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Ten days in South Korea with Habitat for Humanity was one of the best trips I've been on. For you Augie folks, it was a lot like Asian Quarter. I spent most of my time in Chinju, and was well taken care of by the HH affiliates. Our group of 17 JETs stayed at a church out in the countryside. We were completely dependent upon the HH people, and they came through. We were taken to and from the work site, to the restaurant for meals, to the public bath to get washed up after a day's work, to the city to meet the "open-hearted mayor", and for sightseeing, and to and from Pusan. We were the first HH group to work in Chinju, so we were treated royally. My only complaint is that we didn't work enough. We worked to prepare the sight, so we dug a trench, had to fill it in so the cement truck could get to the site, built a wall, and dug a trench for the foundation of the house. We had a ton of fun, laboring in the sun, playing pattern games, "6 degrees of separation" (to a famous person), the movie game (connecting two actors to each other, via other actors), and "name that tune." We made a raucous even at the end of the day. We played games at meal time, after meals, on the way to town, any time, any place. We were picked up at the ferry terminal on Pusan, and driven to Chinju. The first day was a day of orientation, but no actual work. We met many people who helped organize the project, including the mayor. Then we went to the market for shopping and looking around. I thought the market was a bit like Hong Kong. It was really crowded, and there were many stalls set up in the streets. But unlike Hong Kong, most of these stalls were meant for the average Korean consumer. Lots of food: kimchees, fruits and vegetables, rice cakes, fish, traditional clothes, cooking stuff, and a few novelty shops interspersed. The stall owners didn't speak any English, so that is also unlike Hong Kong. Calculators were used to state prices, and often we were given more than we had asked for, which was really nice of the shop keepers. Although I couldn't speak any Korean, I didn't manage to talk to a few people via Japanese. Japan has occupied Korea from time to time throughout their long histories. The most recent was in this century. There are many people who still remember the occupation. During the occupation, Koreans were not allowed to speak their language, and had to study Japanese. They suffered under the occupation, and consequently are bitter about this. Some of the Koreans who remembered the occupation had some choice words about the Japanese. One lady spat. But they still continued to talk to me in Japanese. (Just last month a ban was lifted in South Korea, that prohibited Japanese music and culture from entering Korea.) It was a real eye-opener for me. I knew that there were bad feeling between the two countries, but I've never seen such open hatred of another race. The rest of the week progressed without that sort of excitement, although, I did witness discrimination in another form. As you may know, Habitat for Humanity is a Christian organization, but it welcomes people of all religious backgrounds. Well, I am not sure that our leaders had figured this out. But I must defend them by saying that we were the first group, and most of the discrimination was not from our leader, but other people who were helping with the project. Trouble started the first day with devotion. I figured that devotion time would be optional, but this wasn't the case. Our leader and a man from the Seoul affiliate came into our room with song books and Bibles. We sang some songs, then read a passage from the Bible, which was the passage upon which HH is based. That wasn't so bad, I figured that this was just a session to educate us about the project. But, we had prayer time twice a day. Many people were not religious at all and felt uncomfortable about it, but didn't really have a choice. Then the second day, the man from Seoul told us that we must end our prayers with "in Jesus' name," because that is how Korean Christians pray. So we complied until the Seoul man left. After that, we had no more devotions or prayers. But the problems were not over. We met Inter Varsity people from Seoul. We spent the day with them and had a great time. They were passionate about their faith, and took every opportunity to share. For example, when some of us were waiting for the vans to pick us up, one guy started to read a book. One of the IV members, Deborah, asked him how his book was. He replied that it was good, but then she told him she had something even better to read. She whipped out a small pamphlet of Bible passages. So for the next 5 minutes, she had the guy read the passages to her. Later that night, we had home stays. Everyone stayed with Christian families. A large group of us had dinner together. The IV people joined us, and took great interest in me. They wanted to know if I was Christian, and what denomination. Well, I blew them away. Yes, I was Christian, and Presbyterian. Well, they too were Presbyterian (many Koreans are). I also told them that I am from Champaign. Well, that also got a big stir. One of the men has a brother who attended an IV rally in Champaign. I don't think I could have pleased them more if I had tried. Well, my experience wasn't so bad, but that wasn't the case for everyone. Two guys were first brought to meet the pastor of a church. On the way, their host asked them if they were Christian. One guy said yes, and the other guy said no. Well, when they got to the pastor's house, only the Christian was introduced to the pastor. As it happened, the pastor had a daughter who was to participate in an English competition. She needed some translation help with her speech. The host was an English teacher, and the non-Christian spoke Korean. So, they spent the next 2 hours working on the speech. Pretty crappy home stay. This Christian vs. non-Christian controversy was the only complaint we had, other than not working enough. I want to say that I also felt uncomfortable about the situation, even though I am Christian. Enough said. Valerie Straayer |