Well, it has been exactly two weeks (not counting the time change) since I ate the strangest meal of my life so I guess it is time to write about it.
After teaching on Wednesday and then being driven to a church that was about an hour and a half out of Seoul, we preached. We (Charity, Josiah, and I) were accompanied by my interpreter Professor Kim, Dr. Sohn the president of RTS Korea, and “Old Cho” the father of my former student Sung Cho. “Old Cho” was like a grandfather to the kids, wanting to make sure that they ate well and telling us that the reason he was in such good shape at 72 was because he ate so much sugar. We finished dinner, preaching and then a snack after the sermon, not to mention the ice cream (without beans) that we had on the way to the church. I just don’t know how they all stay so skinny. After all of that we made it back to the hotel. I was really feeling the exhaustion by that point and just fell into the bed like a whipped puppy. Here is a picture of Dr. Cho at the dog eating place.
The next day I taught again in the morning but by this time I had abandoned my lesson plans. I didn’t feel like my teaching on Bible study methods was really getting through to the students so I asked them, through my fantastic interpreter, Professor Kim (a true genius and a great scholar as well as the kindest host that I could imagine). I was told that they would like to hear some American sermons so I would do a sermon, answer questions about the exegesis, preparation, and delivery, and they try to tie it in to the lessons that I was teaching about the methods of Bible study. It seemed as if I was beginning to communicate a little so I was glad to have made the change.
Time for lunch came on Thursday and I had been promised that we would be taken out to a special restaurant that serves dog. There are a couple of things that are important. First, they all wanted me to make sure that I alerted everyone to the fact that they do not eat pet dogs. The dog that they eat is raised for food, much like a pig or a cow would be. Second, the restaurants’ that serve dog are few, and very low key. We went down an alley and into a sort of hall to get to the place and there was not a westerner nor a scrap of English to be found.
The pot of meat came to the table where it was kept hot by a heating element. The pot was filled with some sort of greens with strips of meat on top. This was the “Korean Beef” that we had heard so much about. I got my chopsticks ready (there were never forks on the table) and put a little of the meat on some rice, dipped it into a sauce that had been mixed for me by Dr. Sohn and took my first bite of dog. I have to tell you that it was a case of mind over matter. I could not think about the fact that I was eating dog while I was chewing.
The meat was a little fatty and greasy. When I asked for a knife to cut off the fat I was brought a pair of scissors. It was certainly not the worst meal that I have ever had, but I can’t say that I like dog or would ever want to eat it again. It was an experience, and our clothes smelled like dog for the rest of the day. Just a little reminder of what had happened. I let Mo smell the shirt when we came home and he seemed quite puzzled by the scent coming from that article of clothing. Here is Professor Kim pointing at the dog.
The next morning was my last class and after giving them a final sermon, complete with the story of Lonnie the bus driver and his “I’ll see you at the party” line, I told them that I would see them all at the party; the great feast where we will no longer be separated by language, race, or color but will all be sitting down at the supper of the Christ as members of the Kingdom.
After I finished, the students gave me wonderful gifts. The first was a box of beautiful handkerchiefs that were silk and will add a wonderful touch of class to my suit or a magic trick needing a handkerchief. One student gave me a beautiful dress shirt, asking me if I wore size 100. I told him I thought so, not knowing what else to say, and amazingly the shirt fits very well. Professor Kim gave me an RTS Korea memory stick in addition to the RTS Korea book stand (the nicest book stand that I have, and I am have a lot of book stands) that he had given me earlier in the week.
We took pictures of the class, hugged our goodbyes and I genuinely felt the love of Christ in that room. A wonderful thing was to realize that no matter where one is in the world, the symbol of the cross (which can be seen all over Seoul) brings together the members of the kingdom. I loved those men, even though I could not communicate directly with them and I pray that the Lord will use their work greatly for them.
I was finished teaching for the week, so the kids and I took the subway (very clean, safe and easy to use) to an area where there were many tourists and lots of things for sale. I did find out that during the rush hour there is a professional “pusher” to get the people into the cars. His job is to push people into the car until there is absolutely no more room. We rode during off hours so it was not so crowded, though if we were fortunate enough to get a seat, we noticed that the locals would move away from us whenever they could. We were told that there was much fear of the “swine flu” from Americans and this may have been the reason.
The tourist area had all kinds of things for sale. I bought a hanging painting of a tiger and a rabbit smoking a pipe together. I don’t know why, but I just thought “where else are you going to get a hanging painting of a tiger and a rabbit smoking a pipe.” We saw a demonstration of Korean candy making from honey and nuts. The candy was actually very good.
To give you an idea of how kind the general person was, I walked up to a stand looking for water. The stand only sold some kind of honey juice which I didn’t want. I saw some water in the refrigerator behind the juice dispenser, and thinking that the owner didn’t understand what I wanted I pointed to the water. She took out the bottle (I realized at that point that it was her personal water) and poured me a cupful, then refused when I offered her money. I wonder how many American street vendors would do that for a person who could not even speak the language.
I took a taxi back to the hotel (taxi service was very inexpensive, a thirty minute ride for six dollars) and slept, still feeling like I had never really gotten the time change worked out. I’ll write about visiting the market on Saturday, and the trip home in the next few days.