Trip to New York (May 2013)

Trip to New York (May 2013)

Empire State Building, NY's icon

New York City... is a city that is attracting many visitors for various reasons. The reasons for attracting visitors to New York City include the sky line of Manhattan, the Broadway shows, tens of museums, all kinds of foods from all over the world, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Time Square, Harlem, United Nations, 9/11 site, Wall Street and many more.

New York City is a special place for me and Kristin. Kristin first came to the U.S. and settled in New York. She worked as a nurse in New York and lived in this city for eight years. She still has her mom and three brothers and their families living in New York or New Jersey.

I worked in Manhattan for four and a half years and lived in Queens Borough New York. Joyce, our younger daughter also worked and lived in New York for a few years.

We had a family reunion briefly with Joyce, who is now serving as Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal Africa. Amanda and her husband could not join us because Amanda is finishing up her service at US Air Force and is getting separated from the service on May 23rd as Captain. Her husband, James, is a pilot. He is now in training to switch his responsibility to fly Special Operations Aircraft. So they could not join us.

ESB in artistic form 

On Mother's Day, May 12th, we worshiped at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which Rev. Tim Keller is the senior pastor. He preached on Sunday, May 12th, about Idolatry. We celebrated the Mother's Day over lunch at a restaurant in Chelsea, called Pounds and Ounces, a trendy place popular for young people. Sujin, my niece and daughter of my younger sister, also joined us. She studied and now works in New York. The foods were great, particularly the desserts, but our fellowship was only greater. After the lunch, Kristin and I strolled in Manhattan for a couple of hours walking more than 20 blocks.

On Park Avenue

Our visit to New York includes an important task, the task of purchasing a variety of supplies that we will need for the next one year. Many of them are food supplies, but also include other supplies, such as medical and clothes. COSTCO is our favorite place. It has all kinds and you can buy many in bulk at affordable prices. Whenever I see the foods and goods stored at COSTCO, I am amazed at the overwhelming abundance. Abundance precludes scarcity and thus diminishes our appreciation of them.

Another important things to do in New York include seeing family and friends. Both of us have family and friends. They are precious and highly valuable. Due to our short stay, we could not see all friends, but we had great joy of seeing some. Among them were our two friends who climbed with me Mt. Kilimanjaro in September 2011 and their wives. They are Mr. Jay Yoon and Mr. Jaesup Choi. My friendship with them is solid because of the six day hiking on Mt. Kilimanjaro slopes.

Yoons and Chois

Mr. Yeunho Suk and his wife are another couple we saw. Mr. Suk is a Yonsei Alumnus and senior to both of us. He has responding to my e-mails from time to time and has always been welcoming us to New York.

Mr. and Mrs. Suk

Another group of young people I get to see whenever I come to New York is my former colleagues from Colorado who are now working in New York. We cherish the time of working together in Colorado as well as New York.

In New York, it is great fun to eat a variety of foods. All experiences will be one time, but they are good enough to restore to us our appreciation for delicious gourmet foods.

Young friends from Colorado

Sujin and Joyce, cousins

 Kristin and I enjoyed our visit to New York, short but sweet. We lived and worked in New York, but we never toured New York. So we agreed to tour New York next time we will visit the Big Apple again. We will.

 Food... food... food...

We appreciated our visit to New York, but my mother-in-law did not recognize us, both my wife and me, when we visited her. A year ago, she welcomed me with a big and bright smile last year although she could not speak, but this time she gave us no facial expression. As before, I hugged her saying "I love you" she changed her facial expression a little bit but quickly returned to no expression. Nonetheless, we prayed for her that she may have peace and hope in her heart in the last days of her life on earth. Mercy upon her, oh Lord. - Jeffrey

Trip to Ecuador (April 28 - May 10, 2013)

As part of our 30th anniversary celebration, we toured Ecuador through a 10-day Ecuador Crash Course. Why Ecuador? Ecuador has been interesting to me for several reasons, one being that Ecuador is the country Jim Eliott, an American missionary, gave his life to win souls for Jesus.

A group of 23 people joined this tour organized by Sarah, an American nurse and former Peace Corps volunteer to Ecuador. She married to an Ecuadorian and has lived in Ecuador for the past 25 or so years. She works with Jonathan who was born in Ecuador to American parents. He has been running a travel agency for the past 15 years. They were assisted by Roger, another former Peace Corps volunteer, and Susanna, an Ecuadorian lady and yet another former Peace Corps member. Susanna was the Spanish instructor and Roger was a tour guide. Despite their different life backgrounds, they all have one thing in common. They all love Ecuador.

They organized the tour with all their hearts and energies poured into it. As the tour progressed, we could sense how much they love Ecuador and how they genuinely wanted to share the un-vanished version of what Ecuador offers. I am sure they have their own views on locations and lifestyles, but they worked hard to be as independent and objective as possible.

All participants had quite a variety of backgrounds also. Many have already retired or are quite close to their retirement. Their professional backgrounds were also quite diverse, from a retired pastor to a retired CPA. Ages varied from an 18 year old Canadian high school graduate to a 78 year old retiree who has great grand children. We were in the middle of the pack.

We traveled more than 1,500 km by a bus, starting from Quito and ending in Cuenca through traveling to the northern Ecuador close to the Colombian border and several beach towns on the coast. About half of the group continued for a two-day extended trip to further south close to the Peruvian border, after the 10-day crash course trip ended in Cuenca. The traveled routes are marked in the map included in this blog post.

The trip started from the capital city of Quito that is 9,350 feet high. Quito is a vibrant city with multiple ethnic peoples and cultures. We stayed at a small hotel in the Mariscal District where all commercial and entertainment activities take place. It was noisy until late night but we could feel the vibe of the emerging city. Note that Ecuador's average age is reported to be 21.5 years. Quite young.

We then traveled north to Otavalo, Ibarra and Cotacachi, northern cities of interest to many retirees. These cities are all located in the sierra between mountains. Otavalo has the largest handcraft market in Latin America. Ibarra is the provincial capital of Imbabura with approximately 200,000 inhabitants. Cotacachi is a small town with 10,000 of which 400 represent gringos or migrants from North America. It is also a capital for leather products. Great leather products at low prices. On the way, we crossed the equator line where southern and northern hemispheres meet.

Equator Line 0,0,0.

Our next leg of the trip was heading to the coastal areas, after one night in Quito. The stops included Canoa, Bahia, Manta, Puerto Lopez, Montanita and Salinas. We visited an American artist's house in Jama, namely Lisa. Her house was right by a lagoon and her entire house was an artwork. She was living without a refrigerator.

We stayed one night at Canoa Beach Hotel owned and run by an American architect, Greg, and it was a pleasant surprise with American quality rooms and services. Strolling on the sand beach in the morning the next day was refreshing despite the rain that soaked us up.

Panama Hats originally from Ecuador

The next day, we headed down south, passing through Manta, the largest port of Ecuador and the fourth largest city with 200,000 in population. We stopped over at Bahia for lunch. Bahia had both fresh water beach and salt water beach at the mouth of the Chone River. Most of us crossed the river by a small ferry boat. We ate at a restaurant by the water owned and run by an American entrepreneur, called Trip, who married to a Colombian woman.

We stayed another night at Puerto Lopez, a small fishing town, but the hotel we stayed, La Terraza owned and run by a German couple, had a panoramic view of the bay. It also had displayed a skeleton of a humpback whale, namely Fritz, that weighed 35-40 tons and was found dead around Puerto Lopez. On the way down south, we stopped over at Montanita Beach which is the surfing capital in Latin America. The beach town was bustling with young backpackers who came to try their surfing skills. It even holds international surfing competition.

We stayed the third night at a hotel by the Salinas Malecon. Salinas is nicknamed Miami of Ecuador. It is one and a half hour away from Guayaquil, the largest city of Ecuador with more than 2.3 million people in population. People of Guayaquil, or Guayaquilenos as they are called, travel to Salinas for their weekends or for their vacation. It was a crowded beach but well maintained. Along the malecon, dozens of condominiums rise to 10-15 stories high.

Ecuadorian Fabric

Ecuadorian Ponchos

One thing to note is that all these beaches maintain mild temperatures although they are located close to the equator. The secret was the Humboldt Current that originates from Antarctica, moves along the shorelines of S. American countries, Chile, Peru and Ecuador, and turns to the Galapagos Islands and returns to Antarctica. This Humboldt Current is upwelling from the bottom of the ocean to the surface, thus providing many nutritional elements. This upwelling thus attracts many kinds of fish, supplying 18-20% of fish demanded by the world. This Humboldt Current cools off the water and maintains the temperatures of beach towns around 65-80 degrees F year around. Every 5-8 years, these beaches suffer from the warm current from the South Pacific which results in heavy and destructive rain, called "El Nino." It is named as such because this El Nino occurs usually in December.

Salinas

Ecuador is the rose capital

From Salinas, we traveled back to the highlands. The first stop was Guayaquil, the largest city of Capital. It is by the water where rivers and the Pacific Ocean meet. Also, the mouth of the river where the city is located is blocked by a large island. So it was hot and humid, with little benefit from the Humboldt Current. The city was vibrant with a lot of metropolitan flavor particularly around Malecon 2000 which is the board walk along the river. It includes gardens, IMAX theater, museums and many other amenities and facilities. At the city center, one small park, called Parque Semitario, has 70 large iguanas that are fed by the government.

Tricycles at Puerto Lopez

Cotacachi

From Guayaquil, we traveled a scenic route to the top of the mountain, as high as 14,000 feet, over three hours. It was a rapid ascension but the view was panoramic and breath-taking. Then, we descended for 25 minutes to arrive at Cuenca at approximately 2,500 meter or 7,500 or 8,300 feet high.

Cuenca is the third largest city in Ecuador after Guayaquil and Quito, with the population of approximately 500,000. Cuenca was a lovely city. Many gringos from the U.S. and Canada have moved to live in this beautiful city, calling it their home, which offers low cost of living, wonderful climate, rich cultural flavor and many colors of Ecuador. It was estimated that the city has 3,000 gringos.

Andean Musicians

Woman wearing Panama Hat

Eduardo Vega's Work

Ecuador is a beautiful country. It offers many attractions including cultural and geographical diversity.

Lisa's Magic Carpet

Canoa Beach Hotel

It has the famous Galapagos Islands, many coastal beaches, cool highlands and Amazon jungles. Also, Ecuador offers Incan and Spanish heritages as well as indigenous cultures. The country is very fertile due mainly to the volcanic activities and anything that grows elsewhere grows in Ecuador. It produces crude oil and natural gas, so the energy cost is very inexpensive. Ecuador is the largest rose exporting country. Ecuador first produced toquilla straw hats in Montecristi, but they have been named Panama hats because US President Roosevelt wore the hat after his visit to Panama Canal construction site where most of construction workers wore them. It has the equator crossing the country. Ecuador means the equator in Spanish and it was adopted when the old Grand Colombia was broken into three countries: Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Because of this equator line crossing Ecuador, it claims to be the middle of the world. Ecuadorians are proud of their countries. They have high level of dignity and strong principles. Ecuador is colorful. And there are much more Ecuador can offer than what I can describe.

Simon Bolivar and Jose Martin

That is why people fall in love with Ecuador when they visit the country. We were not an exception. We have come to love Ecuador.

Additional photos of Ecuador are below. Enjoy them. Better yet, you should visit Ecuador yourself for the first hand experience. Chiao~ - Jeffrey

Ecuador Crash Course Route

Chola Cuencana

E. Vega's Work

With Sarah who organized this wonderful trip

With Panama hats put on

Iguana at Parque Semitario

Sunset at Canoa Beach

Trip to Panama (April 24-28, 2013)...

Trip to Panama (April 24-28)...

Revolution Tower

This trip to Panama is the second time for us. The first one was approximately 10 years ago.

Panama is known for its famous canal connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It is a small country but due to this strategic location for the world trade, Panama is well known. USA built this canal, using a lock system moving giant ships from the sea level to the lake level through multiple locks and bringing the ships down to the sea level again after crossing the inland lakes. USA stationed a military unit to protect the canal for 90 years and handed it over to the Panamanian government in 1999.

Hop-on Hop-off Bus

In addition, Panama is a hub for the financial sector and transportation sector. There are many offshore banks and attracts depositors from all over the Latin American countries. Panama has Copa Airlines that connect to almost all major cities in Latin America and to quite a few major cities in the world.

It also has beautiful beaches on both the Pacific shores and Caribbean shores. It has been rain forest and is outside the hurricane belt. Its shores have tripical weather but its highlands offer spring-like weather year round. For this reason, Panama is attracting retirees particularly from North America. Panama offers an excellent retirement program, called Pensionado. Under this program, retires may benefit from significant discounts on a lot of commercial and economic activities.

Panama Canal Lock System

Panama once was ruled by a dictator and drug smuggler, Noriega. USA had to take him down in the middle of 1980's to establish a democratic government and Panama has since been safe and stable. Its currency is US dollar and the cost of living remains fairly low although it has increased quite a bit over the past decade. It has several mega shopping malls that offer all merchandises from all over the world. Panama's tourism is still growing but is getting ready to attract more tourists.

Panama City Bus Diablos Rohos

Panama still has many challenges to overcome. Traffic jam is pretty bad. Services need to improve also. Despite the US influence, English-speaking population remains pretty low. Moreover, tropical weather is hot and humid, so everywhere you need to turn on the A/C.

Panama City View from Casco Viejo

Nonetheless, Panama remains attractive to many people for different reasons.

Our trip to Panama was short, but important. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. April 25 1983, Kristin and I got married in Seoul Korea. God has been at the center of our marriage and Jesus has been the third strand in our relationship, thus bonding it and holding it up through the high and low seasons. (Ecclesiastes 4:12) At a restaurant called La Mar (Mar means ocean in Spanish.) It was a quiet celebration but we expressed our appreciation for God's guidance and presence in our relationship.

Trump Tower Ocean Club and us

Panama City View

Three decades of marriage... would not have been made possible without God's guidance and protection. We were envisioning the next three decades of life and discussing about how to live out the remaining life on earth before we leave the planet earth. We may leave earlier to be with the Lord, but it is perfectly okay. May the good and faithful Lord continue to hold our hands in our next chapter of life! - Jeffrey

Trip to Denver Colorado (April 2013)

Trip to Denver, CO (April 18 - 22)

Fur tree covered with snow

From home in Kigali to a friend's home in Littleton Colorado, it was a 31-hour journey. Kigali to Amsterdam to JFK New York and to Denver. It was a long journey. I was concerned about this journey because I had to take another red eye flight after I took one the night before, from Johannesburg to Kigali. Moreover, I had to work the whole day on Wednesday before I left.

Thanks to God's traveling mercy, I was able to sustain myself. I took two 1000 ml vitamin C pills and one B12 pill before the journey began.

Kristin came to pick me up at Denver International Airport. It was great joy to be received. Denver Colorado was still cold. A couple of days earlier, there was snow. Here and there I could spot the snow. My skins get itchy very much when I come to a colder weather. There was no exception. I had to put on heavy dose of moisturizing lotions and anti-itching lotion to all my body.

We had dinner together with Eunice and Chuck Lee and Mike and Hyunjoo Kim at Hoongs, a Chinese restaurant where we used to dine quite often while we lived here. With a half piece of sleeping pill I was able to sleep for good six hours.

Red Rock Amphitheater

Saturday was a day of preparation for the sermon the next day at Logos Central Chapel and the lecture about Business as Mission (BAM) with the LCC congregation members. Kristin went out for walking with Eunice. They walked at Red Rock Amphitheater. It is an amphitheater that has been built with natural red rocks. Without any speaker system, people can talk and sing and can be heard at the top. It is an amazing spot.

We stayed at the Lee's as before. The Lees have allowed us to stay at their home for the past three years. Chuck is a physician and Eunice is a dentist. They are people of God, loving and serving God with all their hearts, minds and strengths. It is a blessing to know them and to fellowship with them. I felt sick with the cold, with frequent coughing 

Driving on a snowy day

On Sunday, despite the coughing, I delivered a sermon, titled "Ambassadors of Christ" based on 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. It was not easy. I had a dry mouth and had to drink water quite often. We all are ambassadors of Christ with the mission for reconciliation. The reconciliation is first between ourselves with God, others, self and the rest of creation. Next, this mission of reconciliation is for others to reconcile with God, themselves, others and the rest of creation also. This mission for others centers around people, but it should also deal with our vocations. Vocations are what we do to live the life of reconciliation. It is not just for a living. If it is for the living, it should be for the life of reconciliation. Our Lord will be pleased when we dedicate our life for the mission of reconciliation.

Abundant side dishes at Korean restaurant

After lunch, I gave a led.

In the evening, Chuck and Eunice, our host, invited a few dozens of members to welcome the new members to the church. It was a big crowd, easily 40-50 people, including children. I was exhausted and still sick, but survived.

Monday was the check-up day: medical and dental. Blood draw, physical check up, dental check up and cleaning. All went well. I was told I was in great shape. Good to go at least for another year. I was grateful for God's grace and protection. In between, I saw Kelvin and Keya. It was good to see them again. It started snowing in the afternoon. The weatherman forecast that it was going to snow 3-5 inches. Well... we were supposed to go to the airport early in the morning on Tuesday and the snow would be a hindrance. After a delicious dinner at a Korean restaurant, we went back to the Lee's and started packing.

Aircraft covered with snow

On Tuesday, early in the morning, it was still snowing and the road was packed with snow. My driving skills on the snow was a little rusty but I had to drive. Thanks to God's guidance and protection, we were able to drive safely to the rental car company and return the rental car. The Delta Airline upgraded our seats to the First Class. What a treatment! We were able to travel comfortably to New York.

Our trip to Denver was short, somewhat struggling but sustainable with much blessing. - Jeffrey