Dreams

                 

              We began to teach a class of 25 soldiers on Monday and have enjoyed learning of their hopes and dreams one at a time. Last week we shared the dream of our soldier from Cameroon to raise the capital to be an independent businessman in his beautiful country. He is the soldier on the left.

                The female soldier in the middle has met with us three of the four evenings this week hoping to realize her dream to become a pharmacist assistant. Her Sergeant Major also met with us hoping to obtain materials his lieutenants can use to teach the course to his soldiers. He isn’t able to send his soldiers to our classes because they are in the field training ten weeks out of every fifteen. He needs them to be able to use their field time for education and using his lieutenants as teachers helps him facilitate that. He said that he taught his soldiers the review course while they were deployed in Afghanistan. He was a leader anyone would be proud and blessed to serve under.

                When I asked our only where his family lived originally he shared their story. His people lived in China bordering Vietnam and Laos and worked with the US military during the Vietnam War. When the United States withdrew from South Vietnam, they helped this village of people escape into Laos and then come to the United States as refugees. Our soldier was born in the United States, but he has a rich heritage of freedom-loving ancestors who risked everything.

                Most of our soldiers work in or on the tanks. One is a cook but he has a dream of being in broadcasting, media, or film one day. He was able to pull parts as an extra in several productions at his last duty station and he dreams of a career that uses the talents he loves. We make ourselves available to them for extra tutoring as often as they have time, but most of them are released to be in the class in the morning and then go to work and put in a full work day. They give up sleep to do homework. We are usually in the Education Center from 0815 to 1245 and then at the USO from 1830 to 2000. They are long days for us, but the joy in serving keeps us going.

                Our friend, John, and his assistant Natalia are our pit crew. They set up the classes, help us make copies of materials, make sure the building is clean, and run the office at the Education Center. Without their support, our teaching would be impossible. There is a third employee, also named John, who does the testing for the soldiers. We work very closely with him as well.

                On Saturday Victoria hosted what turned out to be a Relief Society Enrichment activity to teach Wayne and me how to make kimchi. When we asked Victoria if she would teach us, I imagined a process that would take about two hours and that we could use a few ingredients and end up with a little kimchi. I had no clue what was involved. The long kimchi takes fifteen hours to prepare and one to three years to ferment. Thankfully, we made the quick kimchi which took five hours to prepare and will take one to three months to ferment into good kimchi. Two of the sisters from the Korean church group joined in the activity and we were very thankful for their hands and help. Our appreciation for kimchi has changed dramatically. We had so much fun with these women who were always smiling and laughing. They each spoke some English and were very patient in helping us learn the Korean words for our process. Our kimchi lesson will stand out as one of our most fun memories from our time here in Korea.