1st February 2009

I have finally arrived here in the Philippines. Yay! Before my whole world gets consumed with global domination, I’m going to write down the things that I will miss from Korea before the fade too far from my mind.

1. The Activist Community
   The community that I found in Korea was the thing that kept me sane. The friends I made – you know who are – really made my time in Korea special. If I had something big planned, people would just magically appear to help me. Ditto if they had something planned.
   
   Here is just a brief list of what we got up to: The Vagina Monologues, the Burma Protest, the Japanese Embassy Protest, International Women’s Day, Gay Pride March, Rubber Seoul, 63 Years On, the WeAJa Market, tours of the House of Sharing, and many more…
   
   After seeing so much pointless volunteering in Africa and the Philippines, it was so refreshing to meet up with such competent people! All too often I asked for advice about Meaningful Volunteer and got such wonderful feedback that my plans and ideas would shift and change and mutate until – hopefully – I now have an efficient organization that will make meaningful change in countries around the world. I will have these resources on tap here in the Philippines, but most of the time it will be via email and not quite the same.
   
   Thanks for the adventure guys and gals! It was a blast!
   
   
2. The House of Sharing
   It has always been hard to write about the House of Sharing - I never quite had the right words to describe my feelings about the place.
   
   Sometimes it was such an uplifting place – watching Yi Ok-Seon Halmoni do her thing was just wonderful. She is such a little fireball of an activist.
   
   At other times it was just frustrating. I think we all know that we are fighting a losing battle – the Halmoni will all almost certainly die before the fucktards in the Japanese government get around to apologizing, let alone paying compensation.
   
   Every time we give a tour of the House, every time we speak out, every time we make a noise, every time we write about the issue, it brings the Halmoni one tiny step closer to getting what they want.
   
   
3. Talking to Groups
   One of the things I did enjoy about the House of Sharing was talking to large groups of people about the issue. I just love talking to large groups of people about things that I am passionate about. The whole “comfort women” thing can be a difficult one to talk about – especially down in the “Room of Experience” where I read out a former “comfort woman’s” testimony and have to talk about topics such as rape, cutting people in half, forced cannibalism and so on. I usually tried to detach myself from the issues and read it as dispassionately as I could so as to not to break down.
   
   One of things we fight for at the House of Sharing was to get the history corrected so that these crimes are not repeated again. Unfortunately, these crimes are being repeated all around the world. They are being repeated in Northern Uganda – a place that is very close to my heart.
   
   The two issues – the sexual slavery of Korean women during WWII and the child soldier/sexual slavery issue in Northern Uganda – are obviously very closely related and this gave me a fantastic angle for which to sell the necklaces and bags that were made by the ladies from the North. I am sure the sales of Grassroots Uganda products are going to take a dip now that I have left the Korean peninsula.
   
   I talked about many other things as well – prostitution issue here in the Philippines, what meaningful volunteering is, the refugee problems in Ghana and so on. I gave three different talks during one particular holiday week.
   
   Mental Note: If you are going to bash World Vision and what a terrible job they are doing, make sure that the next speaker is not from World Vision…
   
   I just won’t get these types of opportunities on the little island I will be working on here in the Philippines. I will – of course – babble about the issues to fellow volunteers, but it’s just not the same.
   
   
4. Benjamin’s
   Earning money was the main reason I came to Korea. After a false start, I landed in Benjamin’s Academy and had a very positive experience and learnt so much about teaching. I’ll miss the kids there of course. The goofiness of Mark, the diligence of Annie, the energy of Ellie, plain old cool Kevin(g) and the loveable rogue that is Andy and a hundred other kids with interesting traits.
   
   When I left Pulao Elementary School, I felt like I was abandoning the kids. The NGO (non-governmental organization) I was with was leaving the area and there would be no volunteers to replace me. Leaving the kids at Benjamin’s was so much easier because I knew someone would replace me.
   
   I’ll miss the staff there as well. I had good times with them all. I formed a close group with the first group of teachers that I worked with. For the first year or so, it was Liad, Steve, Mi-jin, Ji-Sook, Benjamin and I. We were a close group. People – of course – move on and the dynamics change.
   
   I wasn’t especially close to the new teachers that came over my last few months. This was my fault. I was too busy trying to “save-the-world”. I would usually work on Meaningful Volunteer in the morning, go to work for six or so hours, then head back home and work on Meaningful Volunteer again. On the weekend, I would usually dash off to some activist-thing-a-rather. This didn’t leave much time to socialize with the new co-workers.
   
   
5. Coffee with a Friend
   I can now speak the Korean language at least a little well. This is mostly due to JiHa - a great Korean friend that I made here. I would help her with her English and she would help me with my Korean. Well, that is how it started anyway. It ended up less like a language partner and more like hanging out with a friend.
   
   Sometimes we would meet in my neck of the woods – Suwon – and sometimes in her neck of the woods – Jamsil, and sometimes in the middle somewhere. I helped her a lot with her applications for American universities, and she helped me a lot with via various fundraisers.
   
   I don’t have a list of treasured acquisitions from Korea like I have from other countries (see here, here and here) because – quite frankly – I only have one: the painting that JiHa made for me for my birthday.
   
   
6. Curry Town
   Where was my birthday party held?
   
   Where was the launch of Meaningful Volunteer held?
   
   Where was my farewell party held?
   
   Where was any social event of any magnitude held?
   
   The answer to all these questions is: Curry Town.
   
   Curry Town was less like a restaurant, and more like a place to enjoy some great Indian food with good friends.
   
   
7. Bitching about religious things
   There was always an ear to bitch into when religious types pissed me off. I am not gonna have the luxury on Romblon. For one thing, the population of the island is made up of 75% Roman Catholic and 25% of other Christian denominations. Had to find a sympathetic ear among that lot.
   
   In fact, I am going to have to tone down the expression of my opinions as well. I am not sure why, but it is just not the done thing for the head of an international NGO to rant and rave about the perils of religion. It shouldn’t be, but it is.
   
   
8. Teaching with Resources
   Just because you’re teaching in a developing country, that doesn’t mean you have to work with crap resources. Much of my preparation work has been to ensure that the best possible resources are in the hand of volunteer teachers.
   
   But there are other types of resources that I just won’t be able to get. The power – for example – is only on for about two-thirds of the time. Good Internet access is another. I was delighted to learn that there is a product here called Smart Bro which just plugs into your USB drive on your laptop and allows you to have internet access wherever there is cell phone access! The cell phone access on the island is good, but not great, so the download speeds will be at about dial-up speeds.
   
   Which brings me to number nine…
   
   
9. The Internet
   The Internet in Korea is liking swimming in cool, clear waters. It is so good. Techno-geeks might be interested to learn that I sometimes hit ten megabytes per second. Dial-up speeds just don’t compare…
   
   
10. 5,000 won Pizzas from Pizza School
    Mmm… Cheap pizza…
    
    
11. Riding the 7000 Bus to Sadang
    Living in Suwon was great because there was nothing much to do there and hence a good place to save money.
    
    Living in Suwon was terrible because there was nothing much to do.
    
    I did enjoy taking the hour-long bus to Sadang (which is on the edge of happening Seoul). It gave me chance to chill and read numerous books. Uber.
    
    
12. Money
    I don’t have a job now. Money will not magically appear from nowhere. It will do the opposite and disappear into nowhere. This could be a problem…
    
    As a result, I am very paranoid about money and that I might run out. I am in Quezon City at the moment and occasionally need to go to the local mall. I catch the 7 peso ($NZ 0.28) Jeepney as opposed to the 10 peso ($NZ0.41) taxi so as to save 3 pesos ($NZ0.13).
    
    If Meaningful Volunteer is a success, then volunteers will start flooding in and the money issues will disappear. This is a big if though…
    
    
13. The Food
    The food in Korea was great. Not just the Korean stuff, but the sheer variety of international food was impressive.
    
    I thought that the food on the island would consist of fish, rice and fruit. Turns out I was wrong about the fruit…
    
    The food in Korea was great. Not just the Korean stuff, but the sheer variety of international food was impressive.
    
    I thought that the food on the island would consist of fish, rice and fruit. Turns out I was wrong about the fruit…