These days, Korean students are in the middle of 겨울방학 (winter vacation) so things are pretty quiet around the orphanage. Kids go home (remember that some of them still have parents) and a few are away on some sort of school trip. I also haven’t been around there as often as I usually am since my own schedule is a bit different right now.
It must be pretty boring for them. Since they aren’t in school, they stay home all day. It’s too cold/dangerous to play outside, so they are stuck watching TV, or maybe going to the computer lab. For many of them, that is their day!
I’m sorry there isn’t much else to report. I hope to get a new video made with some of them this week, and have it up for the next post. I could get them to make a video that would tie into one of the recent KClass lessons. Anything in particular you’d like the kids to help you with? Let me know!
I spent my Christmas traversing around Korea, so I’m sorry I can’t tell you what happened on Christmas Day. Perhaps I’ll have some things to report after my next visit. Today I want to share about something I got from them just before my vacation. On Friday that kicked off the winter holiday, my friend Josh and I had a little Christmas party with the elementary boys. We went to Costco, bought some snacks, and rented Harry Potter.
That evening, after dinner, I couldn’t find any of the official orphanage staff. The kids were a little rowdy, and they don’t really listen to us well, so I was looking for a Korean adult. One of the boys told me that 오마 was out “buying clothes.” Seems like a strange errand for 7PM on a Friday, doesn’t it? Anyway, the 6th graders were in charge. That happens a lot actually, and seems to work most of the time, but that is a different topic. Anyway, I soon found out that she had gone to buy sweatshirts for me and Josh! A cool gift. But the really neat part is that each of the boys had written a little card to go with it. Almost each card is identical, they say things like:
안녕하세요? 같이 놀아주었던 것 감사합나다….감기 조심하세요…옷 따듯하게 입으세요
Thanks for playing with me…be careful of colds…dress warmly!
Here’s a great winter phrase to use with your Korean friends. You’ll score big points with it, I promise: “감기 조심하세요” Be careful of colds!
These children have precious few possessions. Most of what they have is shared. They wear whatever fits, and often it fits several kids. Seems like an unfortunate way to live. But the alternative isn’t really any better is it? Simply having lots of stuff doesn’t bring happiness or stability to your life either. But it is a real honor to bless the kids with something even if it’s just a new pair of awesome Spiderman shoes.
Giving the presents was a real treat. It was a lot of fun, as you saw in the video from last week’s post. The children were overjoyed, and surprisingly grateful. They usually don’t have the best of manners, so it was refreshing to see them say thank you!
Christmas is not quite the same in Korea. Christmas Day is a recognized holiday, but many schools aren’t closed during the week that follows. Gifts are exchanged, but not to the degree that some of you might be familiar with in Western, Judeo-Christian environments.
Christmas at the orphanage is somewhat special though. Several different organizations and companies donate gifts to the kids. My church arranges funds to buy some new clothes for the pre-schoolers. Today was the shopping day.
Each volunteer was given an envelope with 100,000원 (roughly $100) to spend on the kids. $100 goes a long way, and if you go shopping at the right places, like 동대문 (where 현우 and I went a couple weeks ago), you can REALLY stretch it.
In 동대문 there are about a dozen buildings stuffed to the gills with clothes. It is truly remarkable. Armed with my cash, I set off to buy some clothes for 2 of the children from the orphanage. We were supposed to buy clothes, shoes, and jackets. Some other things had been prepared separately. So what can you get for $100? I managed to get a nice winter coat, a pair of shoes, a pair of jeans, some underwear, pajamas, gloves, and 3 shirts for each kid.
And yeah, I did manage to get a lot of discounts when I told the vendors I was buying clothes to give to an orphan. Sometimes it worked like a charm. One lady even gave me 10 fleece hats for free! But, some people weren’t so interested in cutting their prices! Other times, things were cheap enough, that I didn’t bother asking for any sort of discount.
Those sort of situations are sink or swim when it comes to using Korean. The vendors don’t speak much English. Sometimes they know how to quote a price, but that’s about it. And that’s when you realize just exactly how much you can communicate! I had to do all of the shopping and negotiating in Korean. While I get it wrong a lot, I am always amazed when something works out just the way I hope it will!
I wish I had a video of the shopping. That would have been fun. You’ll have to settle for Part 1 of the gift giving. I did my best to subtitle it in English and Korean. What I said is in orange, and the kids speech is in white. Enjoy, and part 2 should be out next week.
여러분 짜장면을 먹은 적이 있나요? 없으면 바로 먹어 봐야해요! 고아원에 매월 마지막 수요일에 어린이들이 저녁으로 짜장면을 먹어요. 까가운 중화요리집이 짜장면고 탕수육을 만들러 와요.
Have you ever eaten jjajangmyeon? If you haven’t you really should try it! At the orphanage, the children eat jjajangmyeon on the last Wednesday of every month. A Chinese food shop from nearby comes to make jjajangmyeon and sweet & sour pork.
짜장명 is sort of like the macaroni & cheese of Korea. It is dirt cheap, and an absolute favorite of kids everywhere. Of course, adults like it too! It can be found just about everywhere, but unless you live in LA or NY, I wonder if you can find it at a restaurant in the States. ㅠ.ㅠ Basically it is a noodle dish with a black bean sauce, onions, and pork bits. I know, I know, that description doesn’t sound so delicious, but trust me. I’d eat it 2 times a week if I thought it was really healthy!
I’m not sure about the origin of this dish, you can usually only find it at a “중화요리 집,” or Chinese restaurant, but those are all “Koreanized” so don’t expect to see it on the menu at your local Western Chinese carry-out!
Anyway, the kids at the orphanage rarely get to eat so well. Don’t get me wrong, they are fed each and every day, but it’s not always so appetizing. So 짜장면 Wednesdays are a real treat. A local Chinese food restaurant loads up their gear and hauls it over the orphanage once a month to serve noodles and sweet & sour pork. There is a picture below of the noodle slicing machine. Fresh noodles do taste so much better!
I usually go to the orphanage two days a week. Saturday and Monday. On Saturdays several friends from my church go to work with the pre-school aged children. Typically we try to teach them some stories from the Bible. (It is a Christian orphanage, and my church has been working there for the past several years.) Sometimes those regular plans get changed.
Living in Korea has challenged me in several ways. But perhaps the most difficult to overcome is how schedules can be changed so suddenly. And many times, decisions aren’t made until very late - something that makes Westerners really nervous. As an example, the day I write this is about 5 weeks before the Winter English Camp that I will have to teach. However, no final decisions have been made about location, content, schedule, which students…etc. And until it actually starts, nothing is set in stone.
So sometimes we experience this with the orphanage too. Today I showed up with my friend at about 10:45. But along the road, I kept seeing all these kids filing out carrying boxes full of stuff. I asked them where they were going, and it took me a while to figure out that they were going to have some sort of “sidewalk sale.” We thought it might just involve the older kids, but soon, all the adults workers were bringing EVERYONE outside. So, we just turned around and went to this street corner. Sure enough, the kids were selling tings. Old comic books, candy, notebooks, pancakes, roasted squid, etc. It was really bizarre. Initially we thought that maybe they were doing some more fundraising for the new building, but that just didn’t seem right. Every kid had a little chart where they wrote down each transaction, and had my sign my name. 100원 for candy, 500원 for a chocolate-covered banana, 1,000원 to through water balloons at a high-schooler’s head… strange.
So I asked one of the 5th graders: “오늘은 왜 많은 물건을 판매해?” (Why are you selling so many things today?)
-”경제 공부” (Economics study)
-”경제 공부 대회?” (is it an economics study contest?)
-”네” (yes)
-”1등 사람이 어떤 상품을 받을거야?” (What prize does the 1st place person get?)
-”50,000원” ($50)
Sorry there are no pictures of this event! I wasn’t prepared for it!
There is a major construction project underway right now. Recently two buildings were torn down to make way for one larger multi-purpose building. All of the girls from elementary-high school moved out of their building and are now cramped into even tighter quarters for the next 8 months or so. The chapel was also torn down. Here is a picture of the current progress. I don’t have good information about what is being built, but I sure hope it will be an improvement. The kids tell me that the new building will have a “gym” which really would be awesome. There isn’t really any good place nearby for the kids to play. And when it is as cold at it is right now, being inside is really the best option. The new building will also house some of the kids. But in the meantime, things are pretty tight. I’ll be posting periodic updates so you can see how the construction is coming along.
With Christmas around the corner, you can expect some stories about what the holiday is like for these kids.
In fact, Christmastime marks my one year anniversary of working at the orphanage.
Every year the orphanage sets up a bazaar to raise money. It is usually at the end of October. I wasn’t volunteering there last fall, so this was my first one. Preparations started a few weeks before. Josh warned me that the staff would be pouncing on us to buy some tickets for the event. Each ticket cost 10,000원 and then could be spent on various things at the bazaar.
Each staff member is charged with selling 10 tickets. So, one called me up and asked if I would buy some tickets. I agreed to buy 2. Then, I decided I could afford to invest a little more in the event, so I gave her enough money for 5. But I should have been more discreet. Another worker (the one Josh and I call “Mean 오마” overheard our conversation. She cornered me and begged me to buy tickets from her too. She was practically screaming about how I bought 5 from the other lady, and how I should have spread it around instead. I could only look at her sheepishly and say how I bought 5 already, and I didn’t need any more. Then really started twisting my arm (literally). She grabbed my hand, starred intently into my face and made me promise to buy 3. She was unrelenting! I tried to tell her how I didn’t have any more cash..but that wasn’t good enough. She was happy to take the money later, in exchange for my promise to bring the money next time! Phew!
The day of the bazaar finally approached. The plan was for all the foreigners who volunteer at the orphanage (there are about 4 of us) to sell some cookies and brownies. Josh also bought an ice cream machine so we could sell “home-made ice cream.” We set up our table. It was a great opportunity to practice some more Korean in a setting I never have before. If you’ve spent any time in Korea, you are familiar with the salesmen on the subways. They wheel their carts on the train and very politely introduce their product, going through this whole spiel about how wonderful it is and how great the value is. But that wasn’t my model. I was going more for the street salesmen in a market. These guys scream, and basically just repeat the same thing over and over again. So I started bellowing:
“맛있는 크키이에요. 천원이에요”
“Delicious cookies…just one dollar!”
That is my best guess as to what the guys on the street say. Its probably not all that correct, because the Koreans kept looking at me and laughing (although that’s also because it is so rare to see foreigners making fools out of themselves in Korean). But, we did manage to sell all of our cookies, muffins, and ice cream! I did have to make some deals when we got to the end. Some people really scored with 1/2 price or 1/4 price discounts!
Working at the orphanage always provides me with some great language experiences. Sometimes I get caught off guard that I am understanding the conversation. It seems when I TRY to listen I have a harder time getting it. However when I just participate, subconsciously expecting to understand, I find my comprehension is much higher. That day I was able to translate for a friend and answer a lady’s question without missing a beat. She wanted to know “why foreigners were selling things at the bazaar.” The tone in her voice was not so pleasant actually. But I just told her that “우리 보유관에서 봉사해요.” “We volunteer at the orphanage.”
This picture is of 성태 helping crank the ice cream machine.
Something really serious happened when I was home for vacation. My friend Josh, who also volunteers at the orphanage told me that some of the older boys were caught with stolen money! Apparently each kid is given 5,000원 (about $5) each month as “allowance.” I’m sure it gets spent immediately on 컵라면 and other unhealthy snacks. But sometime during the summer break, a few of the older stole 500,000원 (about $500) from a man in the neighborhood. You might think that they would have tried to hide it really well, but money really burns holes in these kids’ pockets. So four kids split the money amongst themselves, the older ones threating the younger ones within an inch of their lives to keep silent. It wasn’t long before the staff got really curious about how these kids kept having money to buy things. The older boys wouldn’t talk. But one of the younger ones fessed up, and finally the truth came out. They now have to forgo their allowance until the debt is paid.It really represents a larger problem there. Things get stolen quite frequently. But usually, they steal from EACH OTHER. In Korean society, being a little bit older comes with some real tangible benefits. And the kids at the home squeeze everything they can get out of it. There are middle school and high school students on the second floor, above the elementary kids. They often exploit their seniority. Here is one conversation I witnessed about a cell phone. Remember that I said some kids have parents. Some parents have bought cell phones for their kids.
고등 학생: 전기 줘! Give me your cell phone battery! (they have the same model)
4학년 학생: 왜? Why?
고등 학생: 형! Because I am your big brother! (no blood relation, but since he’s older, he is 형)
So the kid gave up battery. And he might not have seen it again. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Last weekend a 5th grader told me how he used to have a Nintendo DS. I have no idea how he managed to have one of those, but he did. Once the older boys found out about it, it was gone. They stole it, and probably sold it online! The same thing happened last year with someone’s Playstation Portable. The older boys throw down the age card, and there is nothing the younger kids can do about it!
At the 보육원(children’s home) where I work there are about 80 boys and girls from birth all the way up 18 or 19. Older students who are taking college classes, working, or doing some other “productive” thing are allowed to stay once they finish high school. I spend most of my time with the elementary aged boys.
Currently there are 24 of those boys living together. Of those, only 2 are truly “orphaned.” Most of the kids there do have parents. Some of them see their parents on a regular basis. They even go to spend weekends or holidays with their parents! But for whatever reason, they can’t live at home. For some parents, a divorce has left them unable to support their children financially. Others are just simply too poor (perhaps due to a gambling or alcohol addiction). And some have been abused - which in turn, may separate mom and dad, sending one to jail while the other is unable to support the children. Should the situation improve at home, or if another relative appears who is willing and able to support a child, they will leave. But the odds are not in their favor. Once a kid is in “the system” for 6 months, the chances of him leaving shrink to almost zero.
This leads us to adoption. There are orphanages in Korea where you can adopt children. Some of you probably even know someone who was adopted from Korea, or perhaps your family has done that. Maybe even you were adopted from Korea. But in the case of the children I know, none of them can be adopted. Like I said, most of them do still see Mom and/or Dad on a regular basis. According to my understanding of the law, a child can be adopted only if any person who could claim some family relation renounces those ties! One of the boys was simply dropped off at the doorstep of the orphanage when he was newborn. They didn’t know his name, his birthday, anything about him, so they made it up. His “birthday” is Jan. 1 He is ineligible to be adopted because there isn’t anyone to sign off on their family rights. Even if someone could be found, I think they might be reticent to approve an adoption. For Koreans such a thing represents a lot of shame to the family. And while from a western perspective, it might be just as shameful to abandon your children, admitting that fact causes a real loss of “face.”
It is a place where children are really raising themselves. The adult supervision seems to be sporadic and inconsistent. It is difficult to help so many young children manage their lives and be “stand-in parents.” So I see my role there simply as being a positive influence. Occasionally we teach them some English, but it is rare to have quality time for teaching. However there are many chances to provide “life lessons” and guidance in the simple things like picking up after playing, washing hands after using the bathroom, not fighting. And these are the areas that I really want to improve in my Korean. It is forcing me to practice speaking!
Until next time,
오스틴
If you remember the idiom pilot lesson from this week we learned about a 청개구리. Since the boys at the orphanage can be pretty disobedient, I thought I’d ask them about this word. If you go to the actual YouTube page, you can see a rough English transcript in the video description.
Some of the boys didn’t know what 청개구리 meant. I wonder if it’s because they don’t have mothers to scold them!
