28^st October 2007

Saturday Morning - A talk about the Philippines
A Filipina friend of mine now resident in Canada, once described herself as an Oreo: Brown on the middle, and white on the inside.   i.e. she was very proud of both her Filipino and Canadian heritage.

I'm whatever the opposite of an Oreo is.  I love the Philippines and can't help talking about it.  It was then with much joy that I did my presentation of the Philippines to the same group of kids that I did my New Zealand talk to.

The talk was quite lighthearted and didn't have too many scary stories.  I did tell the story of Janica and the rough life she has.

The highlight of the presentation was teaching the kids the Tinikling - a traditional Filipino dance.  A video of the wee mites trying can be found here.

The talk - and the Tinikling in particular brought back a slew of memories.  Most especially the memories of the Pulao elementary kids and the wonderful dance they performed for me as part of my leaving ceremony. 

Saturday Afternoon - Clothing Drive
Michael - one of the many folks I met at the Burma protest - organized a used clothing drive for the Beautiful Foundation in Itaewon and I decided to help out.

Itaewon is one of the few multi-cultural areas in Korea.  There are a ton of western teachers from all corners of the globe, a thriving African sub-culture, and lots of U.S. Army folk from the nearby military base.

Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned talk and the hour-and-a-half subway ride, I arrived a little late.  Most of the collecting had already been done.  There were a lot of volunteer folk there doing a lot of standing around doing nothing - including me!

This too brought back many memories of standing around and watching at the MACRO camps in Uganda.

I met one guy at the clothing drive called TJ.  TJ is an American chap who has volunteered in Ghana for a number of years, so we had an obvious connection.

TJ knew of several African restaurants in the area and we decided to head off with a third volunteer called Jacqueline.  TJ took us down some back alleys to a small Nigerian restaurant.  It had one table surrounded by six or so chairs.  A couple of Nigerians were hanging out in the restaurant.  They didn't appear to be eating or drinking.  They were just being.  Before long the owner of the bar came out, a large Nigerian man with a toothy grin and a tailored suit.  He introduced himself to me and we shook hands for an extended period as we exchanged pleasantries.

A young Nigerian waitress appeared and gave us some menus.  I was delighted to see that fufu was on the menu!  Fufu is a thick paste, usually made by pounding the crap out of maize or some other starchy root vegetable.  I ordered Fufu with a spicy chicken broth.

We chilled out, relaxed and talked about everything and nothing as we waited the thirty minutes or so for the meals to arrive.  A bowl of warm water arrived for hand washing, followed by the main meal itself.  I used globs of fufu between my fingers to either grab chunks of chicken or soak up some of the broth.

The warm water reminded me of the bowls of warm water that the ladies in Buvunya use to boil up for me so that I could have a warm shower.  The toothy Nigerian reminded me of the numerous African Big Men that I have met - some of them cool, some of them not.  The fufu reminded me of chilling out at Kokrobite beach in Ghana with some Rasta guys, one of whom especially ground up the fufu for Carrie, Erin and me.  And the meal itself reminded of the wonderful meals that the beautiful ladies in Kitgum use to prepare for my friends and me, often resulting in the chefs themselves going hungry the next day.

Saturday Evening - Making Contacts

TJ is a well connected young fellow and he introduced me to Mary.  Mary is a Nigerian lady living in Itaewon.  She makes her own jewelry and sells it at a little street stall.

TJ made the obvious connection and suggested that Mary sell some GrassRootsUganda.com product.  She will sell them for 10,000 won (~$US10), keeping 5,000 won for herself and 5,000 won will go to the ladies in Uganda.

A good connection no doubt!

Saturday Night - Rooms Full of Naked Men
Saturday night rolled around and I was pretty beat.  I didn't have energy to take the 90 minute subway/taxi trip back to Suwon.  TJ mentioned that he often finds himself in a similar position and suggested I stayed with him at a local Jim Jil Bang.

A Jim Jil Bang is a Korean style sauna.  It costs 8,000 won (~$NZ 12) to get in and you can stay for as long as you like.  Weeks and weeks if you want to.  You get a dinky little set of pajamas which you promptly get rid of as you waltz around butt-naked in the segregated sauna areas.  The spa pools range from merely hot to blistering.

You then head to the communal area in your PJs where you can head to special super-hot, super-spicy or super-cold rooms.  All very relaxing in their own special ways.

There are also PC bangs (internet rooms), restaurants, massive TV screens, kids areas, massage rooms, hairdressers, and so on.  Everything you need to keep you there for a long, long time.

I never went to the sauna or the special rooms and just used the Jim Jil Bang as a place to crash.  I found an empty spot on the floor, opened up my book - the magnificent Infidel by the beautiful Ayaan Hirsi Ali - and chilled out.  Before long, I curled up in a ball and went to sleep.

Sleeping on the floor was cool.  While it was quite the same as sleeping on concrete floors in Africa or the Philippines (the floor was heated for one!), it still bought back yet more good memories.

Sunday Morning - Attending a Catholic Mass
TJ is a Catholic and was attending mass on Sunday morning.  I invited myself along.  The last time I attended a Catholic mass was way back in February 2006 in the Philippines as part of a baptismal service.

The Philippines is dominated by the Catholic church - some 80 odd percent of Filipinos claim to be Catholic.  I was secretly hoping that this would mean that I would meet up with a bunch of them after the service.

Turns out my hunch was right.  I meet a ton of them!

Many of them were from Iloilo (where I volunteered for six months).   Chatting to them was a lot of fun.  I had a big stoopid grin on my face for most of the time.  Every time I threw in a Hiligaynon phrase, they would burst out laughing.

Gusto ako ang Jeepneys.  Mataas ako.  Sukit ulo ako.  Putot pilipino.  Wala sukit ulo ikaw

(The grammar is atrocious, but it means something like: I like jeepneys, but I am tall.  I hurt my head.  You Filipinos are short.  You have no sore head).

I felt quite proud that I could put together a hacked group of sentences like that¹.   

This brought back yet more good memories.  Attending the midnight mass in Dumangas, and learning Hiligaynon in a multitude of places like the roof of a tricycle with Amay; or around a table outside Reza's house during a came of pusoy; or inside Captain Audy's shack-cum-office². 

V-Day - Sunday Afternoon
Sunday afternoon was the final act of my wonderful weekend.  I attended a meeting to organize a fundraiser for V-Day 2008. 

V-Day is tentatively penciled in for March next year.  It will be the culmination of public awareness campaigns to raise aware about the plight of immigrant women in Korea and the problems they face. 

Many Filipinas and other poor southeast Asian girls come to these shores with marriage agency assurances that they will get married to some rich Korean businessman.  The usually end up with a poor-by-Korean-standards Korean farmer in an abusive relationship.  Sometimes the promise of marriage is a complete lie and they end up in the hands of pimps and working the red light district.  Sometimes they go home in body-bags.

I have been contributing by helping to organize a showing of The Vagina Monologues on V-Day. (The "V" stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina!)  I have put together the website for them, as well as being a generally helpful chap. 

A Breath of Fresh Air 
This weekend was like a breath of fresh air for me.  It brought back so many good memories for me.

It reminded me why I am here and working so hard. 

I am here to earn money so that I can volunteer for a long long time and log an abundance of good memories. 

Wanna help in a real and tangible way?

Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies.  100% of the profits are returned to the ladies