Springville World Folkfest - Day 1

We had the unique and wonderful opportunity to host foreigners for the Springville World Folkfest for the week of July 27 - Aug 2. It was an amazing experience. I have heard about the Folkfest from advertising for years, but never attended. Earlier this summer Alisha told me that she was going to be a host for Belgium. She had heard about the opportunity from Trudy whom she sits next to in a choral group she belongs to in Payson. She chose Belgium because her sister in law Caryn served a mission to the area several years ago, and spoke the language, and so if there was a language barrier Alisha would have someone to help translate. Alisha hosted Annalynne (not sure of the spelling)and her boyfriend David. I decided it would be a fun experience and signed up to host Koreans. Of the countries I could choose from: Korea, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Mexico and China, I chose Korea because I did not know anyone that spoke any of the other languages except Mexico and Korea. I figured there would be tons of people who spoke Spanish that would want to host Mexico and since I have a friend that is from Korea (Yeong-mi) I knew she would help me through any language barriers.

Monday, July 27
5:45 pm pick up 3 Korean 13 year olds: Se Hyun Go(pronounced Say Hyun Go), Hey ui Kim (pronounced Hay Chi Kim), and Hye Jin Lee (prounced Hay ghin Lee).

I have to admit at first I was terrified. I spoke no Korean and I was in my car with 3 girls that spoke no English. Yeong-mi had suggested I take them to the Korean market and let them pick out some food they would like to eat. I took them to First Oriental Market in Orem and spoke with the cashier there and told her what I wanted to do and asked her to translate to the girls. After she spoke to them they all stared at each other without speaking, looking dumbfounded, so I called Yeong-mi and asked for HELP!!!!! She spoke to the cashier and the cashier went around the store picking out things for the girls: Korean ramen, Kimchi, and Korean type potato chips. A HUGE THANK YOU TO YEONG-MI FOR HELPING DURING THE FIRST 2 DAYS!

When I got home Dennis helped bring in their luggage and then we showed them around the house and where they would sleep. Dennis is so much better than I at these sort of things. I clam up when I am in an unfamiliar settings and this was no difference. I didn't know how to communicate so I spoke very little. Thank goodness Dennis is not like that. I asked them if they were hungry and they said no. It was 7:30 at night by this time and I really thought they should be hungry as they had been on airplanes for the past 16 hours. Again, I called Yeong-mi and asked for her to talk to the girls. She said they usually eat around 8:30 pm so to ask them again later. For me the first night was so scary, but it didn't bother Dennis at all. Finally around 8:30 I asked again, and this time they were hungry. I did not know what to fix them so I put a variety of food out and let them choose. I had stew, tortillas, lettuce salad, cut up veggies, watermelon, plums and orange soda. They ate stew, tortillas, watermelon, plums and drank the soda. Se Hyun ate a little lettuce salad, but would not eat ranch dressing (I put out every bottle of dressing I had), she had lemon, herb vinaigrette. After dishes we took pictures and off to bed for everyone.

Hye Jin Lee, Se Hyun Go, Hye ui Kim