by Malcolm & Suemi Allan, Steve & Jerry Tamayo - Seoul, Korea
Greetings from Korea. Spring has come and at long last we are starting to see some color in the fields, leaves on the trees and flowers beginning to bloom. Our students also feel the newness of spring by getting outside to play in the longer daylight hours of evening and by getting away to the mountains when the opportunity presents itself. On April 5, Korean Arbor Day, while the Middle School students were away at school workshop, all the GOP's went to Pukhansan and scaled a local peak called Paegungdae. You can read about this and the school workshop on the following pages.
March closed on a heavenly note with our celebrating True Parents' Day. After morning Pledge, Mr. Lee inspired us all by sharing about the importance and responsibility we each have being members of True Parents' family. He urged us to follow the way and tradition of True Parents. This was followed by cake cutting and every student receiving some holiday treats.
April heralded many changes within the dormitory. As you read this, 18 new students from Japan are settling into dorm life and beginning their 4 years of Prep and Middle School education. They come here with the goal of graduating from Middle School and every year they have been able to boast a high percentage of graduates, who then go on to High School and later University here. Our hope and prayer is that this year more Western parents and students than ever before can set their sights on fulfilling True Father's desire of learning Korean language and graduating Middle School. Also this year we have just as many boys as girls in our program. Traditionally there have been more girls than boys but this year we have 55 each. To accommodate the increased number of boys, a new bedroom has been constructed in what was part of the study room, and an extra study room for girls created out of a bedroom on the girls' floor.
Well, that's the news for this month. We wish you and your families all the best for the coming month and look forward to hearing from you.
Reprinted from The Western Program's Dormitory News.