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29th
October 2008
Guess you had the baddest, most-kick ass,
busiest booth at the 250,000
participant-strong Weaja charity flea market here in Seoul,
South Korea?
That's right! Grassroots Uganda is
kicking it!
The event was held
outside the Seoul World Cup Stadium
and Grassroots Uganda had its own little
booth.
The organisers of the event were
fantastic. Everything became a little hectic due to some
confusion, but they were good enough to a) Supply the booth and
b) design and print the banner for us! Awesome.
The also gave us a Chinese translator, a
Japanese translator and an English translator. They
weren't really necessary (especially the English translator...)
but they all worked hard to help us sell many
Grassroots Uganda necklaces.
I didn't actually do very much on the day
itself. 95% of the customers were
Korean, and while I'm studying hard to learn the language,
it is not nearly good to enough to tell the story of the
necklaces.
Which is why I bought along my good friend
Jiha. She was a superstar,
tirelessly selling necklaces all
day.
Heather -
another good friend of mine - also turned up to help sell.
She's been here a lot longer than me and can speak Korean quite
well. She planted herself in front of the booth and
shouted out "Come buy your Uganda necklaces here" in Korean all
day. She brought in a whole heap of punters to our stand.
I was serious in my introduction. We
were the busiest booth at the event. We were mentioned in
the local newspaper. I did
some interviews for television as well, but I don't think the
interviews actually made it to TV. I'm sure my students
would of told me if they had saw me on TV.
We made over 900,000
won, which works out to be about $US626 at the current
diabolically bad exchange rate. I am going to wait a while
before sending it to Uganda in the hope that the exchange rate
will improve. Hopefully, it will get up to about
$US900, which is where it was a few months ago.
Selling at the
House of Sharing
I volunteer at the House of Sharing here in South
Korea. I've been meaning to write an article about this
for too long now. The House of Sharing is the both a
museum and a home to seven elderly ladies who were victims of
systematised sexual slavery under Japanese military rule during
World War II.
After the museum tour and talk by the
Halmoni (respectful term for grandmother), everyone is a
little shook up and moved. And - if I put on my pure
capitalist hat - this makes it a perfect time to sell the
necklaces.
I tell how that here at the House of
Sharing we are trying to correct history* so that
this type of thing never happens again. I go on to say
that - sadly - it is happening today and that is happening in
Northern Uganda, and then say: "Why not buy one of these lovely
necklaces?"
It is such an easy sell.
The day before the above flea market,
there were Korean, Japanese and foreign tour groups at the House
of Sharing. I couldn't resist addressing such a
large crowd, so I quickly found a
Japanese and Korean translator and
launched into my speech.
I am always a little nervous after I talk
because I fear no one will buy one. I needn't have worried
at this talk as a mass of people rushed to buy necklaces.
It was like a mini riot.
All this money will - of course - find its
way back to Uganda. Across the weekend, I made about
1,300,000 Korean won. An average women in Uganda earns
about 800 won a day.
* The Japanese government
refuses to acknowledge its responsibility and that "comfort
women" even existed
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