Sept 25. 2014. Ngorongoro Conservation Area

We woke up early in the morning. To reach the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, our vehicle departed at 7am. Driver’s name was Dennis, so I saw the historical moment(?) that Denice and Dennis were introducing each other. Denice, Dennis, Gladys, Nicole, and I were so quiet on the way to safari; it was another long way to go to see animals.  3 hours later, we arrived at the place, and many tourists were already ready to go on safari. Our group also entered the gate shortly, and climbed a mountain slope through a thick fog. Soon enough, Ngorongoro crater exposed its breathtaking sight. A broad sunken area that was hardly included in my eyes at a single glance looked so tranquil but had certain feeling of tension. A various kinds of animals down there must have been in a world where the severe law of the jungle prevails. Herbivores always have to run away from predators, and hyenas are on the lookout for an opportunity to clean the leftover. And I am here to see them!

Interestingly, Massi people are allowed to live in this conservation area. Their nomad life looked somewhat nice because they are meandering unconstrained life. The first animal that we saw was ostrich. Some birds were flying over the dust crater, and cows were grazing peacefully. Hippos never thought about getting out of the water, and Oxpecker birds were sitting on their backs; they might be doing some symbiosis in action. Hundreds of zebras were so friendly enough to be closed to the road and hanging loose. Swans were boasting a graceful figure, and a buffalo and warthog were forlornly wandering in the woods. I saw multiple species of birds, but I could not name them. What’s your name? I took ornithology class last year, but I forgot what I saw… Someone dedicate their life to the study of bird eggs by chasing them to the ends of the Earth, others observe those animals in the craters to reveal the jungle law. What would I chase? While appreciating the scenery over the open roof in the bumpy car, I was lost in meditation about the mysteries of nature and life. I was standing at the backseat for a long time, so I suddenly got drowsy. I sat down, and fall asleep so easily through this rough ground. I awoke when people in the vehicle were excited to see something. “What happened?” Ha! Elephants were slowly walking in the distance. I wish I could see lion or tiger, but I only saw 4 lions that were taking a nap in the bush. Yo, guys! Wake up! Instead, a hyena was running in a race with our vehicle and crossing the path of the road.

It was a fun day trip to safari. I only saw some of them, but it was good to see the paradise of wild animals in Tanzania. A hungry lion did not attack our vehicle or prey on buffalo, so safari was so peaceful. In the untainted nature, human beings and animals were harmonizing with its surroundings to survive all perils. It could be placid or dreary; the relations are mutual, communalistic, parasitic, competitive or antagonistic. In this complicated biological interaction, ecology kills and reproduces living things multimillennial, and I do not know where is the Earth going. Thousands of years later, that crater will have changed its shape through another volcanic eruption, and new type of animals may fill in that new area. Nobody knows what will happen. All I can do is to see and enjoy at this right moment.

Sept 24. 2014. Karibu Jijila Arusha!

Mt. Meru in Arusha is showing its splendor. 

It took 8 hours to get to Arusha. I stayed up all night to finish up my study and work as much as possible and got in the vehicle in the morning. I fell asleep almost whole time during travelling. After a long driving, I finally saw a road sign, “Karibu Jijila Arusha (Welcome to the City of Arusha)” Yes, it was an unscheduled trip, but Denice and I decided to go to Arusha, a city in Northern Tanzania, without any hesitation because our colleague Nicole was there. Nicole would spend 10 days in Arusha during her transition period from Kenya to Ethiopia, so we had a good chance to have reunion in Tanzania. I have never imagined 3 out of 4 fellows would be able to meet in Africa somewhere during the fellowship period. I wish I could see Kevin as well; but I believe he would have a great time in Uganda by attending AIM-Health mid-term review validation workshop.

Dodoma - the city where I have spent most of my time – was so dry, and a cloud of dust always irritated my eyes; hard contact lens were even prone to tiny dust, and my eyes were hurt and brimming with tears. I began to be tired under my stagnant daily life, and I had to refresh my mind to be passionate about my Africa life once again. I was in the busiest moments because I have stacks of to-do-lists. But when would I have a life of leisure? Sometimes, just putting down the worries and making a move first will be the best answer to handle unsparing schedules.

We had a good fortune to know Dr.Jane, who is Kenyan and working as a Senior Director for Monitoring & Evaluation in World Vision International; she would provide food and shelter until we leave Arusha. I do not know when I can repay people’s kindness in Africa. Home was cozy, dinner was nice, and the room was so comfortable. Tomorrow, I will see the real nature of Africa; we will go to Ngorongoro crater, the world’s largest intact and inactive volcanic caldera, to enjoy safari! Lions, elephants, cheetah, leopard, wild dog, and many other animals! Wait for me, I will see you soon. I am already looking forward.

Sept 18. 2014. Typhoid

I did not feel well for recent 2 days. Actually, my stomach condition has not been so well since I came to Africa. It is kind of embarrassed to say, but diarr--- is my normal daily life for whole 4 months. Sometimes, stomachache was so severe, and I could not do anything but visiting toilet several times. Whenever I had some abnormal symptoms and even small weird feeling, I suspected whether it was Ebola. It has been already 2 months since I left Sierra Leone, but I am not still free from a dread of Ebola.

Strangely, headache or stomachache was always gone after 2 days of suffering, so I was reluctant to go to the hospital. I had in mind to see a doctor if the symptoms would last until 3^rd days, but my condition became fine within 2 days. It was like a tedious cycle; being good, being bad, being better, and being worse. When I got up in this morning, I was so happy that my stomach trouble was gone. My body was so light like a bird feather, and my head and stomach felt so clear and fresh. However, that happiness did not last long; right after eating lunch in the office, a stomach pain came again. It was so weird. What was it? Why everyone is fine and only me have this problem? I already lost appetite and ate so much less than usual today, but the pain has come again.

I had a bad hunch that I might have some problem, so I sent a SOS text to my Korean friend who is a KOICA volunteer in Tanzania. I explained her my symptoms; stomach pain is on and off continually. She answered me that, “Hey! It looks like you got typhoid!” I was so surprised that I might get typhoid. As far as I remember, I got typhoid vaccination recently, so I thought I would never get that disease. However, she contracted typhoid even though she had the vaccination. Also, she said that it would be the best for me to do malaria and typhoid check-up at the health centre because everyone might have different symptoms. Wow, typhoid…? That disease comes from people who touched infected feces and wastes. Did I touch those? Did I eat food from people who never wash hands? Ugh… it is not that surprising if I really have typhoid because I have eaten anything regardless of places. When I took this situation seriously, Edwin calmly went to the cabinet and took out typhoid pill to take one. He took it as a matter of no importance, and said, “It is normal to get typhoid here.”

She recommended me to visit Aga Khan Health Primary Centre for diagnosis. She said it was near to my office, but I did not know where it was. So I asked Edwin to take me to that place. We walked about 3 minutes, and arrived at the building. Oh… is that it? I have seen this health centre every time I commute, but I did not realize that this was Aga Khan. It was so funny moment; I only see that I really want to see, and I only believe that I really want to believe. I was so myopic. I entered the centre, paid 6,000 Shilling (which was cheap), and had my blood taken for malaria and typhoid examination. It would take 45 minutes to have results, so I went back to the office and killed my time by searching typhoid and cholera symptoms. My bank cards have not still arrived, so I did not have any money to buy typhoid and malaria medicine. Waiting for the results did perplexed me and I felt so terrible. Typhoid…? Normally, the first typhoid symptom is fever, so it is also called typhoid fever. Stomachache is only for some people. I might be in that “some” category. I walked again to the health centre and received the result. A clinician said, “very few, see the doctor over there.” Very few? Is that typhoid anyway? Very few typhoid? I was confused. He said “Yes, very few typhoid,” but I did not quite know what that meant. I reviewed result sheet. The only handwritings were “NPS” in the parasitology menu, and S. Typhi O. “1:80,” S. Typhi H. “1:40” in the serology menu.

I went back to the office again because there was a long line to see a doctor. But I went to the centre again eventually because at least I needed prescription. After waiting 20 minutes, I could see a doctor, and he said it was not typhoid. (Bravo!) According to him, both S. Typhi O and S. Typhi H value should be above 1:80. NPS meant “No parasite” for malaria. He suggested that I should drink water more often. I repeated going back and forth between the Health Centre and the office three times, but I was relieved to have disease-free result and felt light on my feet when I was back to the office. So then, what is this constant stomach pain and feeling nausea symptom? Living in Africa can be expressed in a different way as fighting against diseases. Have I ever worried about typhoid, cholera, and malaria in my life? Now I am worrying. It is normal here to get typhoid or malaria and get some medicine for those. Now it is true to nature that “Oh yes, I am in Africa.”

Sept 15. 2014. Minimum

People struggle to raise minimum wages. In South Korea, minimum wage per hour in 2014 is 5,210 won ($5.01). This wage is slowly increasing every year. Minimum rages in the U.S. differ by each state. The lowest one is $5.15 in Wyoming, and the highest one is $9.50 in D.C. It is easy to set the range of minimum, but it would be hard to define the maximum. Probably, the maximum can stop at score 100 or speed limit 65 miles, but in the real world, it can also extend endlessly.

The reason why I bring up a topic of minimum and maximum is that I was somewhat disappointed at the minimum standards of behavior. I do requirement for class, fellowship, human relations, and my daily life. Obviously, it is really hard to do plus alpha. Nobody asks me to do something extra. However, in a flood of information, I am always agonizing what my minimum requirements are. For the class, there are hundreds of pages for references in the online library. Honestly, I suspect that instructors really expect students to read all of them. I have no time, no passion, and no necessity to look at them. Because reading all references do not guarantee grade A. Just focusing on small portion of to-do-list, which is requirement, all day long will be good for my mental health. As a courtesy, I downloaded all references and made each folder to classify into relevant lectures. It takes so long time to only complete downloading and assorting them. I glanced at them quickly by scrolling up and down, easily get bored, and then, I became frustrated. I do not know anything. Dissertations are hard, and there are so many other related papers in the PubMed. What should I certainly know and what do I not have to know? There is no finish line for learning.

For the human relations, we are not always all equal. Colleagues or friends can be equal relationship. When I feel people who I rely on do minimum of minimum to me, I may have some disappointment. Some do not even minimum. It would be my fault that I expect them to give me beyond the amount of minimum. When I realize the person who is closed to me turns out to be an utter stranger, I get lost in a maze again how I am satisfied with my human relations. No matter how I feel comfortable to be with, the distance between person and person always exist, and I do not also want to be interfered with somebody. Somehow, I am sad to think that everything around me is just superficial. Approaching one step closer could be meddling to you. Reversely, it is an unwelcome favor for me if someone keeps inquiring of me about every detail. Friends in Sierra Leone still call or text me to say hello. However, it is not that delighted to react to their concern. Sometimes, I missed or did not want to answer because I am serious in Tanzania. Then, they were upset and questioned me, “What happened? I am worrying about you.” “I knew that you have already forgotten me.” “You ignored me again…” What are all about? I already left Sierra Leone, and I cannot go back there. I am not cold-hearted, but I do not feel urgent necessity to answer for “Hi” every time because the text conversation would not be out of “Hi, I’m fine, how are you? I miss you. Me too. What are you doing? Bye.” I do miss them, but I do not want to express my yearning mind by continuing pointless parrot-cry. Am I so ingrate? They were so nice to me, and I was undeserved to receive all of those unmerited treatments. I do not know. I just feel so bad whenever I talk to them in different country. I feel like I left them and only myself escaped. Somehow, I just forget about everything about Sierra Leone. They must have felt betrayed. Since I could not do even minimum to them, they also must have felt they were ignored. It weighs so much upon my mind, but I cannot worry straight all through how they would feel.

It is an exact a boomerang effect. I do not know how much that is related, but it did backfire me. By when should I rely on someone? In the professional world, can’t people provide any unofficial help if they have no obligation for that? You do not care anymore if you complete the requirement? I must be a greedy man who needs both moral and material help. As a OOO, any position, there must be a certain responsibility. If there are 10 lists to complete as a duty but I do not find 11^th list by myself, I will be stagnant in that level forever. I know people are busy enough to complete 10 lists. But I am also busy. I do not know what I am doing, but anyway, I keep myself busy. Finding and doing my plus alpha in earnest must be cumbersome, but it is the only way to exceed my limit. Being content with my present situation will not help anything; it would only give me a potbelly. Just like human tumble over hundreds of time and finally overcome toddler stage, the efforts to break the wall of current minimum have always to be done. Do I need solicit help from others? Then, I have to do solicit help for others first. It does not have to be give and take. Expecting receiving something later would not be good. It must be hard to do something for others unsparingly, but I believe it is worth doing to be a sincere person in the end. This boomerang will come back to me without noticing, and I will be able to move one step forward.

http://www.personneltoday.com/hr/government-approves-national-minimum-wage-increase/

Sept 14. 2014. Glorifier

“Wow!” I could not keep my mouth closed for a while. I was standing at the long front entrance. This was a fancy tree avenue. They told me the name of this hotel, but I forgot that name in 3 seconds. It was just amazing for me to realize that no matter where I am, I can see a fabulous place like this. I “accidently” came this place for swimming. Elda and Masha came to my office with a small cute motor cart (taxi) and told me “Let’s go swimming!” I was wearing a black formal suit, and I did not actually want to go swim. But Masha was so stubborn, and asked me about 10 times while we were heading to the swimming pool, “You don’t really want to swim?” I kept saying, “No.. No.. No…” Anyway, I arrived at this large-scale area without any preparation. I thought many friends would come, but only three of us were in the swimming pool. I sat on the chair, still wearing a black formal suit, which was a really inappropriate clothe at the swimming pool. And I opened the laptop to kill some time. “You guys play, I will stay here.” But they looked so disappointed at me. Well, I just became a foolish boy who never enjoys his life, even when everyone was playing in the water. I think Africans (maybe, some Africans!) like to do act out on a whim; I have been embarrassed by their improvisation several times, and I thought I had to have fun at this time. “Okay… let me borrow shorts.” So, I eventually dived into the water. Fortunately, Denice, Lidya, and Gavi joined later, and we played underwater handball with random people.

Denice wanted to have breakfast after church, so we went to the restaurant in the Dodoma Hotel, the place where breakfast would be available in the Sunday morning. I rarely go to that place because food is expensive. Just as was expected, I met Koreans there. They are usually there and like to chat about this and that. I did not mean to find fault with anyone, and there was no problem to be there to have breakfast. I know some of them suffered from Typhoid after eating local food, there must be no agreeable food in Tanzania to avoid that disease. I have still had chronic stomachache since I ate African food in Sierra Leone, and sometimes I feel so terrible abdominal pain. The taste was fine, but I do not know what makes dehydration and abdomen problem. Do people wash the vegetables with unsafe water? Nevertheless, whenever I go to some nice place, I cannot get the thought out of my head that there is a stark difference between people who can afford buying morning burger and people who were starving on the street. It is just uncomfortable for me to be there. One meal at Chinese restaurant here is equal to 10 meals at local restaurant.

Surprisingly, I met some of them again here in the swimming pool who I met in the morning. There were also group of American volunteers, and many of their faces were familiar. I do glorify my life by finding famous tasty restaurants and wonderful place, going for vacation, and sharing my joy with company. But doing that even in Africa? I know some volunteers have great dedication and commitment to the community and always live in the rural area. Some other volunteers like me go to a nice place and sit on the chair wearing glasses and have fun. It is not absolutely erroneous action. It is our freedom to go anywhere we want. If you have money, you can pay and eat some nice food under the beautiful sunshine. I am just saying... If I keep finding a better place and meet natives only during business hours and play “Birds of a feather flock together” in Africa, can I verily say I am in Africa? The more less developed, I see the more the gulf between rich and poor. I played and enjoyed so well in this glorified place, but I felt so awkward at the edge of my mind. I cannot still see the clear boundary that would make me satisfy. To be in Africa, should I be top-down? Bottom-up? Or horizontal? What old habits should I throw away to say with confidence, “Yes, I am Africa?”

I am not even sure whether I really wish to deny the things that glorify my daily life in Africa.

Sept 13. 2014. Dog meat

Today was Saturday, but I came to the office. Many staffs also came here and worked so diligently. I was supposed to take online class lectures during this weekend, but it was so…. hard to concentrate. My battery was completely drained. I was bored to death and Denice screamed with laughter at that sight. Then, Selina suddenly came to me and asked me a preposterous question again.

“Charles, do you eat dog meat?”

Uh… Somehow, people all around the world must have heard some news that Koreans eat dog. Koreans may have heard of Brigitte Bardot, a French former actress, at least once; she criticized severely about dog meat consumption in South Korea and called this behavior “barbaric.” A Korean parliamentarian argued with this foreign criticism of dog meat and expressed their criticism as blasphemy. It was interesting for me to trace back to the past, 2002, to recall what actually happened at that time. 2002 FIFA World Cup was co-hosted by South Korea and Japan. Brigitte Bardot, who called herself as an animal rights activist after her retirement, tried to take advantage of 2002 World Cup to ban dog eating. A member of parliament refuted her agrgument that "Criticising us as 'barbarians' for our food culture is tantamount to criticising our culture itself."

<Korean outrage as West tries to use World Cup to ban dog eating>

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1380569/Korean-outrage-as-West-tries-to-use-World-Cup-to-ban-dog-eating.html

Anyway, Selina had an interest in asking about that. I said, “Yes,” the other day, but it must be still an incredible story to her. During this week, she has been asking me several times, “Charles, do you eat dog meat? Charles, do you eat snakes? Charles, do you eat snails? Charles, do you also eat cockroach?”

At this time, I dodged and said, “No, we don’t eat dog meat!”

She argued that, “Oh, but you said, dog meat is soft, tender, and delicious!”

Oh my… I told her so… A long time ago, I tried dog meat [Gaegogi] once. It was hot summer. A friend of mine told me that Gaegogi would invigorate us, especially during the summer. It was true that Koreans like to eat stamina health food for rejuvenating, 몸보신. I have no idea if there is scientific evidence that people will be really revitalized by eating some rare items; Gaegogi, snake, frog’s hind leg, centipede, or the damnedest thing I ever heard. I think a dog soup, called Bosintang [보신탕], is well known as the best vital energy source for the body. At least, Gaegogi is not the host of Ebola virus, so I can say it is okay to eat. When I first tried Gaegogi, I felt so weird, because I knew so many people in the world have been arguing with eating that. The first (but will be the last) impression of Gaegogi was soft, tender, and delicious, as I told Selina (And it was too expensive). The reason why I ate Gaegogi was that I was wondering how it tasted, and I wanted to experience the diversity of Korean culture.

“Selina, how do you say dog meat and snake in Swahili?”

“Nyama ya mbwa is a dog meat and Nyoka is snake.”

Well, I have tried Nyama ya mbwa only once, and I have not seen Nyoka food at all so far. This is unfair that some people may misunderstood Korean eat cute puppy. Koreans raise specific breed of dogs as a food, probably, 똥개? Also, only a small percentage of the Korean populations like to eat Gaegogi. South Korean Food Sanitary Law has categorized Gaegogi as ‘repugnant food’ and outlawed the sale of it. But interestingly, the regulation became loose during the 1988 Seoul Olympics and 2002 FIFA World Cup. And nowadays, selling dogs have still been socially accepted. So, is eating dog meat is legal or illegal in South Korea? Law is too complicated…

I will just eat Kuku, Chicken. Though African chicken too tough to chew, but I want to believe that those field chickens who were boasting of their muscles might be much more better revitalized energy than dog meat. Come on, sexy chicken! I do not have to worry about the law and any criticism. J

Kuku is the best one. 

Sept 12. 2014. A boring man

It has been a long time since I posted up African food story. To be honest, my materials for writing a blog have almost been exhausted. My daily life is not that fantastic, rather, it is monotonous. It is office, home, office, and home life! I am a bit unsure myself whether I am a boring man. Writing a report was my wonderful backbreaker that made me do nothing but see the laptop screen. My happy moment for a day was when I saw the (free) food!

I was not sure the source of this food. Sponsorship department seemed to make some good partnership with Nam Hotel, so an employee from there has brought the food during every lunch this week. Since nobody blocked me to eat this (free) food, I visited the sponsorship department every 1pm. I also talked to Denice that we could eat (free) food.

Today’s food was like a gift set. Here are the lists of food in my dish.

Wali: rice

Ndizi: banana

Chinese: kind of vegetable (Nobody knows why they call it Chinese…)

Mchicha: spinach

Mboga mboga: vegetable

Tikiti: watermelon

Samaki: fish

Kuku: chicken

Pilipili: pepper

I put all kinds of food on a plate (as everyone did). Luckily, there was no Maharage: bean at this time. When I tasted bean in early days in Tanzania, I did not have any particular emotion about that food. But I recently realized that bean made me feel some sort of neasea. In my nutrition class, there is an assignment that I need to track what I eat for three days to analyze the nutrition facts for those foods. Ah… that would be interesting to do it! Introducing Tanzanian food to my class would be unique and fun. The deadline is far away from now, so I do not want to do it right away.

I am not still getting used to use my fingers to hand-rub ugali. Actually, I have not even tried it yet. As it would be a foul play to use spoon to scoop ugali, I just simply avoid ugali and choose rice. It was so natural for me to hold that chicken leg with my hands, but it was still weird for me to see people were using their fingers to pick the fish meat off the bone. There was no chopstick, but I guessed using our hands might be way more elaborate tool to fillet the fish. Good thing is that people have a great sense of hygiene, so they wash their hands before and after eating food.

The most interesting food here is Ndizi: banana. People cook banana! It is like a banana revolution. It tasted good enough. It tasted like a… How can I explain? It tasted like a banana. J African food has just made a boring man into an exciting man.

Napenda Chakula!

Sept 11. 2014. The Falling Man

It was a late night, 11pm, back in 2001. I was tired of studying and barely came back home. It was common to high school students staying for self-study until 10pm at school even after official school class is over. My daily schedule was to wake up at 6am, take a van to get school at 6:30am, start the first class at 7:30am, take classes until 5pm, and force to study obligatory until late night. It was like an examination hell. September 11, 2001, was already 13 years ago from now, but I still remember that day so clearly. I arrived at home at 11pm as usual, and my dad gravely opened the door and said, “The World Trade Center in the U.S. has been collapsed by the terrorist!” When I first heard the news, I had no idea what that meant. I had not heard about the World Trade Center before, and I was also exhausted at that moment, so I did not understand what he was talking about. But when I watched the breaking news, I was so shocked to see that people were jumping from an imposing burning skyscraper. They were falling headfirst and plunging thousands of feet to death. More than 1,000 people in the North Tower who were at or above the point of plan crash were caught in the building and suffocated by smoke inhalation, fire and flames, were killed when the building was collapsed eventually, or jumping from the tower to escape the burning tower.

Today was September 11, the date when North and South Tower of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were collapsed by terrorists’ suicide attacks. In commemoration of the 9/11, I searched the 9/11 news archives and read them. The story was just unbelievable. The horrifying scene of this disaster shocked me again, and my eyes ached with tears. Why did this tragedy have to happen? Are we living in a better place now? Unfortunately, there is still no time to feel at ease. President Barack Obama has recently ordered to hunt down Sunni extremist group, ISIS, in Syria as well as in Iraq. I am so agnostic about a terror, religious history, politics, and international circumstances. Why are people fighting to the last?

It is quite surprising for me that so many military discipline accidents in South Korea have been openly reported. Shooting gunfire at random, throwing a hand grenade to comrades, beating a private up real bad to death, treating even senior as a outcast, being killed by a armored car… Many young people in military lose their life or are severely injured by an accident. In Africa, 6 countries have still been suffering from Ebola virus, and people are also dying of many other diseases and infections.

It takes a long time to climb to the top of a hill, but it is just the winking of an eye when people are falling off. It would only take a few seconds that a falling man’s head hit the ground from the tall building. I am afraid of the fact that I never know if the accident would also happen to me. Sometimes, days have been scary because I have a bad hunch that something are likely to happen in the wind. In Africa, I alarm myself whenever I walk at night and have hard time to cool down right away when a speeding vehicle just passes right next to me. Where is my peace of mind? Living in the countryside would be the safest way to prolong my life to the maximum. But ironically, I cannot be pushed into the corner of a room and tremble with fear. I do not want to be serious any more, and I always want to say upbeat story on the blog. Maybe, I am lost in thought so many times, and have bunch of worrying lists. I like Tanzania because something serious would not seem to happen. However, nobody knows and says when an eternal peace will come. Understanding happiness and peace is somewhat ludicrous because I am not even sure whether they actually exist. People may laugh off if I say such and such about peace. Is it unreachable? I hope that nothing will happen tomorrow, moreover, even now. I want to be an ascending man, not a falling man.

Sept 10. 2014. Pro-Gamer

In South Korea, professional gamers have created a great sensation among young people. The real-time strategy video game, named StarCraft, triggered creating new genre of industry, e-sports. In the Korean portal site naver.com, there is an electronic-sports (e-sports) section independently in the sports news webpage, and recent articles about progamers’ plays have still been updated. The leading companies in South Korea, such as Samsung, SK, STX, KT, and CJ, have established professional gamer team and sponsored gamers. Some popular gamers make really high annual incomes, and prize money of competition is tremendous. Thousands of audiences gather at the scene of the tournament to enjoy progamers’ play, and a single format station is broadcasting those competitions for live and rerun 24/7. Due to its popularity, game producers from Blizzard willingly visited South Korea to hold StarCraft II production presentation and provided Korean language service to make more big fans of this game. Video game competitions domestically and internationally are held every year; for example, World Cyber Games (WCG) was inaugurated in 2000 around the globe and national squads have participated in many different official game events for victory. It is like an Olympics; the only difference is that gamers do not move their body too much, and they only use hands to control game console or computer mouse.  Obviously, they might be in the enviable position to young people.

Some people criticize that computer game is only for kids, however, times have changed. I think whatever the job is, people who are doing something professionally deserve to be better recognized. The new term, e-sports, is still unfamiliar with many people even though it was created more than 15 years ago. There are distinct huge fan bases for e-sports, so not everyone may understand why playing video game is called one type of sports. E-sports can be not uncommonly compared with chess, baduk(go) or janggi game because those are also the type of sports that players have a battle of wits. Taken all together, e-sports direct electrifying victory often, and young people over the world are fanatical about it. So, I think it has enough to be called as a brain sports.

Games are made by other people, so playing the game by gamers may not beyond the range of producers’ intention. Certainly, there are limitation, restrict, and some bugs to be fixed. There may not be infinite strategies because the variety of structuring battle building, collecting mineral and gas, and training units have a fixed limit. There are so many rules; you cannot exceed the number of unit over 200, a SCV can only collect 8 minerals per work, and Zerg hatchery is too week for Terran biomedics troops. But it is the same to all kinds of sports. Football has 90-minute game time, referees sometimes ruin the whole game, players cannot use their hands, and fans feel anger to unreliable injury time. I would say we follow the rules that we made, so we are not restricted by limitation. Within the scope of those rules, players always try to create brilliant new movements, and fans also want their vicissitudinous strategy and tactics. The process of the each game always looks different, and that is why people watch Major League Baseball and English Premier League every year. Nevertheless it has different perspective for every game, all of those activities have something in common: VICTORY. Every single player has a different strength and specialty, so strategies for each game are unique depending on who the opponent is. Also, exploring to learn the opponent’s strategy to get wind of his/her plans would be really important to defend and attack extemporaneously for win.

Now, it is time what I want to talk for today. I feel like I become a progamer. I sit all day long every day to play with Lives Saved Tool (LiST). This program does have many bugs and never listen to me what I am saying. Also, it seems that there are various functions that I do not even know. The manual related to other projection program in Spectrum has hundreds of pages... The data tell me all different stories, and I can hardly communicate with staff in Sierra Leone. First and foremost, my time is limited to complete LiST analysis. All I have is quantitative raw material and bunch of numbers, and I have to recreate those data into LiST analysis. It is somewhat frustrating that the LiST result has various possibility, so there is no single answer to say, “We saved 100 people’s lives exactly.” LiST can be part of evidence how a certain intervention have impacted or will influence on people’s health, and it is not an absolute solution to decide what the best intervention and ideal coverage is. LiST does not embody in all kinds of interventions and situations in our real life, so it certainly has its limitation to reflect the effectiveness of child/mother surviving interventions. All LiST analysts may have different opinions and thoughts for the same project, so every analysis would have a highly subjective point of view. However, they all have something in common: VICTORY against disease, infection and disease. Some people try this and other people try that, so all efforts might have different result of lives saved and suggestions, but the fundamental long-term result will be rolling into one to improve mother, newborn and child health in the least-developed and developing countries.

In the same vein, even though hundreds of public health students enter my school every year and they all seem to do different things, there is something in common: contributing the development of medical service for people. The field of specialization for public health could be global health, environmental health, social behavior, policy, mental health, epidemiology, reproductive health, biostatistics, or biology. All area will cooperate with each other to create a synergy effect for helping people in the world. I believe there is no trivial or unimportant public health work; all of them must be significant. Either working for African maternal health or Baltimore maternal health, all of works have worth doing to improve the quality of our healthy lives. I am terrible at playing StarCraft, but I have become free from the level of an amateurish about LiST. Anyway, playing any game is endless, and people do maintain their sense of actual battle by practicing several hours every day. I have a long way to go to be called "progamer." No matter what I play, StarCraft or LiST, it is good to become a specialist for a certain area to make big contributions in the organization, academia, public welfare, and people. So, let me finish it. I can enjoy it!

Lives Saved Tool webpage: list.cherg.org

Sept 9. 2014. 만사 II

We met again. The last time we met on Skype was 3 month ago, when I first arrived in Sierra Leone. During those 3 months, I hardly had any time to catch my breath. Moving here and there in Sierra Leone, urgent evacuating from Sierra Leone, adjusting new environment in Tanzania… And now, I can finally make time for 만사, weekly meeting with a mentor from Church of Philippi. I guess all mentees who began 만사 with me might have already finished this 4-month’s discipleship training. But I have not. Even though I am not able to meet with my mentor in person, the word ‘impossible’ is not in my dictionary! 만사 should be continued no matter where I am. My mentor and I have exchanged e-mails a few times to make the progress, but I thought having conversation might be much better way to study bible. I have had the good fortune to come to Tanzania and continue my fellowship work, and I have a pleasant office with decent Internet connection. There is no streaming buffering for video call!

It's good to see you again, June! 

We found the time to meet on Skype. There was 7-hour difference between Maryland, the U.S. and Tanzania. He has also been spending busy days recently. He studies oriental medicine in the U.S, which seems to be a quite novel walk of life, because he must be learning acupuncture, Chinese traditional medical treatment, on the opposite side of the planet, Western country. Recently, he told me a surprising but wonderful news that he would become a father soon. Wow. I am glad to know that his life is well under way. God bless him, his wife, and a child about-to-be-born. When on earth do I get married and manage home life? I have always thought mapping out my life for raising a family is the least urgent thing that I will have to do. Or, I just do not know how to manage my time to prepare for it. On the other hands, even before I knew him, he must have prepared for his marriage and family planning quite steadily while he was keeping with his schoolwork and working part-time in the oriental medical clinic. If I were him, I would struggle along to catch up with everything he does. However, he is always earnest, prudent, and especially, super-calm. He must have been pressed for time to do 만사 with me when I was in the U.S., but he never expressed his hectic schedule and came to see me every week by driving 1 ½ hours round-trip. He is only two years older than me, but there is a lot I can learn from him. He is a great spiritual guide as well as a life mentor to me.

Today, we talked about “meeting with freedom.” If we do meet others with freedom, equality, honesty, and love, we will make sincere and invaluable relationship with people around us.

Proverbs 24:3-4. “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”

Psalm 133. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”

Everyone has his/her own free will. I think freedom is human being’s unique human right. In the relationship with parents, wife/husband, children, friends, and superior/colleague, it would be really important to respect for their life and dignity, without coercing or pressing anything. Even if each person is able to do whatever he/she wants, freedom always entails responsibility. Nobody may want to be a lost son who left home dicing away his fortune. There is no person who is flawless; everyone is craving for being loved and embraced. 1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” It is easy to criticize, judge, diatribe or even upbraid other people. However, you may have to take out the speck of sawdust in your eye first, before measuring to somebody else.

I have my free will at the every single moment. No one urged me to complete 만사 and go to church in Tanzania. But I am asking myself, “What is the most valuable lesson that I should not miss? Is the school? Is the writing report? Or enjoying myself to the full?” When I feel the futility of life, I come back to the Bible. Like a lost son who finally came back home, I wish I could repent bitterly and dedicate my free will to the true purpose of my life. Surely, I already have so many sunburned skins, so it would take a long time to shed all of them. Perhaps, I would never be free from faults, because I am just an imperfect creature. All I can do is to realize how to use my free will most wisely; it would be slowly but it must be gradually. I will have to find what my genuine passion is by thinking, behaving, and behaving as I thought. If I do not do it, I will be swayed by my thoughtless behavior and think as I behaved. What is my next free will after Tanzania? I wonder too. Although I cannot change what I already have done, at least I can draw a new picture on a piece of daily white paper to sketch my future little by little. Did I round off my all today well? Did I draw the picture to the best today? I am looking forward to seeing a tomorrow’s white paper.