-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

We are fortunate enough to have several occasions each week to share fellowship and food. Gordon remarked once that we have likely been shown more hospitality in the few short months we have been here than most foreigners in North America would see over the course of years. So, if you know of someone in your community that's new, perhaps doesn't speak the language or isn't familiar with cooking local ingredients... maybe we can give you some ideas based on what we have been blessed by.

Most Friday nights we spend with the minister and his wife at our church. Gordon is teaching the minister English, and his wife is teaching me how to prepare, say, squid, as in this picture.

Unfortunately the night we made this dish I found it very spicy and had trouble enjoying it - I thought it was much spicier than anything we had made before, but everyone assured me that was not the case. It seems my tolerance for heat changes from day to day! But now, I can confidently go to the market and buy a few squid, knowing how to prepare them. Not that I've actually done this yet... but I could! I prefer the taste of octopus, but I have trouble buying things that are alive still. For some reason, especially octopus. (Memories of being offered a bite that was still squirming, perhaps?) I've also learned how to make excellent seaweed soup, tofu and chicken dishes, and more.

Recently with both my classes we studied food, and they were so impressed that I knew the names of everything in Korean (another benefit of Friday night cooking!). It's like having my own team of cheerleaders. Every time I say a single word in Korean to my 2nd graders, they burst out clapping and yelling "Yay! Mrs. Welch speak Korean!!" A few of the girls are trying to teach me, thinking that if they say a word very, very slowly and make me repeat each syllable, surely I will understand? Sometimes I do! Usually they have to draw me a few pictures on the board, and occasionally I just don't get it, but they're so sweet. The mother of a girl in my class told me "My daughter says you speak Korean very well!" Well, I guess she doesn't know all I've mastered is food!

House Church

2006-06-19T03:47:00.000-07:00

For the past two Sundays we have had an English worship service in our home at 3pm. We have been blessed with the presence of a new friend, Sharon, who comes from Eastern Canada: Newfoundland & Nova Scotia.

Our worship is simple and orthodox. We are blessed by Susan on the piano and I add what I can on the guitar. We are working our way through the book of Colossians. Next week we will finish the first chapter. We don't have sermon - we reflect on the passage read and after a while share our thoughts, listening and commenting on what each other says. It seems like a good format.

The first week, after worship we made doughnuts, as per the photo of Susan and Sharon; yesterday we made pizza! And that is no small feat without the use of an oven!! Someday I hope Susan writes a cookbook on cooking *anything* in a frying pan. I think we're going for something a little less heavy next week, perhaps fruit salad or the like.

We are encouraged by the Spirit in meeting. We pray that others around would feel free to join us as we study the Bible, trying to increase our knowledge of God's will so that we might live lives pleasing to God: "...we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1.9-10)

Fresh Yogurt - Mmmm

2006-06-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

Today the rain began. Everyone has been saying that the rainy (aka monsoon) season was supposed to begin June 17th this year... but there is rain in the forecast for the next ten days straight, so I think we may be there. I'm a little curious.... and a little worried about how the laundry is going to dry! We may have to upgrade to the turbo-powered wringer. ;) (Gordon!)

Yesterday I successfully made yogurt for the first time! We're so happy! "Yogurt" here generally refers to an opaque sugar-water drink, no thicker than milk and much worse tasting, in our humble opinion. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to "yogurt" in other parts of the world. We had found some "real" yogurt in the natural foods store here, however it is very expensive and always very sweet. But, from now on we will be making our own, for the price of a quart of milk - about 1/4 the price!

In case anyone is interested, I'll explain how I did it. All you need is milk, a bit of yogurt, and a way to keep it warm.

First I brought the milk to a boil, as some say this will make the yogurt thicker. Next time perhaps I'll try skipping this step. Then I allowed the milk to cool until just lukewarm - about the right temperature for yeast, or a baby's bottle. The milk is then combined with the "starter" - a bit of yogurt that's already fermented. (I did this in a glass jar, with two or three tablespoons of yogurt to a quart of milk.) Now all that's left is the incubation: the mixture needs to be kept warm for six or eight hours to ferment. I've seen fancy electric yogurt incubators, but this is not necessary. Fill a hot water bottle, place it next to the yogurt container (with as much surface contact as possible) and wrap tightly in several thick clothes - flannel shirts, towels.... I put mine "to bed" at noon, snuggly wrapped and tucked in under the quilt. By supper time, it was beautifully set. Chilled overnight, it was the perfect accompaniment to our Saturday morning pancakes!

Living More with Less

2006-06-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

Susan and I read the book "Living More with Less" on our honeymoon in Maine and were thankful for the language to express our thoughts and the many practical ideas and encouragement that this book of 25 years ago provides. It's premise is that North American society is too affluent and out of touch with the rest of the world, the creation and ultimately itself and that in order to fulfill God's desire for justice, it must find ways to live more simply. The book is full of voices from the Mennonite tradition; certainly not a group of people known for their affluence. Nonetheless as North Americans listen to voices from around the world as well as share their own ideas, the book is a sharing circle for those who are willing to be shaped by such prophetic voices.

One thing that weighs heavy on modern societies (especially one like South Korea) is acquiring stuff and then throwing it away - even though it is still good! It seems that the owner of this cassette player got a new one, but this one that was in the garbage on the street in front of our building works fine! It even still had a cassette in it. Susan should appreciate this for listening to her tapes for learning Korean.

And I'm not entirely sure why we brought this mirror home out of the garbage - perhaps simply because it is a good mirror and couldn't stand to see it in be destroyed simply because someone didn't want it. I suppose it will be useful, given that it is a full-length mirror.

Are you out there?

2006-06-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

Greetings, dear readers. Who are you?

That is to say, we'd love to know who is reading this, so it feels like we're writing to people and not just cyberspace! Please feel free to leave comments on the blog, or email us if you'd prefer.... we'd love to hear your reactions.

Thank you!

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

2006-05-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

As you can see, last week I had the privilege of using a real, full size oven (brought here by a missionary). However, this is not usually the case. We have no oven at home, and in fact, the only oven that one normally sees here resembles a toaster oven (but fits under the stovetop). Yet, this does not stop me!

A weakness of ours is brownies. When there is a difficult decision to make, a long talk to be had... brownies are called for. In our last home, this was no problem - throw them in the oven. Here, that's not an option. But we can't do without brownies. I have found that cooking a very thin layer in our trusty cast iron pan, with a lid we picked up out of the treasure, ah, trash pile, is quite effective. They do have to be quite thin or they become dry on the bottom before the top is cooked, but still, the result bears closer resemblance to a pan of brownies than a large chocolate crepe!

Recently, I wanted to make sticky buns. I made a batch at a friend's house just before we came here, and they were so delicious the memory is still vivid three months later! The minister and his wife have a toaster oven (here referred to as a "fish oven" because that's the only thing a Korean would put in it), and as we were having dinner with them, I thought I could put some sticky buns in the oven when we arrived and have a fresh, hot dessert to share. But.... remember, Koreans don't bake anything. Thus, there are no baking pans. I briefly considered trying to make a pan out of tin foil, experimenting while I made the sauce. Then, as I watched the water, sugar and spices boil on the stove next to the rising balls of dough, I had a moment of inspiration! Hmm.... balls of dough.... look an awful lot like dumplings.... How do you cook dumplings? In boiling liquid, of course... On a whim, I tossed a ball into the pot. Quickly it expanded, coming to float the surface. I scooped it out and cut it open. Cooked all the way through. And delicious! So, into the pot the dough went, and we left for dinner with fresh sticky buns in our hands! They were a hit!

What else can you bake without an oven? Well, that got me thinking. Something I've always wanted to try making is doughnuts. I know, I know... unhealthy as it gets! But sometimes, you just don't care. So one night I took all the oil we had in the house and dumped it in the pot, googled "doughnut recipe" and off we went! Hot doughnuts... mmmm..... that first night, we dipped them in rice syrup. As they came out of the oil one by one, we looked at each other in awe. Gordon spoke first: "My mother never, ever, ever deep fried." "Mine either (giggle)." So good were they, we made more the next night. With half whole wheat flour, it can't be that bad, right? This time we rolled them in cinnamon sugar. Mmmm. We bought half a gallon of oil and swore that when it was gone, that would be the end of our deep-frying days......

Taize Worship

2006-05-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Friday evening we also had the opportunity to participate in a Taize worship service here in Seoul. In 2002 I was ever so blessed to have the opportunity to spent a number of weeks in Taizé (Bourgogne [Burgundy], France), and then to meet weekly with a fellowship in Montreal during my time there.

For those of you who have never experienced Taizé: worship includes short songs, repeated many times, reading of the scripture, and extended periods of silence (5-10 minutes) for personal prayer. The community in Taizé meets three times daily for prayer, spending the rest of the day working, studying, sharing and meditating. Ecumenicism is not just a philosophy, but a way of life, as the brothers and pilgrims alike come from all branches of Christianity. There are about one-hundred brothers worldwide, of whom eighty or so live in France. Four are in Korea, others live in Senegal, Brazil, Bangladesh, Philippines and elsewhere, sharing the life of the community wherever they are.

As the community seeks reconciliation within the church, so it also seeks reconciliation among all the peoples of the world. When I was in Taizé, I witnessed moving encounters, some mediated and some spontaneous, between young people of historically opposed countries: Korea and Japan, Hungary and Romania, blacks and whites from South Africa, etc. This focus on peace has taken on new meaning for me at this time in my life, as Gordon and I are feeling so convicted of the need for Christians to practice nonviolent peacemaking and as we are living here in Korea, ever aware of the conflict.

The meeting in Seoul was hosted by Brother Anthony, who has lived in Korea now for 26 years, and attended by a dozen people. We were welcomed, and shared an intimate time of prayer and song together, despite the pounding music of a nearby nightclub. It was an especially moving occasion for me, as I have been struggling with worshipping here, unable to understand enough Korean to make anything out of a sermon, unable to read Korean fast enough to sing along to the hymns (never mind understand what I am singing!). The songs written for Taizé nearly always have lyrics in multiple languages, each song having a different combination of possibilities. Many are in Latin, English, French, Polish, Spanish, German... the list goes on. Being at Taizé for any length of time, one becomes accustomed to singing in other languages - and struck by the joy that comes when a song begins in one's native language.

Although I could not understand the Korean words, I was content to sing them, knowing what I was saying from the translation provided, and also knowing that others singing with me were enjoying the special priviledge of worshipping in their first language. The last song we sang was begun in Korean, as all the songs were. However, we did not have songsheets for it, so I began to sing in English. As we continued to sing, I realized that a man in front of me had also begun to sing in English. Next the young woman on my left joined us. Others who did not speak English continued to sing in Korean. Together, we raised our voices, languages mingling, and we worshipped God.