the days of summer

K-pop, Tough Mudding, and Christmas in July

Jul 23, 2024

Welcome back readers, and welcome, new readers –

As we head towards high summer (at least in the northern hemisphere), life gets a little slower and more spacious, with plenty of time to float in lakes or pools, watch clouds and sunsets, and enjoy summer thunderstorms. It’s also a good time of year to get together for celebrations, so in this post we’re each describing a recent festive event on the community where we live. We’re especially pleased to have a guest post from Rose Kaiser, a teacher who recently moved to Yeongwol, the community in South Korea where Trudi lived for a couple years.

Marianne – in Woodcrest, upstate New York

Two weeks ago I was invited with my 11 year-old daughter to a Tough Mudder event organized by some of the college-age girls from Maple Ridge, a Bruderhof community ten minutes drive from Woodcrest. Around thirty girls, 5th to 8th grade, came from three nearby Bruderhofs, and each girl was paired with an older buddy. Moms were invited to cheer, be part of a mid-course water balloon ambush, and wait at the finish line with watermelon and juice boxes.

The two-mile course was constructed by the college-age girls and featured a variety of challenges including plenty of crawling through mud (everyone cleaned up with a swim for the final lap). The buddies set off at one minute intervals and straggled back across the finish line twenty minutes later, muddy but unbowed.

Foreground: high jump. Background: the glorious Shawagunks

The wheelbarrow challenge gave the younger competitors a chance to breathe in

It was a glorious afternoon of teamwork, perseverance, and mud.

Trudi – in Spring Valley, southwest Pennsylvania

I feel honored to introduce Rose, the teacher whose voice echoed down the hall to my kindergarten classroom for the past school year. After the school day, the two of us would tidy our classrooms, exchange anecdotes from the day, and inevitably the topic would turn to Korea. I was struggling to re-adjust to life in the USA, and she was already dreaming of going to the very place I’d just come from. Part of me didn’t want to talk about Korea—it made me too homesick—but part of me enjoyed our conversations. For Rose, it was first just a dream and a prayer, and then it was real and tickets were bought. Every time we met at the coffee maker in the staff break room, I was peppered with questions of what to pack. (That question dominated numerous occasions).

And now? Rose is happily in Korea. I enjoy thinking of her there, getting to know a place and people I love. Perhaps one day I will write from Korea again. But for now, here’s from Rose—and I will go water the large flower garden that she left in my care.

Annyeonghaseyo means “hello” in Korea, my new home. The language – like everything else – is so different than Pennsylvania, where I just moved from. So here’s a little window into my new home in the Yeongwal community, featuring a farewell dinner planned by the school children and their teachers to say farewell to Marita. She has lived here for some months, now her visa is running out, and I am here to help care for the children in her place.

The school children will prepare and serve seafood chow mein, an egg noodle stir fry. Everyone else will also find ways to show our appreciation and best wishes for Marita. Since I can’t fathom cooking any Korean dish yet, and can’t sing or act, I offer to help the kids make streusel kuchen for our dessert. The plum tree is heavy with dark pink fruit and the kids shake them down, collect them, and cut the fruit off the pits in clumsily shaped chunks. Plums make the very best streusel kuchen! Sixth grade Changho and I spend the afternoon rolling out sweet yeast dough, pressing it onto cookie sheets and pushing the soft plum pieces, skin side up, onto the dough. We top the four trays off with thick streusel and they rise so quickly in the monsoon humidity that we have to take them to our communal cooler to stall the process. The kuchen must be eaten freshly baked, so timing is everything.

The meal unfolds splendidly. The kitchen is hot and frenetic with the teachers and two middle school kids frying plates of shrimp, thinly cut beef, sprouts, peppers, bok choy and whichever other assorted vegetables people chose to eat. We mark our plates with little labels taped on toothpicks and select how spicy we want it prepared. As we wait for our food, the little children play rock paper scissors and the grownups glance at the AC to see if it is managing to keep up with the full room.

Once we’ve eaten, and some have selected seconds to fry, the first performance begins with a middle school girl playing Arirang (아리랑), a traditional goodbye melody. Jeanie, my Korean host mother, gives me a rough translation, “If you leave me, your feet will get diseased.” Then five young men sing Ijen Annyeong (이젠 안녕), an emotional old kpop song. I look at people swaying to the music and see Marita across the room watching the five singers. Their song has been well rehearsed and is captivating. Then two young Korean university women who are interning with us this summer get up with Jeanie. One plays her clarinet and the other sings with Jeanie, My Heart Will Go on Forever. It’s funny and touching all at once. After that Anan, the father of four of the children, performs a pantomime of Marita wheelbarrowing compost and carrying laundry. He rushes back and forth in the small space at the front of our dining room and has us laughing. Anan can’t speak English, but we fully comprehend his gratitude for what Marita has done for this little community.

I think everyone is too full for dessert, but Changho and I carry it out and it is scarfed down. The next day I get rave reviews. And the next day we drive Marita to the bus station headed to Incheon Airport. She tells me she almost was crying a few times but decided, “Who wants to see someone cry when everyone is so happy?” It is true. We are happy and I am amazed how at home I feel. That same day I scrub straw mats from two nice armchairs I want to put into my room. By the end, the water is so dirty I don’t see the extra long bar of cleaning soap I used and it goes down the toilet when I dump my bucket. The next day is Sunday, still, two of the dads come to my bathroom to do some hefty plunging. I feel dumb, but am assured, “No worries,” “It doesn’t matter.” I am only slightly embarrassed because it is wonderful to feel accepted and appreciated, no expectations to live up to.

Norann – in Danthonia, New South Wales, Australia

While the rest of the world, it seems, is sweltering through summer days, we are in the firm but joyous clasp of an Australian winter – light frosts, warmish days, wattle blossoms starting to emerge, and…Christmas in July.

My Mom, Roswith, initiated this as a Danthonia community tradition when she visited here from May through August of 2002, but the “original” Australian Christmas in July was apparently begun by a group of Irish tourists who experienced a July snow while traveling in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. They felt so nostalgic they convinced a local hotel owner to sponsor a “Yulefest”, and a new Aussie tradition was born.

It’s one we carry on with great enthusiasm, and the youth group delights in surprising us every year. Last year we all walked to a Christmas Tree Forest and ate stollen and drank Gluhwein:

The year before it was an indoor Christmas Feast:

This year, lanterns lead us up the beautiful old stockyards where lights and fires were glowing and sausages were sizzling:

We feasted and fellowshipped together, then circled up to sing Christmas carols.

It’s always a reminder that in the darkest of times we need the light of Jesus to guide and lead us, every single day.

What we’re enjoying

Marianne

One of my daughters is having a Maddie Poppe moment, so join us in enjoying Wildflowers for your summer listening.

I come from where the wild wildflowers grow

Norann

Winter walks with my pupper, Bear. I love this season for walking: warm sun, no snakes, no flies, and so many discoveries. A few favorites from the past week include….

…coming across a class that does a regular outdoor cookout every week….

…the children were delighted that Bear visited them, and rewarded him with dishwashing duties!

Pink gum blossoms:

Visits with our free-range pigs:

And the first wattle blossoms. As we enjoy the last few weeks of winter, our drab country-side will soon be aglow with the many varieties of wattle which bloom on our property.

Trudi

Last week I did something I’ve never done before: attempted to memorize the words to a Korean song. It’s a good way to learn new words I discovered. Of course, it was purpose-driven: Simon and Janice, a couple here in the Spring Valley community, were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary and everyone was pitching in to make a festive, tailgate party-style evening to celebrate with the family. Numerous vehicles were backed up around a meadow, and a wide variety of foods were prepared and served. As people milled about (and children ran about) we enjoyed various performances on the flat bed truck stage.

One of my friends had encouraged me to sing a Korean song since Simon and Janice have spent the last nine months of their 25th year together, in Yeongwol Community in Korea. Their love for Korea and its people mirrors my own, and helped two friends and I overcome stage fright enough to contribute a soulful number to the evening line-up.