7/30/2011 2:55pm The Orphanage and Leaving Busan for Seoul

Now we’re on the flight from Busan to our final homestay in Seoul. We have just left the Namkwang Welfare Society Orphanage. I don’t have a whole lot of pics from this bit of the journey, but, arguably, this might have been the most important part of the journey so far. As soon as we left Geoje Island, Mr. Ahn and Dr. Kim drove us to the orphanage. There, we said our goodbyes to Mr. Ahn, Hyawnoo and Dr. Kim.

This was lunch-e on the way to Busan from Geoje Island. We dropped by a multi-level mall-grocery-store-thing to buy some candy/treats for the orphans. We ended up eating lunch there, too... Hyawnoo and I shared this huge amount of food. Can you believe it was only $12?

Driving over the bridge into Busan, where the orphanage was...

When we arrived, we were greeted by a couple of the kids immediately, and they were curious and seemingly happy to see us. We got a briefing on how things would go down and the goal of visiting the orphanage: to meet these kids and try to develop a big brother/big sister relationship with at least one of them. The kids were given pretty much everything as we’d see later, thanks to government funding and donations, but previously, when the maximum age limit was 18, the kids would have to move out and their lives would end up going downhill from there due to lack of support, both financially and morally. Recently, the age limit was raised until the kids graduated from college/university (so long as they kept their grades up) and they tend to do better, but still need moral support. So, given that, the age of the kids ranged from infant/toddler to university-student-age. A good handful of the kids were asked to sit in the briefing with us, and all of us introduced themselves. Even from just that, we got a good gauge of the personalities of some of the kids and some of them made us laugh pretty hard. They were very friendly, though some were shy, but all seemed good natured. These weren’t the needy/rebellious type of kids you might think of if you thought of an American orphanage from the movies, but definitely how I’d imagine the Akha kids Pastor Luka takes care of to be. [Pastor Luka is a pastor out in Thailand that our church partners with. We send out short-term missionaries and financial support to his ministry every year. His ministry is for orphans specifically.] Pastor Park told us to grab just a change of clothes and our toothbrushes and leave everything else in a locked room because we’d be spending the rest of our stay there like the other orphans.

Raia and one of the babies... The others were there to greet us. The girls were super-shy.

Haha... Not too happy...

I think she was one of the volunteers... Kind of the 'mommy' for the youngest ones.

We were told that some of the kids would be performing something for us, so we would have to reciprocate. This time though, we had plenty of time to change into more decent clothes. We took the time to work on our ‘Jesus Loves Me’ song and I tossed together an arrangement really quick on guitar. It’s in 2/4, which I dislike more than ¾… And Pastor Park wanted me to sing solo at some point, too. Haha… Chance for either redemption or repeat of the Daegu experience.

Time for dinner!

Cat! No, not for dinner... There were a couple strays that seemed to like hanging around. They're so scrawny!

(I didn't get an actual picture of dinner...)

Pastor Park had us all sit at different tables so it would force the kids to sit with us. They were all pretty shy at first (except Hafften, who got like, two kids immediately), but some of the volunteers put some of the kids plates at our tables. I had a little girl sit next to me, who seemed to like me, but neither she, nor any of the others at my table could speak any English. One kid sat down, looked at me and started laughing. I felt pretty awkward, but I think it was because of my facial hair. His name was Jun Su, and he’d end up following me around everywhere. We finished up dinner, and then all the kids got right on cleaning up. They are trained to clean everything and stay on top of their chores. 

Little playground next to the meeting room...

We all went to a little meeting hall and one of the heads of the orphanage introduced Pastor Park, and then we went up and introduced ourselves. Then someone played a slideshow of the orphanage and past volunteers and other adoptees from KAMC (I assume). Then some of the girls gave us a gayageum performance. They were pretty good… After, the director apologized for the performance being too short. :P Which, of course, didn’t make us feel too good about our future 1.5 minute long performance. :P

The kids love any attention you give them...

 Gayageums! We learned about them in the Hanok village, but never got to hear them being played... We were like, O_0 after their performance, so we had no idea what the director was expecting. :P

 ^ She was kinda the ring-leader for the girls... She was Raia's favorite.

After that, they had a Korean traditional drum-line performance. It was pretty awesome. They were really together, and really enthusiastic.

Soooo good... Like, culture-fest good.

We really didn’t want to go up after that… But, we all lined up and I started into ‘Jesus Loves Me’ in my wimpy voice (even though I dropped it several keys, it was still too high for me, yet too low for the others). Hit the key change, and then the others joined me… Then we switched to Korean, and all the kids joined in, too. It was really cute. And I played off-rhythm the entire time! Hahaha… Oh well. I don't think anyone noticed. At least I didn’t miss any chords or have my voice crack.

The group picture was chaos... Haha... There were probably 15 cameras or so floating around...

We grabbed the things we needed for the night, and then we split off into the boys and girls dorms. The guys all huddled around in the ‘living room’ kind of area, and we re-introduced ourselves. Then we gave out the candy we purchased in Busan while chatting (the jellies were gone in an instant… Should have bought more!). Most of the kids on our floor were older: late-middle school or high school, and the one (who seemed to be the leader, and also spoke the most English) was in University. It became known that we all (except Hafften) liked Starcraft, so a mini-tourney was quickly organized. We sent Nick S. and David to play for the US, and they sent their champ and another guy. Team USA got beat pretty quickly. But, this was my first time watching a Korean do his thing… Their champ was young, too… Like, middle-school. So many quick actions… It was hard to follow his thought process. Then we mixed it up, and I played w/one of the kids versus David and another one of the kids. We got beat pretty bad. :P

Starcraft proved to be a really good ice-breaker. After, we were chatting and watching Korean baseball games. They say baseball is the first most popular sport, and then basketball, and then soccer. Jun Su was sitting next to me the whole time, and I tried to talk to him. He actually visited the US last month, but his English wasn’t very developed. We liked each other, but communication was tough.

Their best player... He was really cute. Suuuuuuch a stereotypical Asian-genius kid! Haha...

Me, getting whipped...

It was time for bed, and like on Jiri-San, it was just some blankets spread on the floor. Though David was apparently snoring like nuts, I slept pretty well.

In the morning, we had breakfast, which consisted of some ham, cheese, cole-slaw-like stuff and cucumber on thick-sliced bread and milk. We ate and then went outside to go play. We played a Korean (I guess?) version of dodgeball with the kids, which was pretty fun, and then played a game of soccer. I played goalie, and managed one across-the-field-goal (by chance). The young kids were surprisingly able to keep up pretty well with the older ones.

The orphans actually have it better than I would have imagined. The facilities are all pretty nice, and it's good to see how well cared for they seem to be. The volunteers care a lot... And the kids are respectful of them. They really seemed to enjoy our company and playing with us, and it was the same for us and them. I really felt like we should have done something for them... Like, wished we could share something meaningful or somehow instill hope in these youngsters. While we had our own issues with adoption, these kids were just given up without anyone to take them in. Some of the kids were dropped off and left by their parents... The one was telling Pastor Park that his parents were around, but never came to visit, and haven't for three years. He was probably only eight. I don't know... It's hard to feel down when you're around these kids, but these kids have a lot of emotional and circumstantial hardship ahead of them. I wish I could comfort them in advance... But, I guess the most of what I can do is what Pastor Park suggested, which is keep a good, one-on-one, older-brother relationship with one of the kids... Who for me, would be little Jun Su.

We said our goodbyes to the young ones, and a couple of the older ones came with us to eat lunch and go to the airport.

They love their toys...

Lunch-e!

This is Eun-sun, one of the volunteers at the orphanage.

Those are 'king mandoos'... They were tasty. :)

At the airport, Pastor Park bought us some coffee and doughnuts at Dunkin’ Donuts (they sell bubble tea!). We chatted with the kids a bit more, and then they said their goodbyes.

 They were really interested in my guitar...

Haha.... Thanks to Nick H, I got a pic of a flight stewardess! :P

First shot taken in Seoul! Well, Gimpo, I guess.

The flight was super-short from Busan to Gimpo.

The two Nicks and Raia were greeted by their host families at the airport, and the rest of us met our host families at the church. The church has enough of a congregation (over 8000 members altogether) to have a separate service just in English, so we were greeted by members who spoke English. It was kind of weird. :P

One of the church deacons driving MeriKim, David and I to the church...

Entering Seoul.

I met my host family, CK Kim, Youngchai (his wife) and Ju Eun (Nicole), his daughter. They have a son, Jong Hyun (John), but he just got back from a two-week long camp and was kind of moody. He hid in the car with a blanket over his head. :P Ju Eun sat right next to me, giggling (she doesn't talk to ppl until she reallllly gets to know them), and was stroking my goatee for about five minutes (literally five minutes)... Haha... So cute.

We got home and I unpacked some stuff and was reunited with my other travel bag… I forgot to mention it earlier, but one of the coffees I bought for my Seoul host family exploded on the flight from the US. Dumb, dumb move on my part… But worst of all, the rest of their gifts looked tattered and stuff. :( I think I’ll have to buy them something else when I’m out. Youngchai and Ju Eun helped me clean the bag up. Jong Hyun threw a big fit and refused to leave his room… Youngchai said it was the first time he ever did anything like that. So, the rest of us went out to get dinner.

We had shabu shabu… They just ate it like Chinese hotpot… No dipping or anything. It was really good. I forgot to take a pre-cooking picture. :P Oops. The kimchi in Seoul tastes more like what I’m used to.

After, you stick rice and egg and other goodies in the bowl to burn a little.

Before we went to get dinner, CK took me to a small (and I mean ‘small’) tool shop to see if they had a soldering iron… They had one!! Finally… CK was super-nice and bought it for me. When we got back home, Jong Hyun wrote a two-part letter, first apologizing to his mom for misbehaving in Korean, and then apologizing to me in English. It was sweet. Apparently, she had asked him if there were some girl he liked at camp... And he threw a big fit, screaming, 'why would you ask me that?!' Haha... So, guessing the answer was 'yes'... :P So funny. He had come out of his hiding and talked to me a little...

CK had gone to get a haircut (it’s in walking distance from the apt), while I popped open my surge protector and got to work… Ju Eun, Jong Hyun and Youngchai were all intently watching as I worked… Haha… Youngchai kept calling me ‘MacGyver.’ The soldering iron wasn’t very powerful, so it took me a while to melt the leads off and do what I needed to do… So, everyone got bored and went about their business after a while. Essentially, I just shorted out the switch and the surge protection.

It worked. Now I have a multi-outlet strip that’ll work anywhere in the world. Yay!