Dec 15 Cookie Bake

We decided to once again bring the children on base. Since all the children are under 14 they could come on even though they didn't have ID cards. Moore, Ritchey, Hyden and I took a taxi to the orphanage to pick the children up. Luckily, they arrived only 10 minutes after we arrived as opposed to the hour late they usually come. After they were all ready, we piled them into taxis and took them to base. Immediately after entering the dayroom they went crazy playing with the ping-pong table, pool table, fooze ball table, and messing around with the tv. While Ritchey and Hyden watched the children, Moore and I ran to get all of the cookie doughs and baking supplies that we needed. The day before I had made 3 chocolate chip cookie doughs and 3 sugar cookie doughs. We also had the ingredients needed for 'Snowman Surprise' cookies and gingerbreadmen to decorate. For some odd reason the kids used the cookie cutters while making the chocolate chip cookies.... They filled the whole cookie cutter up so that the cookies were over an inch thick. They took a little longer to cook but they seemed to come out alright. I accidentally burnt one batch, though. I was only going to leave the cookies in for about 5 more minutes but over 10 minutes later I ran to the oven and took the burnt cookies out. They were hard as rock hahaha. After all the chocolate chip cookies were done we had the children make gingerbreadmen. Some of them looked really cool. While we were making and decorating these cookies I put on some k-pop music. They absolutely loved Super Junior T's Rokkugu and Big Bang's Final Farewell. They were singing and dancing along like crazy. I definitely think the next time we take them from the orphanage we will go to a karoake room. I'm sure that they would love that. So after all those cookies were made 3 of the children helped to make the'Snowball Surprise' cookies while the rest of the kids watched 'My Young Bride.' A lot of the non-korean speaking volunteers who had never seen that movie before also sat and watched the entire thing. One of the boys grabbed the tray that was full of the cookies ready for the oven and as he was coming towards the oven he tripped and dumped the whole tray on the floor. We did the old '30 rule' and hurridly picked them up off the floor as all the kids started yelling at him. It was alright to still cook them though because all the germs were most likely cooked out of them. (We weren't really going to eat that batch anyway since the one girl totally sneezed in the dough.... but ssshhhhhh.... that's a secret) It was getting close to dinner by that time so we bought a few pizzas for all of us to share. Along with the karoake room I think it would be cool if we made pizzas with the children. They seemed really interested in doing that. The pizzas arrived and everybody ate a couple of slices. After eating, the eldest girl started beating up on the guys; especially Zack. (Although that might be because I was telling her in Korean that he was a liar, ugly, old, and that she should just hit him ;) ) It was getting late so we decided to take all the children home. We had a little trouble at the main gate because they didn't realize that the other guards had taken our ID's. First thing after they got home they started telling their mom about all the things that got to do. We let them take all the cookies, left over pizza, and gingerbreadmen home with them to share with the other people who live there. I am extremely happy at how smoothly everything went and at how much fun all the kids seemed to have.

All I Want for Christmas...

산타할아버지께…
산타할아버지 단비요. 산타할아버지 저는요. 학용품세트, 예쁜필통, 이쁜바지, 이쁜잠바,실내화. 산타할아버지몸 건강하세요. 2008년 11월 30일 일요일 단비올림
Dear Santa,
It's me, Danbi. I would like school supplies, a pretty pencil case, a pretty jacket and pants, and shoes. Stay healthy. 2008.11.30 Danbi

산타클로스 축구공, 팽이 박아론
Santa soccer ball and top Park Alon

산타클로스.
산타할아버지. 저는 축구공를 가지고싶어요. 그리고 팽이를 가지고싶고 하용품고 가지고싶어요. 나는 가고싶은것 밤에 가지고싶어요. 산타할아버지 감사해요. 2008년 11월 30일 종현올림
Santa,
Santa, it's me. I would like a soccer ball and a top and school supplies. I hope you can bring this on Christmas night. Thank you Santa. 2008.11.30 Jonghyun

산타클로스 손목시계를 주세요. 이창주
Santa Claus Please give me a watch. Lee Changju

Merry Christmas!~
산타할아버지 저 한국에서 사는 혜영이예요. 저엄마 말은 잘안들었지만 선물주세요. 제가 갖고싶은것은 이쁜옷과 바지예요.
Santa it's Hyeyoung. I live in Korea. I don't always listen to my mom but please bring me a gift. I would like pretty clothes and pants.

산타할아버지께
산타할아버지 저요. 엄마 말안들었지만 멋진팽이선물해주세요. 한국에있는다니엘이…
Dear Santa,
Santa, it's me. I don't always listen to my mom but please bring me a top. I'm Daniel in Korea

박하늘
안녕하세요.
저는박하늘이예요. 싼타할아버지 저는요. 예쁜인형주세요. 전화기 립스틱 눈에바르는(눈뉘) 빤짝이 화장품도주세요.
Park Haneul
Hello.
I'm Park Haneul. Please bring me a pretty doll, a cellphone, lipstick, and eye shadow.

산타할아버지 저는 팽이, 학용품,장난감을갗고싶어요. 박요한
Santa Please bring me a top, school supplies, and a toy. Park Yohan.

박하나
저는장난감, 전화기, 예쁜필통, 하트가방, 아기인형세트, 여자곰돌이와남자곰돌이를 가지고싶어요. 부탁드려요. 산타클로스할아버지사랑해요. 2008년11월23일 박하나
Park Hana
Please bring me a toy, cellphone, pretty pencil case, a baby bear set, and a mama and papa bear. Do me this favor. I love you Santa. 2008.11.23 Park Hana

산타크로스할아버지께…
저는크리스마그때 선물을 가방, 인형, 이쁜옷, 이쁜필통을 가지고싶습니다. 좋은선물부탁드려요.
박한별
Dear Santa,
On Christmas please bring me a bag, pretty clothes and a pretty pencil case. Thank you for the nice gifts.
Park Hanbyul

싼타할아버지 우리집에 세탁기나 빨래말리는기계주세요. 즐거운크리스마스되시구요.
박사랑
Santa Please bring a washer or dryer to our house. Have a Merry Christmas.
Park Sarang

Hope

In Korean society it is customary to learn everything there is about a person's background (blood type, parents' occupations, siblings, helath problems, what job you have etc) before getting married. If you come from the wrong type of parents there is a good chance of never getting married; at least not the person you want to. Being single, although more widely accepted now, is still highly frowned upon in Korea. So what if you are an orphan? You don't know who your parents are, if you have other siblings, any pending medical conditions you may have, and a variety of other things that they consider 'important' in order to marry. If you look at the two adult males in this picture you can see that they are each married and since the picture was taken one has had a child. Those men used to be orphans at the orphanage and yet they are happily married. It is amazing that they are now married living happy lives. And these two guys remember where they came from and we frequently visit the orphanage with their families I think that it is wonderful that they still help out when they can and help take care of the children there.

November 30th Visit

Moore and I went to the orphanage in order to make Christmas decorations with the children and find out what each child wanted as gifts. When we arrived at the orphanage the children weren't there yet so we created templates for the children to use. Snowman, Christmas ball, tree, mistletoe, and even a little Santa Clause. After they arrived we had them write letters to 'Santa' so that we could see what they wanted. They really enjoyed writing them^^ That project about 30 minutes so we moved onto making the ornaments. Mostly the younger children participated in that. We were originally going to use the ornaments that they made on the Angel Tree with each child's picture and a description of what they wanted but we sort of had to change our plans. I had brought about 2 packs of glitter paint with me for them to use and I think that almost all of it got used. We couldn't take the ornaments home with us cause they were covered in the wet glitter still. It was hard trying to keep the room straight and clean up all the globs of glitter paint everywhere; especially when they are braiding your hair, playing catch, and using you as a chair :D While the younger children were making the ornaments the older ones were in the 'living room' watching Japanese anime. They were so engrossed by it, it was hilarious. Once they got tired of making ornaments, they begged us to go outside and play with them. I must say that that is probably the best workout I've gotten in a while. Two of the children, Daniel and Hana, continously wanted to be picked up, twirled around, run around with, and thrown in the air.... We just couldn't get a break from them. The older boys wanted to play baseball, so we did for a while. The eldest boy was pretty good :) It was getting pretty late so we told them that we had to leave soon and headed back inside. Before we left, we got the children in a group picture and had them sing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' in english and 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' in korean. They were awesome!!! And I must say that I was chocked when I first heard them singing in english but quite impressed by how well they did it; even the yougest kids. We kind of got stuck there for another hour-ish as we waited for a taxi to showup and take us back to base. We ended up playing 'noli gongi' with them and they kicked our butts!!! We promised them that we would practice and come back next time, this way we won't look as bad hahahaha. We already have the date, time, activity, andplace set up for the children. Looks like we'll have a busy month ahead of us^^

October 24th Visit

The time was suddenly changed from 1200 until 1600 so a lot of the people who were scheduled to go couldn’t make it. I once again borrowed the squadron van to transport us to the orphanage. Upon arrival, we had to wait about 30 minutes for the children to come back from the park where they were playing with a family who lived in the neighborhood. I don’t think they truly understood why they were painting pumpkins and they were a little hesitant to do so at first. After Sgt Danila painted a little on the pumpkin they finally got into it. 4 of the pumpkins looked like clowns while the 5th that the 2 boys did looked kind of scary. After painting the pumpkins the Danila’s gave out candy to the children. These children are so well polite and well behaved…. They kept sharing the candy with each other and us. Earlier, before the children had arrived, I had made a balloon dog. One of the little girls saw the balloon animal and wanted the balloons. I took out the bag of balloons and the pumper and gave it to her. The children went crazy. At first, they were trying to blow the balloons up with their mouths… it was so funny to see them with these puffed up cheeks trying to blow a balloon up. They finally realized that it just wasn’t working so the each had a turn at using the pumper, which only a couple of them could get to work. After blowing the balloons up they would run up to one of us and ask us to tie it for them and then make us something or they would make it themselves. One of the little boys had a great time of stabbing me with his balloon sword. We left shortly after they had used up ALL of the balloons.

Air Power Day

In order to bring the children on base, we asked if we could use the squadron van and as it turns out you don’t need a special form but a person who has a license that can be used off base. After procuring the van, I went to pick the children up but that didn’t go so well. The children were supposed to be ready by 1200 so that we could pick them up and bring them on base for the Air Power Day. Due to church and lunch they didn’t even arrive back at the orphanage until 1300. It’s not that this was that big of a problem but the other volunteers back at base were waiting around for an over an hour doing nothing. Also, we were expecting 12 children to come but only 10 came. This left a couple of volunteers childless. Once they were all ready, I got them all into the van and we headed off to base. I think that I should have brought another person to help watch the children while I drove because they were so excited to be in a car and wouldn’t stay seated at all. Once we got them to the base, the other volunteers each grabbed a kid, or tried to, after we got them on base. Since it was Air Power Day they didn’t need ID’s or anything to get in the gates. Most of the children were too young to really enjoy the airplanes but they loved the children’s corner. They loved the bouncy castle, face painting, and especially the cotton candy. The clowns frightened them a lot; at least the younger children. After the air show, we took the children to Burger King for dinner. I have never spent so much money at a fast food place before…. Over $50 in total. I suggest if you ever take the children to a fast food place again that you get more chicken nuggets and less hamburgers/cheeseburgers and also get lots of french fries and onion rings. After dinner, I had SSgt Preutt drive with me back to the orphanage. Due to all the sugar and excitement they were a little wound up. Words of warning…. If you hear people around the children using foul language please ask them to stop or leave the area. Even though they don’t speak English they pick up words really fast and on the ride back they asked us what sh@# meant. We did our best to explain to them not to say that but they are children and will do as they please. After we got to the orphanage, the owner treated us to coffee and a small magic show. The children really seemed to enjoy the show so we will try some magic at the next trip.

Sept 22

This is the first trip that I have sponsored to this orphanage. In order for the children to have a fun, memorable Chuseok, we went to the orphanage and had a BBQ for them. We met at the Mustang and left from there for the orphanage. It was a little difficult to get taxi's because of the Korean holiday and the fact that the taxi's didn't know where we wanted to go made it a little difficult; but luckily we made it there without incident. The children were still at church when we arrived so we sat in there 'living room' and ate songpyon (Korean half moon rice cakes which are a traditional food on Chuseok) while we waited for them to arrive. 3 other volunteers, Gabriel, Michael, Jen and I went outside to get the grill started so that we could have the food prepared by the time the children came back. After the first batch of hotdogs and hamburgers were done, Jen took them inside so that she and the owner could start making plates for the children. Gabriel actually did a great job of BBQ-ing until the last batch of food went on the grill.... All the grease from the burgers that had dripped onto the charcoal caught fire suddenly and burnt everything that was on the grill. After the children arrived, we handed out the food and ate lunch with them. Since this was my first time at this orphanage I didn't really know how the children behaved or would react to us but they were extremely well behaved^^ They loved the Capri-suns and the chips that we brought with us. We had a little left over but not much. I guess they had themas snacks for later. Or fed them to their dog. Afterwards, we took the children to the park for soccer. Gabriel had an SUV and when the children saw that they HAD to all squeeze in there and get a ride to the park. Once at the park, they found a salamander, ripped his poor tail off, ran around like crazy, and played soccer and basketball. We only stayed at the park for about an hour until they grew tired and sick of the heat. They got another ride back to the orphanage, which once again they LOVED. After that we sat inside for a few more minutes, had a group picture taken, and then left for base. I think that this trip went very well and everyone, including the children, had a great time.