Seoul USA

Last Saturday a group of nine people from IEC went to Seoul. We went to visit an organization our church helps support called Seoul USA. You can read about it here, but in short, it's a ministry that helps North Korean defectors with their Christianity. There are a variety of programs that teach about Christianity, teach basic living skills and teach discipleship for those who are Christian. We intended to go and help out with some basic things, like cleaning or folding papers etc. but the weekend that we went ended up being a special weekend. The founder and his wife were there, but they wanted us to join for fellowship and a potluck. So we decided to go and see what it was about.

I woke up just after 5am because we were leaving the church at 6 to make the drive to Seoul. Dallas fell asleep for most of the car ride, and so did some others, but I couldn't so I talked to the people who were awake about a bunch of stuff - mainly school and little projects they could do for camps in the summer. When we got there, we were introduced to some of the regular staff members, then listened to Pastor Folley give part of a lecture. He stopped the talk after another group of people (his professor who is from Finland) arrived and it turned more into a discussion/q&a session. Most of the North Koreans who were there had never really seen or hung out with Americans, so we went back and forth asking questions. There were about 15-20 North Koreans there, but we weren't allowed to take pictures because if they have any family members or friends still in North Korea, the pictures could be used as leverage or against them somehow.

First, we heard the story of one older woman and how she escaped. She tried to cross into China, but was stopped and arrested and put into jail. Another inmate was being released and somehow (I'm not really sure how this part happened) the inmate was able to get some saws or knives of some sort to the woman. She was in a cell with 4 other women and together they took turns sawing one of the metal bars on the jail cell window. The guards didn't hear the noise because of some running water nearby in pipes. They also made pillow people at night when the guards checked on them so that someone could constantly be sawing. They were able to get one bar off and squeeze through the window. At that point, our woman broke off from the other 4 and she doesn't know what happened to them. Then she went through a broker to get to South Korea. She traveled through 5 different countries and ended up in Thailand. She took a boat, but the boat broke, luckily another one came by shortly afterward. When they got to Thailand, they kept asking to be arrested because if you go to jail, it's faster to be deported to South Korea. Finally a young girl helped them and brought them some food. Refugees are taken to a detention center of sorts, which is apparently in pretty bad condition. Plus they have to pay to stay. We learned that brokers and detention centers and police are paid off and usually a lot of that money comes from a stipend that they get once they enter South Korea. The brokers often are sort of like thugs and will keep harassing the defectors or their families until they get the money. In the last 10 years, crossing fees have gone from around $300 to thousands of dollars.

Then we talked about some other things like the fact that the majority of the people there are women because a lot of them are sold to husbands or houses of ill repute in China. This causes other problems because they often get pregnant and then abandon the kids because they don't want them, but then the kids can't get adopted because you need consent of both parents and the moms can't give consent because they don't know who the moms are. We also talked about how they are taught to hate Americans and how they basically thought we were monsters until they actually met some. For having been through everything, they are such happy people. They danced for us (and made me and Cara and Ashley dance too) and use dancing and singing as a way to express themselves a lot.

One thing we did was to share food. They made North Korean food, there was some South Korean food and we brought some "American food" (I made pasta salad, there was egg salad and pb&j sandwiches). One man brought a watermelon and was so cute about it. It was actually special because we asked a question and he answered it and the pastor said that was the first time he has talked since he joined the program. He sat next to me at lunch and a girl from our church named Eugene, who's Korean, translated for us and he told us a bunch about the camps there and that his wife is still in North Korea but that his son and daughter-in-law are in South Korea now.

I talked to some of the staff and they were really nice. One girl named Pearl has been working there for 6 months now. She introduced me to one man who was a chemistry professor at a university in the north. She said his English was actually quite good, but he was shy. She also introduced me to two other younger women, one of whom has a 16 year old daughter in China still. I met another staff member named Clara who talked to me a lot.

After lunch, we went in a huge group to the Korean War Memorial museum. We took the subway all together and walked some of the way. The people are old so they were sort of tired. It was crazy hot that day and the air conditioning inside wasn't working, so some of the ladies just stayed at the front while we toured the museum and talked in a group about some other adjustment things from the Koreans.

The entrance to the museum area. The inside was covered in mosaics and information about countries who helped in the war.

Mosaic inside the dome

Turtle boat inside

Airplanes hanging

Steps into the museum: freedom and peace are not free.

Then we headed back to the main center with the staff members while most of the students went home. Then we got in our van and drove to Itaewom and had dinner at Subway. We don't have a sandwich place or anything like that in Jinju (or frankly, in many other cities), so it was a treat. Then we drove home for about 4 hours. I slept for a bit then listened to music and talked with other people. We got home around 10:30 or so and I walked home with Michelle. I was pretty tired and set my alarm for church in the morning. Then I passed out and fell asleep for 10 hours straight.

I am really glad that I made the trip and got to meet these inspirational people. It has been culturally one of the most interesting things I've ever done. Hopefully we'll get another chance to go and help them out.

On Sunday I went to church and we had discussion group. Then we went to lunch at Sommertisch. I changed my usual pattern of brunch and got a BLT. It was pretty good, but for some reason took forever to make. After lunch we went in a large group (maybe 8-10) to get coffee. On the way to the coffee shop, I saw this dog. It partially reminded me of my dog and also of a lion. My friend Charlie told me this dog was about to die because he was in front of a dog soup restaurant. So that was fun. I stayed with people at the coffee shop until about 8. Towards the end I was with two girls and we all talked about boys and life etc. It was really nice.

Eatin' dog

After coffee I met Jayden and Dallas and we went on our Sunday night walk. They got ice creams on the way home and I just had a bite of each of theirs. Then I went home and did some dishes and went to bed. It was a really good weekend.