Where do I shop for my snacks in Africa?

Whenever we are in Africa, we visit our friends in Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi.  On our way to Brundi, we spotted this little shop on the road side.  It takes about 2 hours from Butare, Rwanda to Buzumbra, Burundi, and I look for something to munch on during the travel.  Here is my Safeway in Rwanda that I stop to buy my stash.  Peanuts are tasty, just as finger bananas.  And price is great.  A little bag of peanuts costs a nickle, a banana costs a penny, and a piece of bread costs 50 cents.  

I am thankful for writers who put their heart and soul in their works.

 I just completed an entry and sent it to the editor. One of my secret pleasure is reading books by ethnic authors, especially by Korean Americans.  I have almost every book that are written by Korean Americans, except by Younghill Kang and Richard Kim. Through this project, I learned about their books, I am on a mission to get these books. 

Korean American Literature

The first wave of Korean-American writers consisted of two intellectuals who were born in Korea; Younghill Kang and Richard Kim.  Younghill Kang was truly a pioneer Korean writer.  He wrote two biographical novels in the 1930’s.  His first novel, The Grass Roof (1931), took American readers into an unknown, exotic Korea.  His second novel, East Goes West (1937), shed light on the lives of Korean intellectuals who were then living in exile from Japanese-occupied Korea.  Three decades later, Richard Kim published his first novel The Martyred (1964)—about the Korean War experience. The Martyred was on the nation’s bestseller list for twenty consecutive weeks and was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature. 

The second wave of Korean-American writers were the children of immigrants who came to America earlier in the century. They were proud supporters of the Korean independence movement.  Mary Paik was born in Hawaii in 1905.  She was eyewitness to her parents’ harsh life as laborers in sugar cane fields.  She told her mother’s story in Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America (1990).  Cathy Song in Picture Bride (1983) captured the disappointment, resilience, and strength of the first wave of Korean immigrant women who came to Hawaii as picture brides.  Ronyong Kim in her book Clay Wall (1987) depicted the Korean immigrant’s life in early 20^th century California.

After 1990 there was a third and explosive wave of Korean American literature. The children of Koreans who immigrated in the 1970’s grew to adulthood with English as their primary language.  They provided a unique voice of growing up in two cultures.  Unlike wave one and wave two writers, these younger writers delved into issues of racism, gender, and power. The quantity and quality of these younger writers makes the current landscape of Korean American literature rich and interesting. There are too many quality authors to mention in all, but here is a short list of authors who grace the current literary scene as Korean American authors; Chang Rae Lee --Native Speaker (1995), Susan Choi -- The Foreign Student (1998), Nora Okja Keller--Comfort Woman (1997), Leonard Chang --Fruit ‘n’ Food (1996), and Patti Kim -- A Cab Called Reliable (1997).  The premier source of information concerning Korean American Literature is Dr. Elain H. Kim who is professor of Asian American Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.

Will there be a fourth wave of Korean-American writers?  Perhaps, but perhaps not.  After three generations on American soil, people with Korean surnames may be writing no differently than their fellow American authors.

Further Reading

Kim, Elaine H.  “Roots and Wings: An Overview of Korean American Literature 1934-2003”, in Korean American Literature, edited by Young-Key Kim-Renaud, Grinker, and Larsen, 2003

Fenkl, Heinz Insu. “The Future of Korean American Literature”, Korean American Literature, edited by Young-Key Kim-Renaud, Grinker, and Larsen, 2003

Kim, Ronyoung, Clay Walls, Sage Harbor, NY: Permanent Press, 1987

Song, Cathy, Picture Bride, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983

Lee, Mary Paik, Quiet Odyssey: A pioneer Korean Woman in America, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990

Visit to Taiwan

I was a guest speaker at National Chung Cheng University tonight -- via Ellumiate.  I was sitting in my office at 5 p.m, CA time, and they showed up 8 AM at their time.  As you see on the wall clock, I finished talking at 9:20 AM their time.  I talked about ways to use blogs, wikis, Youtube in the classroom.  We need to engage students with their own learning,  help them to use technology that they already use outside of the classroom.  They are constantly connected with others with their mobile phone, facebook, and other social medias.  My teaching has been changed because of my experience of learning with these tools.  One of the skills we need to teach our students is to help them to aware of their own learning processes, thereby they learn to learn.

Safe Shelter

(May 2010 Newsletter)

The weather has been capricious lately. Yesterday, the afternoon sun warmed our condo up to 90 degrees, but this morning was chilly and damp. As I was settling into my armchair, enjoying my morning coffee with newspaper, I suddenly heard a noise from outside the window. I thought someone was scattering salt over our veranda. It was hail! But even before I stood to look, the hail turned into showers. This is a pretty rare happening in the Bay area.

Here in California, we are blessed with good year-round climate, but in many places, people live in the midst of harsh and unpredictable storms. Thunder, lightening, downpours, hail, and blizzards are commonplace. When I hear thunder and lightening, I know a storm is approaching. I quickly find the nearest shelter to weather the storm and stay dry. I know that if I ignore the signs, a storm might catch me and I might catch cold, or even suffer from pneumonia.

Just as we run into storms in nature, we run into storms in life. When you see a life storm approaching, what do you do? Do you run to a safe place? Or do you ignore the signs and suffer the damage it causes? As children of God, we are fortunate that we have a safe shelter – a hiding place – to run to in times of need.

Korean Poetry class

I think Korean language is a poetic language. In our last poetry class, we read poems written by Mr. Kim who taught the class. The title of poems are byul 별 하나, 별 둘, 별 셋.... the Korean word "byul (별)" is "star" in English. When we translate the byul into the English word star, the poem loses flavor. If the word is a person, the effect is almost like losing an arm or a leg. When I hear the word "byul", it brings up so much more than the word 'star". Same as the word hanul 하늘 and the word "sky" does. I can say so much more with few words in Korean. This is why I prefer to write poems in Korean, and prose in English. It has been fun to play with Koran words for a few months.

I miss my mother

I am planning to go to Korea in May. During this trip, I am going to visit my home town, a little village where I lived till I was 10 years old. My mother was a stranger to this little village. She was a refugee from North Korea during the 1950 Korean war, she fell in love with my father who was the first son of a rich land owner. His family rejected her with many different reasons; one of reasons was that she was a "modern woman" which means that she was exposed to the western thought. They called a woman a modern woman, if she was educated, wear a dress or skirts instead wearing a hanbok, wear a short-cut hair style, and she chose her own mate.

Mother has been gone for 5 years now, and I miss her more and more as the time goes by.

Modern Woman

You taught me how to walk

Like a lady

On our monthly outing to the village market

I would hop ahead of you

Hurrying to get to the bustling market place where

Vendors called my attention with their exotic wares

Pulling on your skirt

I was impatient with your measured walk

Instead, you stopped in the middle of the road

You told me to watch those scurrying people

Pointing how they walked

"Like a grasshopper, when a woman sways her hips and shoulder"

"Like a duck, when a women walks with her feet point outward"

Then you showed me the proper way to walk

"Step one foot over another as though you are walking on a rope in the air"

I watched you closely for the first time

On that dusty, gravel road

Lined with tall poplar trees

Wondering where the road leads

You were different even to my seven year-old eyes

You had schoolgirl hair-cut when others had rolled their hair up

You had a western dress when others had a hanbok

The villagers called you "modern woman"

With reverence and envy

Since that day, I have practiced walking straight

One foot over another like a tightrope walker

When I am afraid of falling

I think of that "modern woman" who showed me

A road out of that little village

A surprise visit

Peter, one of my former students, surprised me last week. As always, he finds a time to visit me whenever he is in SF. One of the best gifts for a teacher is to hear from graduates. Surprisingly, not many of them would contact their teachers after they graduate.

Peter took a class from me more than 10 years ago. While he was an undergrad student in the Broadcasting Department, he saw the future with digital media. His department at that time taught radio and TV programming, but his keen sense told him that he needs to go outside of his major to learn about new media. When he showed up in my multimedia course, my class was full. We usually can’t take undergraduate students in our department due to the limited number of computers in the lab.

When I told him that there is no room in the class, he looked so sad. I told him he should come back next week, and check if any student might drop the course. No one dropped. I told him that he has to work with his own computer and also I told him that he has to work hard to keep up with graduate students. He worked harder than anyone I knew in that course. I still remember, for his final project, he turned in a movie length multimedia project.

I was impressed with this young undergrad. To make a long story short, after Peter finished his BECA degree, he came to our department for his master’s degree in Instructional Technology. In 2002, he went on to get his from University of Idaho. While he was working on his doctorate degree, we stayed in contact for a while. I didn’t hear from him for a few years.

A few years ago, I got a phone call from him and said that he became a professor in Taiwan. He wanted to invite me to his university. That was in 2008. I visited Taiwan for the first time, I enjoyed the visit immensely. He arranged me to speak at several universities, and he made a plan for me to see the beautiful island, Taiwan. I enjoyed soaking in the famous hot spring, hiked on the most beautiful mountain that I ever saw, met so many wonderful students, and his colleagues who became my Facebook friends now.

Peter called me last Friday (April 2^, 2010), and told me he is in US for two days. I invited him to my home and we had a lunch together. Our conversation covered from work, research, family, electron gadgets, religions, travel, and food. What a blessing to have a friendship like this. We are planning to do a research project together, so I can visit Taiwan again. I hope that day will come soon. Mean while I need to pack my bag for a visit to Korea in May.

Nothing is forever

We had this orchid since January 1st. When I got it, there was one red flower on the skinny long stick like stem. The flower was red, so I thought it is red orchid. Then half red and half white bud popped a few weeks later, then several more half-breed, then finally white ones bloomed. Normally I don't care too much for engineered flowers, but this is an exception. This orchid graced our living room for the entire winter. I thought it is too beautiful to see it only by my husband and I, so we took it to our church a few weeks ago. Now everyone is enjoying it. One petal fell off from the stem last night, I am sure the rest will fall soon. Too bad that they are not going to last forever. Nothing does.

Living Life with an Eternal Perspective

I have been blessed by recent sermons about the resurrection of Jesus and about what will happen to Christians after death. Pastor Chris began the sermon last Sunday by showing photos of ten church members projected on the big screen. The congregation was asked to guess their identity. Some photos were taken 50 and 60 years ago.

It was an interesting exercise. People I only know as elderly were vibrant and beautiful in the photos. Some people were hard to guess due to the time gap between past and the present, but eventually we were able to recognize each one of them. The point of the sermon was that someday we will have a new resurrected body; a body that may look 30 years old and a body we will still recognize.

Lately, more than ever, I have been aware of my body changing. I can’t do what I used to do. No matter how hard I try, my physical body continues to get wrinkled and broken. I am glad to know that God will replace this broken mortal body with one that is new and immortal. This brings me to an important point. What I do in this life each moment affects my life to come. I learned from the sermon that I must live my life with an eternal perspective, knowing what is important.

EBBA Women's Retreat At Mt. Hermon - March 2010

Last year, I jokingly challenged Diane, if Diane do it, I will do it. I thought she wouldn't do it. But she was serious. When I got to the retreat at Mt. Hermon, she would not let me off. I try to give her all kinds of excuses including my recent foot surgery excuse. She would not back off. I arrived at the breakfast table on Saturday morning, hoping Diane would not be there, well, she found me. Before I even sit down, she hold my hand and led me to the registration table. I had to sign up. I am glad that I have a friend who challenges me and keeps me accountable. It was a great adventure. Check it out how much fun Diane, Latoya, Angie, Lisa, and I were having.

Stonewall Jackson at DC

My East coast tour is ending soon. I had great time in New York with my younger son last week, and this week I am visiting my older son in DC, my sister in Virginia, my cousin in Maryland, and also visited Stonewall Jackson memorial site. Tomorrow I will be leaving DC at 7 am. It is good to visit loved ones, and also it is good to go home and see loved ones there. I am so blessed to have time to travel this Spring.

Waiting at SFO

I am writing this blog at USO lounge at SFO. Chris retired from Army a few months ago, now we can use USO facilities at airports. The set up is quite good; internet is free, coffee and snacks are free too. I wanted to catch up with news but there are young men with uniform are watching TV, so I decide to seat at a computer station. I am glad to see that the US government is taking care of people who serve the country. My husband served this country for 20 years and one day. While he was in the army, our family also had to move around every 3 or 4 years. I was often left with my children months at a time while Chris was doing oversea assignments. I didn't enjoy the militery spouse life at the time, but now I am enjoying the benefits of being a millitery spouse. I can use internet for free at SFO.

Time to go to the Delta terminal. We are going to see that cute grandson of ours soon. Our plane leaves at 10:30 PM and we will arrive at JFK at 6 AM. I can 't wait to squeeze Lorenzo.

Now I know why I am not a poet

I was blessed to attend two workshops on creative writing this week. One was the local Christian writers workshop last Saturday in Castro Valley http://www.christianwriter.org/ and another one was a workshop given by a Korean professor/poet who teaches creative writing courses in Korea. He is on his sabbatical.

Last Saturday, I came home after all day workshop, giddy, inspired, and alive. I loved every minute of the workshop experience;listening accomplished authors' writing experiences, publishing tips from fiction and non-fiction writers, and finding ideas from everyday life. Somewhere, a long time ago, I acquired that I must commit words on the paper perfect at the first try, otherwise you are not a good writer. If you are a talented writer, you spin the words effortlessly. No matter how much you love to write, if you are not talented, you can't be a writer. I knew I couldn't spin my words effortlessly, so I became a teacher. These authors at the workshop told us a good piece of writing comes after many versions of editing. Words don't come effortlessly to them either. I was inspired to hear their struggles, and also I could related to their joy of writing.

Last night, I went to another writing group meeting, this was for Korean writers. Sixteen of us met in a Korean restaurant. For 3 hours, we listen to the teacher talking about famous Korean poets, and why the poet wrote this word and that word, and jumping from one topic to another. The teacher talked, students listened (in my case I pretended to listen). My enthusiasm for writing was ebbing away by the minute. After the three-hour lecture, I walked out deflated, and I just wanted to go home and go to bed. I finally realized why I lost my dream of being a writer. My dream was killed by teachers who talked too much.

I thought about these two different workshop experiences, and I remind myself two things, so I don't kill my students' dream. Don't talk for 3 hours. Don't treat my student as though they don't have brain to think.

Take Your Pick

I love Sunday school. I am able to learn God’s word in an intimate setting. Last Sunday, my Sunday school teacher started the class by asking us, “What do you do when you have a difficult decision to make?” We suggested, “Pray?” Then the teacher said, “You pick” and he wrote on the board.

P-ray
I-dentify God’s will
C-ommit to do God’s will
K-eep the commitment to God’s will.

Each of us makes decisions everyday, some big, some small and every decision requires our PICK. God’s will for us is to know Him and to grow in faith. And we get to know Him by studying His word. Our church offers three different Sunday morning Bible classes, a Wednesday morning Bible study, and a Wednesday evening Bible study/prayer meeting. Take your PICK. Pray which class you want to join, then keep your commitment to attend and to grow.

Experience and Obedience

At six o’clock on a Saturday morning, Chris told me that three people were registered to attend a Celebrate Recovery workshop in San Jose even though the church paid for four people. I recognized the name of the program but knew little about it and how it worked. My friend who is attending a local Celebrate Recovery program told me that it is like a Christ-centered “Alcoholics Anonymous” meeting. As Chris was preparing to leave the house, he mentioned the fourth open seat. I don’t know what came over me. I thought about the wasted money and I was also curious about the program. A minute after Chris left, I got out of the bed and drove to the church parking lot where they met for a carpool. I turned out to be the fourth person.


The founder of Celebrate Recovery introduced himself by saying, “My name is John. I am a believer in recovery from alcoholism” and his wife said, “I am Cheryl. I am a believer who is in recovery from co-dependence”. The couple shared their powerful stories. When John had acknowledged his alcohol addictions and gave it to God, then his recovery began. After he recovered from his addiction, he started Celebrate Recovery program 19 years ago as a member of his church. There were two things that stood out from the couple’s testimonies: first their experience and second their obedience. Because they had firsthand experience with alcoholism and its destructive ways, they established a ministry for people suffering in similar situations. Because of their obedience, God was able to use their ministry to change lives.


As I listened to different recovery testimonies, it so obvious that God uses our experience to serve Him. We have seen a need for a recovery program for our church. I see the pain that family members have to go through. I feel a fish out of water. We as a church pray for them. But that is not enough. God must call the right person into service. He or she would require both the first-hand recovery experience and obedience to the call.

Life is a vapor

Indeed, life is a vapor. In the past few days, one friend died suddenly with heart failure, and another friend got a notice that she has a cancer and she may not live more than a month. They both are pretty young (in their 60’s) and they were planning to do many things after their retirement. What a good reminder for me to live my life TODAY with the purpose. Each day is a gift and I need to use it to be counted.

Sing Hallelujah!

My son Simon visited us over Thanksgiving along with my daughter-in-law Dilia and my 9-month-old grandson Lorenzo. Each morning, Dilia would bring Lorenzo to our bedroom and put him between my husband and me. I would hold him for a while then Chris would take charge. Every time it was my turn to hold Lorenzo, I would make a sound like "Aah~~", then Lorenzo would open his mouth wide forming a perfect "O" shape. Then he would sing in a chanting monotone. When that was accomplished, Lorenzo would clear his throat and smile proudly. I think Lorenzo is going to be a singer when he grows up.


When I study Lorenzo, I see my son, my husband, my mother, and host of other family members. It is not just his physical appearance; also I see his father and his mother in his temperament. I've heard it said that no parent can gaze into the face of their new-born child and not believe in miracles.


When I see Lorenzo, I see his family resemblance. Then I think about a child who was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem. There was a family resemblance with him too. God revealed Himself to us through His Emmanuel - "God with us". As I study Jesus, I learn about His Heavenly Father. I learn that the baby born in a manger was to become the Savior of the world; and like the heavenly host I sing "Hallelujah, Glory to God in the highest".

A Lady, not a Woman

We lost a dear church family member unexpectedly. Lillian Marsh went to sleep on the evening of November eleven right next to Al, her husband of 69 years. But on the next morning she woke up in heaven.

I saw her on the previous Sunday morning just before Sunday School. As usual she walked into the social hall with a gentle and warm smile with twinkles in her eyes. She was impeccably dressed as always. Lillian gave me a hug, and then walked over to her usual seat.

Exactly seven days later at the same spot where I greeted Lillian for so many times, Mable Miller said, “I can’t believe Lillian is not going to be here today. I couldn’t go to sleep last night, just thinking about her. She was a lady, not a woman. In heaven, I wonder if there are different seats for ladies. She was a really lady.” At her funeral, people were celebrating her life. Again, people said of Lillian “she was a real lady” and “she was a grand lady”. That label seems to be the best descriptor of her person. I was curious what would be the dictionary definition for the word "lady", so I looked it up and found:

1. a woman who is refined, polite, and well-spoken
2. a woman of high social position or economic class:
3. any woman; female (sometimes used in combination):

When Mabel used the word “lady” to describe Lillian, I’m sure she meant meaning number one. I’d like to add to the list of lady-like qualities. Beyond “refined, polite and well-spoken”, Lillian demonstrated: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” According to the Apostle Paul, these are the fruit of the Spirit [Galatians 5:22-23]. Lillian was a lady for sure, but surely she was a godly lady.

Learning is a party

I gave an assignment in my class: students create a podcast(or a vodcast) to illustrate the concept connected learning. I learned that when I step aside, then my students become more creative, and they learn much more than I could teach them with direct instruction.

Enjoy vodcasts:
The Knights of Connectivism
Learning is a party http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Pull and push

I stacked up books and binders in my arms to move them from my old office to my new one. I managed to stack them up as high as my head, and then I pushed the door with my body and walked to the new office. I tried to push the door with my body, but I realized that the door needed to be pulled open. I was struggling to hold on to the books with my chin and try to reach the doorknob with my hand. I thought I was going to drop everything. At that moment a passerby who saw me pulled the door for me; a small but kind act made a difference for me.

If we open our eyes and look around, we can see people in our church family who are carrying armfuls of heavy burdens. They are struggling. Their hands are tied. They need someone to pull that door for them to walk into a new room. Some have lost homes, some have lost jobs, and some have lost health. Just like the stranger who pulled that door open for me, I can be that someone who pulls the door open for others. A small, kind act can make a big difference in a person’s life.

This year, our church will be making Thanksgiving baskets to share with our church family who need our pull. You can bring food (see the list on the bulletin board) or contribute money to fill the baskets. Let us remember last week’s sermon on the parable of Rich man and Lazarus. The rich man saw the poor man’s needs, but he was deliberately indifferent. He committed the sin of doing NOTHING. Let us do something! Let’s share the burden of hurting members in our church family during this Thanksgiving season. Let’s give them some reason to be thankful.

High-school friends

I recently spent a weekend in Oregon catching up with lives of my old high-school friends. One friend flew in from Korea, another from Canada, another from LA, and I came from San Francisco. Two of them I had not seen in over 40 years. After I came to America, I was too busy building my career, raising kids, and moving around the country. I lost touch with these dear friends. The internet is a wonderful thing. With diligence and determination my friend from Korea first found my sister, then found me.

Their wrinkles and grey hair shocked me at first, but within a few minutes, my eyes got adjusted. I only saw faces of my 15-year-old friends. We talked, laughed, and ate Korean food for three days and nights. My mother’s grave is near Salem Oregon, so all of us went to her grave. We sat in a circle and talked about our old days. I learned a lot about my mother and the influence that she had on my friends. My mother was the first Christian lady they ever encountered. They equated her kindness with Christianity. All of my friends became Christians. I am not sure how much my mother influenced their choices, but the way they talked about her, she seemed to be their first and most significant Christian example.

As adults we play an important role in the lives our children’s friends. Without realizing it, we may be the only Christ they ever see. They may decide to follow Jesus because of the kindness that we show to them. We exchanged many gifts during this reunion. The greatest gift that I received was the testimony of friends about the Christian witness that my mother showed to them through her life.

"You Can't Do That"

We had a VBS preparation meeting on Saturday morning. After the meeting several of us distributed flyers to advertise the event. Linda, Edith, and I were a team, and went to Bayfair Farmer’s Market to pass out flyers. I saw three kids with two women in the parking lot and I offered a flyer while telling them about our church VBS. The younger woman said “No.” While walking away I overheard the older woman saying, “VBS is fun.” When we arrived at the entrance of the outdoor market, a lady came out of nowhere and shouted at us “YOU CAN’T DO THAT! You know the rules for free speech right?”

When I am in Rwanda I don’t need to pass out any flyers to invite kids to VBS. They come joyfully. When I go for a walk, kids join me on my walk. We hold hands and walk down a dirt road, communicating with smiles, giggles and laughs. Pretty soon we start singing “Jesus loves me”. Adults smile at us. I don’t have to prepare a VBS program as we do here in order to entertain kids. Just simple songs and hugs are sufficient for them.



Linda, Edith, and I found few people to invite to VBS at the farmer’s market. I felt like I had committed a crime when we were stopped and told “YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” I can see why so many Christians here are discouraged to reveal their identity, let alone mentioning of the name of Jesus. If we stop telling others about Jesus because the world says “YOU CAN’T DO THAT”, indeed we are committing a crime to our faith.

Church Parking Lot Sale

For several months, we collected used items for our church parking lot sale. On Friday, with Caryl’s masterful guidance, we sorted and priced items. On Saturday morning at 7 am, volunteers began arriving at church. The weather was nice and the breeze was pleasant. I counted 9 workers from the Korean church and 17 workers from our church. Throughout the day, many church members came and encouraged us as well – 32 in all. This year, we even had a food booth. Stacie and John were in charge of the bakery stand. Mrs. Hahn sold kimbap (Korean style sushi) while Steve and Shirley ran the hotdog stand. We enjoyed working together, eating, and having fellowship with one another.



The Youth group from the Korean church helped the event to be fun and successful. Girls were in charge of clothing sales and boys were helping out wherever they were needed. Once in a while, these young people would go to the main street with the “Yard Sale” sign and welcome drivers to our parking lot sale. They were such a delight to work with. A Korean girl asked “when are you going to have the next one?” She was having lots of fun. Indeed, it is fun to serve God with brothers and sisters in Christ.

Every penny we raised is going to equip students at the University of Rwanda as they serve their local community with open Christian hearts. When I heard that we raised over $1500, I was surprised. It is almost miracle to me. Many items were sold for only a dime or quarter. I learned that every penny counts, and that God can multiply our dimes and quarters a $1500 miracle.

Create and share

Here is a video about Creative Commons

He was a great artist - RIP

MJ was the first American singer I liked because of this song.

 

Books for Children of Rwanda

I am proud of my sister-in-law, Lelia. She went to Rwanda with Come and See Africa a few years ago, she saw the needs for books for schools. Lelia loves to read, and she wanted to share joys of reading books with kids in Rwanda. Her dream was to put books in the hands of kids in Rwanda where most kids never have an opportunity to hold a story book in their hand. Lelia collected thousands of children's books, many of these were bought from Ebay, then last summer she packaged them and shipped these books to Rwanda. All these works were done by herself with her own resources.

Those books arrived in Rwanda a few months ago, and now they are being distributed to schools. As Rwanda is changing from French speaking to English speaking, these books are going to be more valuable to schools.

We can dream, but the dream can be realized when we take an action. I know, Lelia opened doors to so many students in Rwanda with her heroic effort.

Please read about this activity in the NEWTIMES of Rwanda.

My grandson - How precious he is!

First day of instruction

Today is the first class for Teaching with Technology (ITEC712), and I came to the lab to check the condition of computers. I am pleasantly surprised that we have brand new computers, and they work. I miss teaching teacher training courses. I have been teaching ITEC core courses such as Advanced Multimedia (ITEC 830) and Learning Theory (ITEC 800) as well as serving the department as the chair. Now that I am stepping down as the chair, I can do more teaching.

Teaching with Techology (ITEC 712) is the first course I taught at SFSU when I came to SFSU in 1988. In fact, this is the very room that I taught. I taught this course almost 15 years, then I took on a extra duties for the department. The last time I taught this course was in 2003, at the time my students in that course learned Microsoft Office applications. Here is the old ITEC 711 course site, here is the course site for this summer. Quiet a change! Students in the past used to spend hours to learn the software, thus less time to learn about integration ideas. Now, tools are much easier to learn and better yet, most tools are free. Teachers can organize resource matrials and share with other teachers using online tools, and they can provide their students with an opportunity to be engaged in learning in a rich learning environement.

It is a truely an exciting time to be a teacher. I am so excited about my own teaching lately. I can now do so many interesting things in my course with Web 2.0 tools. My students are using blog, wiki, Youtube, Google apps, and many more Web 2.0 tools, and more importantly they get excited about their own learning, thus they become better teachers. When students learn to express what they learned, they become empowred learners. When students communicate their ideas to the world, they are empowered. When they collaborate with others, they learn to value others.

Where did time go? They are graduating already

I had a great time at our graduation party last night. What a great bunch of smart and creative people. I am so blessed to do what I do...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I am sorting things out, packing, transporting belongs in my spare time I have. On top of my regular work of teaching, interviewing new students for Fall 2009, supervising thesis projects, giving workshops, attending conferences, we are in the process of moving. So, I need two of me. Every time I move, I promise myself I will not accumulate more things. But I don't keep my promise. Since we moved to the parsonage in San Lorenzo about two years ago, I bought more things to fill the house. Now we have to move them. My husband begged me not to buy these heavy, big rosewood buffet table and a wardrobe cabinet that are imported from Vietnam. But they are so pretty, I said, and insisted that we need to buy more pieces to complete the sets. Our house now looks like a Chinese furniture warehouse. I have to find a way to move them and find space to put them.

Keep my eyes on the path I am on

Last week I had an early morning meeting in San Francisco, so I rushed into my car and drove off. On a stretch of Highway 101, near the SF airport, my mind wandered off. I found myself on an unfamiliar street. Instead of exiting onto highway 280, I went straight on 101. I tried to get off at the next exit and reverse my route. “Simple”, I thought to myself, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t see the highway entrance. The more turns I made to find my way out, the deeper I got into strange corners where I had a harder time getting out. Eventually, I found my way to the university, feeling stupid and anxious about missing an important meeting at work.

Afterward, I considered my getting lost experience. It happened in a split second. My mind was not on where I was going. As a matter of fact, I was replaying in my mind an unpleasant incident that happened the day before at work. The more I replayed the incident, the angrier I became. Instead of giving it to the Lord and forgiving the person, I was trying to figure out the person’s motive. My mind [and my car] ran off in a wrong direction.

During our Christian walk, we often lose our way, if we are not careful. Just as I knew my destination perfectly, most Christians know where we are going. And yet, if we are not aware every minute during our walk, we could miss our exit and turn in a wrong direction. As soon as I learned of my mistake, I turned around. It still cost me an hour to get back on track and I missed an important meeting. I caused other people to wait for me and several meetings had to be rescheduled. If we take our eyes off from the path we travel, we may end up in a wrong place and bring grief to ourselves and cause problems for others.

Web 2.0 conference

I had a great time at the conference. I attended sessions from 9 am to 5 p.m, and yet I had to miss many interesting sessions. Also, I enjoyed observing behaviors of people. There were so many young, bright people on stage and off stage. I met two Korean women, one from Canada and one from SF area, we hung around for three days together. This year's theme was "Power of Less", and more people talked about humanity than technology, which made the conference more interesting. I even heard Lev Vigotsky was mentioned in a presentation. One person based his presentation on Pink's book, and noticed many of these innovators are artists. Almost every presentation started out with a story, and they used well designed PP to tell their stories. The most often used words were like "relationship", "community", so Facebook won over Flash this year.

When my relatives who never used e-mail are now on the Facebook, and they update several times a day. One smart person saw the power of Facebook, and wrote a book. Her name is Clare Shih who made an excellent points about doing business utilizing Facebook power in her presentation.
There were many interesting presentations, if you are in itec 830, check out presentation files and video from the conference in this site.

The president of RISD talk was very inspiring and also interesting, so I am posting a video of his talk here.

David Weekly's PBwiki Web 2.0 Expo Talk

View more presentations from David Weekly.

W3C Geolocation API - Making Websites Location-aware

View more presentations from rsarver.

WWCMD?

View more presentations from Mickipedia.

Long Obedience In The Same Direction

A Long Obedience In The Same Direction

Today is our 35th wedding anniversary and our marriage is strong. At first our union was so fragile that many friends and family members advised us not to get married at all. Many predicted that we would not even celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Chris and I faced so many barriers: cultural barriers, language barriers, and racial barriers. I look back on our marriage, and I see God’s hand all over us. Without God in our marriage I know that I would not have seen today, a wonderful day when I am happily packing to go to New York to see my first grandchild.

The road to this point has not been smooth. I encountered big boulders crashing down on me that almost killed me. Big rocks blocked the road; gravel made the journey tiresome and difficult. Sometimes, I wanted to give up, and take the easy road out, but God was with me. He carried me when I was exhausted and lifted me up when big burdens fell on my shoulders. With his help, I was able to run the marathon, which requires a long obedience in the same direction.

Chris and I have been going to Africa for nine years, to the same place to the same people, year after year. One Rwandan pastor shared publicly this summer, “Many missionaries come and help, but they don’t come back. There are only two groups come back again and again to us. They are Foremans and Rick Warren”. I took this as a complement because we are running a race that requires a long obedience in the same direction. When God called me to go to Africa, I answered that call. The first few years were exciting. I appreciated meeting new people, learning new languages, and experiencing a new culture. However, establishing an on-going mission requires more than excitement. It requires commitment and perseverance – just like a marriage. God calls us to be faithful in all we do. Faithful means that our actions are worthy, dependable, and enduring.

Women's retreat

I had a great time at Mt. Hermon last weekend. Some brave women walked on a rope (30 feet high from the ground) and ate bugs (edible, chocolate covered) in order to take points to win. I was not one of those brave ones. I took lots of pictures for their walks. There were 15 small groups, and we challenged each other with different activities, counting lamp posts in the camp ground, or counting the number of bleachers. My team didn't win for the easy tasks, but we won rope walks and bug eating activities. At the end, we were all winners.

This year's theme was "The Amazing Race: God's Way". I had a time to reflect my life, I can say how grateful I am for His mercy and blessings for my life. I also got to meet ladies from a Nigerian church in Oakland, when they sang, I missed my Rwandan friends so much. Here is a slide show from the weekend. I put a music to spice up the slide show, it is little loud.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

What a great time to be a teacher

It is so good to work with roomful of bright students. I read their learning blog, and learn so much from their learning. Here is what Alex shared with us, and I am sharing with you. We are living in an exciting time-- Look at what we are going to use soon. I don't have to squint my eyes to find keys on my phone. Here is a talk about MIT media lab work: http://www.ted.com/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html




Also, Alex found this great site for us:

"NEWSFLASH: My favorite blog, information aesthetics, just posted about Sixth Sense. Here's a four-minute video. Imagine the implications! This is soooo cool, and it's very much what Dr. Wagner was discussing in class about Web 3.o (3D).
http://www.kwfdn.org/map/map.aspx"

This can happen to your grandmother

I don't have digital TV conversion problem since I don't own a TV. But most of our church people (there are more than half of our congregation members are over 70) have to convert their TV. I didn't even think about asking how they are managing this conversion problem.

I got this wonderfully funny video from Dr. Ellen Wagner's site. I have to ask her if the lady is her mother whom she talked about in our class. I thought this Youtube video is so funny. But it is not so funny when it is a reality that our seniors have to deal with. As we use more technology tools to connect with each other, we need to think about accessibility issues.

Video story

Since I asked my students to create a less than one minute story using a web 2.0 tool, I should do it too. I asked them to create a video story to highlight the points which were made by my friend, Curt, who came as an online guest speaker from IU. I confess, I didn't do "WE ALL CAN LEARN" thing. Here is my story about my grandson.

I will be going to Brooklyn in a few weeks, during my spring break, I can't wait to squeeze this bundle of joy. Till then I squeeze pixels of Lorenzo.

Make a Smilebox postcard

ePortofolio conference

It is raining outside. I took a Bart to get to the downtown SFSU center for the CSU ePorofolio conference, Guess who was greeting at the registration table. Angie and Alex from ITEC 830 class they work for SFSU Academic Technology. Our ITEC program is trying to implement ePortofolio, and I noticed there were other department chairs came for the conference, so everyone is trying to implement.

I thought presentations that made by people from UK and other countries were interesting. Their approach for using a portofolio is more process oriented and student-centered than product-oriented.

During the day, I thought about several things that I want to remind myself often.

1. I don't want to call my student blog as a ePortofolio. Once we call it an ePortofolio or something like that, teachers expect students to showcase their work rather than using the tool to think with and to think about their learning process.

2. When a teacher gives more freedom to students to explore their own interest, they become more responsible learners. I experience this all the time in my class.

3. My job as a teacher is to empower my students, not manage their learning, they manage their own learning. I want them to learn more on their own than what we discuss in the class.

4. Modeling is important -- If I expect students to write their blog, I need to do it for myself too.


Alex and Angie are going to write about the conference in more detail in a wiki page.

Using Web 2.0 in Business.

My students and I have been discussing about the potential use of Web 2.0 in business last week. I thought this article is a good addition to our discussion with Eugene Lee.

Six ways to make Web 2.0 work in the McKinsey Quarterly, FEBRUARY 2009

Sense of Hope in Rwanda

I saw smiles on children's faces that made my heart to jump with joy. What I noticed the most during this visit was a "Sense of Hope" in the air in Rwanda. People are busy going places, with the sense of purpose. Children are becoming children again, they play silly to each other and they giggle all the time to mujungus. I saw more kids are carrying a book bag, in stead of carrying yellow plastic water jug on their head. I saw new buildings are going up everywhere; homes, hospitals, schools are built. The country of Rwanda turned the corner in recent years for better, in my earlier visits, the word I heard often was "We are poor", but I don't hear that word that often this time. I heard the words, "We can do" from the lips of my friends. I pulled out a few old pictures of children which I took in 2002 in Butare, and I put them in this slide show to see the changes in the children's faces. How good to see people's lives are getting better.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Prayers

I am so touched by my brothers and sisters in Africa. They pray, pray, pray. How do we know God's will in our lives? Here it is.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

At 5:30 in the morning, what do you do?

When I am in Africa, I attend the daily devotional meeting which happens at the CASA house where I stay. Around 5 am, still dark outside, I hear the CASA house gate opens, and see Jack takes white plastic chairs out from the living room to the yard. Then soon, mamas and kids enter the gate. These are poorest of poor people in Butare. Most of mamas are widows and some of these kids are orphans. These children often went to bed hungry the night before. And yet, they get up early, walk the dirt road in bare feet, in dark, to get here. They give thanks to God that they are alive for the day. They pray, they sing, they are grateful for each other. Whenever I see the way they express their gratitude to God, I am so humbled by them. I am reminded by them that true joy comes from grateful hearts, not from things we possess.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

NUR Faculty Seminar

Paul Kim from Stanford, Debbie from Multinomah University, and I taught faculty members at NUR. Paul shared mLearning (mobile learning), and Debbie shared cooperative learning and I taught different ways of using web 2.0 applications.

Professors are eager to learn, but the computers in the faculty lab didn't work well. As always, I am happy to share what I know with my friends in Africa. This year seminar was great, we had three excellent presenters who volunteered to go to Africa and provide this seminar. Each of us paid our own ways to get there, and put our hearts into the presentations.

Flock Browser

New Year's Eve and Lighthouse building site

I am back from from Rwanda. I will put photos and slides to share what we (nine volunteers from US) did in Rwanda from Dec. 30, 2008 to Jan 15th, 2009.

We attended an all night service at a local church. Hundreds people attended the service, and they stayed up all night, singing, giving testimonies, reading the words, more singing. Went on all night. We did many different project: construction, teaching, conference, playing with kids, visiting homes, etc.

Here is how we spent on New Year's Eve, and laying the foundation for the Lighthouse on Jan. 1st, 2009.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Almost Done

This is our third week in Butare. We completed Student Conference which is the main program for this year. Students from Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, and Burundi came. This year's conference theme was "Building your church, building your nation". Also, they gathered in the evening, and the evening theam was "The Call". Rob, Cody, Debbi, and Chris were main speakers for theThis is our third week in Butare. We completed Student Conference which is the main program for this year. Students from Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, and Burundi came. This year's conference theme was "Building your church, building your nation". Also, they gathered in the evening, and the evening theam was "The Call". Rob, Cody, Debbi, and Chris were main speakers for the evening session. Students met 8 am to 5 p.m for the main conference, Chris taught "Building your church and Building you nation", and Rob and Cody taught "Spiritual gifts", and African speakers encouraged students as well.

Debbi, Paul, and I conducted a four-day long seminar for NUR faculty members. Fifteen faculty members attended the seminar, they are so eager to learn about teaching and learning with technology. The evaluation of the seminar indicated that they learned a lot, and we motivated them.

Students from other countries really enjoyed the conference, and also visit to the National Museum.

Now, it is in our third week. There are two more seminars left for our team to conduct; one for the pastors, and another for the pastors’ wives. Paul Kim and Grace Kim are going back to US tomorrow and they will stay one night in Kigali. Amon will pick them up and show him his school and also introduces Paul to important people who make decisions for the country of Rwanda.

Chris and Cody went to Congo to encourage people there, and they will come back tonight. Debbi, Tabitha, and I visited morning devotion mamas' houses this morning.

In Butare, Rwanda

I am done with the NUR faculty seminar, and we are relaxing now. The seminar was successful, professors really like to learn about Web 2.0 applications and teaching strategies. Debbie presented "cooperative learning strategies", Paul presented "eportofolio", and I presented "emerging technologies in education". We had network problem all the time.

Chris went to Congo with Cody. At the last minute, we decide NOT to go to Congo because of the situation in Congo. The rest of the team is relaxing. I am teaching Joanne how to use computer, she created her first blog. Here is her blog site,

We are doning fine

We arrived in Butare Rwnada on Dec. 30th, and had a wonderful worship service at the Pastor Paul's church. It was an all night service; praising, giving testimonies, reading the Words, and preaching. I can't believe several hundreds came to the service, and they stayed up all night. Here are some photos of our activities so far. We, nine of us, are at the Pastor Paul's house for a dinner before the New Year's Eve service. We worked on the consturction site, the future Lighthouse. There are 44 holes for 44 pillars. We also worked with kids at the CASA house. Paul Kim broung little computer game device, and children are amazed with the little thing can do. Tabatha, Cody, and Grace worked with children; playing games, coloring, singing songs in English, playing tatter ball. You also will see what we eat. Jack, the CASA night watchman is holding a cute chicken which soon to be on our dinner table. Internet connection is really slow here.

Dancing at 2 am

Pastor Rob, Lelia, and Grace joined dancers on the stage. They are dancing at 2 am at the all night service on the New Year's Eve service.

 

Dream Team -- 2009

 

Nine of us are posing at the Pastor Paul's house after the dinner. The following activites will be taking place next two weeks.

1. Pan African International Student Conference -- Christian students from Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Burundi will come and share their hearts for Jesus. The CASA is sponsoring the conference, and Chris, Cody, Rob will be involved with the conference

2. National Unversity of Rwanda Faculty Seminar -- Paul Kim, Debbie Miller, and I will be involved with the faculty development seminar. We will focus on technology and instructional strategies.

3. Children's Ministry -- Tabitha, Cody, and Grace are in charge of children's program.

4. Morning Devotion -- Children and widows come to the CASA house at 5:30 in the morning and start the day with praise and prayers.

5. Evening Rally -- Chris, Debbie, Rob, and Cody will preach and teach. The theme for this year is "The CAll"

6. Women's seminar -- Debbie is in charge of the women's seminar, and she will teach on "Prayers"
7 Pastors' seminar -- Rob and Cody will teach

8. Villiage ministry -- The team will visit country side churches, and encourage local pastors. We will also play with children.

9. Visitation ministry -- We will visit widows' homes and pray for them

10. Construction work -- We will work a few hours at the future Lighthouse construction site