I Have a Drum!

Jonas is a Ghanaian who lives down the road and is married to Sarah - they're both great people.  Jonas has just returned from Ghana, where he was for a while with his business, and guess what he brought back for me?!  A djembe!  I had asked him if he'd be able to get one for me, but I wasn't sure if he would.  But he did!  It's super cool.  I've wanted one for a while but never thought I'd be able to get a 'real' djembe, made in West Africa, from where they originate.  It's beautiful.  As djembes should be, it's carved from a single tree trunk (I wish I knew what kind of tree), with one end covered with a shaved and tightly-stretched animal skin (I'm guessing goat).  Then it has cool artistic carvings in the side.

I'm very excited about it.  Africa, in a way, has been in my mind recently.  I just finished reading the novel "What is the What" - a powerful story about a Sudanese 'lost boy' (if you haven't yet read it, you should sometime); Also, a couple days ago I watched "Blood Diamond" - a good, albeit holleywoodized, movie about the diamond trade in West Africa; I've been following the events of the North African revolutions; and I've talked to and heard stories from friends in Pohang who are from South Africa - but holding and playing this drum is surely the closest I've ever been to Africa.  I can almost smell the Ghana in it.

And, for another instalment of "Korean Culture with Michael" I'd like to talk about Rock-Paper-Scissors.  Rock-Paper-Scissors is booming in Korea - it's a big deal.  Except, in Korea, instead of rock-paper-scissors, it's "Kai-bai-bo".  My students use it multiple times a day: to decide who gets the best pencil, who should read first, or who gets the ball first in a soccer game, for example.  It's awesome as a teacher because whenever my students have a disagreement over something, I just tell them to rock-paper-scissors for it, and then there's no argument; rock-paper-scissors is the ultimate authority for them.  And it's not just a two-man game in Korea.  My students play with 4 people or more often, at the same time; then they have a couple of rounds to decide the winner (to be honest, I haven't completely figured out how it works).  What's more, Korea has even invented it's own variation of the game, called Muk-chi-ba.  I could try to explain it, but I also could just let wikipedia do it:

 - "This game starts with the usual game of gawi-bawi-bo. Once both parties have presented their hands, the hands are kept presented and the person who wins the gawi-bawi-bo match plays the offense for the first round. The player in the offense either changes or maintains his hand while simultaneously saying the corresponding name of the new hand. The opponent also changes or maintains his hand at the same time. The goal of the offense is to get the opponent's hand to be the same as his/her own. After one round, if the offensive player didn't succeed, the offense/defense is redetermined from the hands resulting from the previous round and the next round begins.  In real play, each round proceeds very fast, often one or two rounds a second."
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muk-chi-ba

It's confusing, but it makes sense to me because I've seen it in action.  It's pretty cool.  Who would've thunk it, rock-paper-scissors in Korea.

And for the promised answer to last week's secret (which many of you probably know already)..  My sister, Alisa, is moving to Pohang !!!

Thanks for reading,
Michael