24th January 2008
I recently attended an MT^* day for cast, crew and volunteers for the upcoming performance of the Vagina Monologues.  I have been helping out with this project here and there over the last few months.  This was my first chance to really get to know everybody else who is getting involved.

The performance of the Vagina Monologues will be the culmination of all our efforts to firstly raise awareness about the ongoing violence against women and children and secondly, to raise money for the Dasi Hamkee Center - an agency here in Korea that helps the victims and survivors of sex trafficking.

So, what was I doing there?  The only penis is a room full of vaginas?  Well, I get fired up poverty reduction.  It is something I feel passionate about, it is bigger than me and it is something I want to dedicate my life to^**.  A key part of poverty reduction is women empowerment (though I do think that women who strive for equality with men lack ambition...).  If you want to look at a down-trodden group within a down-trodden group, you only need to look at the woman in places like Uganda and the Philippines.

I do hassled a little bit for indeed being the only penis in a group of vagina, both from within the group and other people I talk to about it.  But hey, I don't see how being surrounded by thirty of so beautiful women is a bad thing.

The MT day was primarily about getting to know each other.  We played a silly shoe game to get the ball rolling.  Everybody had to throw in one of their shoes to the center of the room, and then you had to choose another show and ask the owner of said-shoe some questions in order to get to know them.  One poor lady got stuck with my smelly shoe. 

I gave a talk about my work in Uganda and GrassRootsUganda.com.  I've given talks like this before to children in Korea, but the talks are usually toned down.  I used words like "kill" as opposed to "decapitation".  But for this talk, I pulled no punches.  I told them Esther's story, Margaret's story and Jeffery's story of life and death with the LRA.

Whilst giving the talk, I found both my body and voice shaking a bit and the tears threatening to spill over.  The reasons for this are two-fold.  Firstly, it is just pretty damned fucked up what these ladies have to go through.  Having talked to these ladies personally and heard their stories, it makes it that much more real.

Secondly, I think that telling these stories makes me feel guilty and a little bit like a fraud.  As I type this, I am sitting in my cozy little apartment with its digitally controlled under floor heating for the winter and its kick-butt air conditioner unit for the summer while Esther and Margaret continue to fight off AIDS, grinding poverty and hunger while hoping that the war doesn't explode again. 

Yeah, I know.  I need to earn money to fund my two-year volunteer stay in the Philippines and get rid of evil credit-card debt.  There isn't really an option B for me at the moment.  But still...

That phrase, "But Still..." sums up why I want to be involved with V-Day and the Vagina Monologues.  Working on this project makes me feel just a little bit less guilty because at least I am doing something. 

After my spiel, we went into a sharing time.  Several of the ladies shared openly and honestly about some horrible stories from their own life.  Many tears were shed.

A feed of pizza and Chinese followed before we all headed our separate ways.

It has felt good being involved in this project.  Doing a Little Something in Korea is not as good as doing a Big Something somewhere else, but as least it is a Something.

Note: Check out the website here, the Korean poster here, and the English poster here.  All designed by yours truly.

^* MT technically stands for "Mandatory Training", but that makes it sound a bit corporate and dull. 

^** I think Daniel Dennett is right when he says that the secret to happiness is to "Find something more important than yourself and dedicate you life to it."

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