This today was one of the most restful of the trip. We took a van ride from town to a remote village in the southern tip of Korea. Here we meet with several teachers and administrators from the Neutbom school where we would be spending the majority of our week. We stayed in a Korean style bed and breakfast for two nights which is operated by the school's English teacher and his wife. The teacher, Mr. Kim, has a passion for maintaining his rural village, he invited six painters from Seoul to paint scenes from Korea's history on the village walls. The walk around the quaint community was a walk through history and art. I would highly recommend anyone traveling to Korea take the time to step away from the busy-ness of the cities and experience Gurim village.
June 26th 2016
Today we went to church at a PROK church in Byungiving village. It was a smaller rural church comprised mostly of farmers. The service was lovely and easy to follow even without knowing Korean. After worship we did visited some cultural landmarks, one was a museum dedicated to a Dutch man named Hamel who was shipwrecked in the mid 1400's in Korea, was captured and imprisoned, later escaping and writing about his adventures in Asia in the first broadly read accounts of Asia in Europe. We took a long hike in the mountains to visit a lovely Buddhist temple. From the temple we went to a pottery museum, Korea and China are known to have the oldest artifacts of pottery on the planet.
During the car ride we talked to Mr. Kim about reunification of the peninsula. We've come to understand that Koreans do not see North and South Korea as two separate countries but rather one country divided, similar to Berlin being split into East and West in Germany; still one city, but divided. Mr. Kim had an interesting interpretation of the results of WWII and suggested that it would have been more appropriate for the world powers to divide Japan rather than Korea. Japan was the invading nation that occupied Korea for decades and committed terrible atrocities, so why was Korea the nation split by USSR and the United States? Jonathan and I are finding conversations on reunification to be some of the most interesting of the trip. To read about the UCC's General Synod statement from 2015 of the Reunification of the Korean Peninsula click here: http://uccfiles.com/pdf/6-A-CALL-FOR-PEACE-JUSTICE-AND-REUNIFICATION.pdf
We also had the opportunity to see dolmen, ancient burial sites from the Broze age, where clusters of gigantic rocks were stacked to form resting places. The mechanics of moving such large boulders was impressive.
June 27th 2016
Today we moved into the Neutbom School. The school is an alternative boarding school for Korean children in middle school and high school. Korean academics are known for being highly competitive and exam oriented. The majority of students in Korea spend 10-12 hours a day memorizing materials for examinations that will determine which college / university they will attend. Thousands of dollars are spent on personal tutors and life skills are neglected in order to emphasize testing. As an alternative to this model the Neutbom School focused on collaborative learning, life skills, community living and the pursuit of peace and justice.
The school is designed from the philosophies of Rev. Moon Ik Hwan. The three core values of the school include: Life and Spirituality, Self-determination and Community, and Peaceful Reunification. www.bomedu.com
The students prepared a wonderful assembly for us including traditional Korean percussion, songs and dancing. We could not have felt more welcome. During the day we taught four English classes, talking a bit about ourselves and encouraging each students to tell us something about Korea.
In the afternoon we worked in the rice fields with the students. Each day the students do work on the campus ranging from maintenance to preparing dinner, to working in the rice fields and cleaning out the Eco toilet to use as compost. The combination of work ethic, cooperation and learning life skills stand out as exploratory ways to incorporate practical skills into the educational experience.
June 28th 2016
We started off this morning with 30 bows and meditation, each class at the school participates in a 20 minute exercise and meditation program before breakfast, rotating each month. Exercise was followed by breakfast and for us a day of exploring the area.
We went to Jindo to see the site where the Sewol Ferry sank. We met with two mother of children whose bodies have never been recovered. Although they were from Ansan the women have been living in trailers on the dock for 804 days and counting since the accident. They are demanding that the nine remaining people whose remains have not been located be found and that the ferry be salvaged in order to investigate what actually happened. To date the government has stopped all salvage efforts. Jonathan and I watched videos of the accident, we cannot figure out why when the boat tipped over the coast guard rescued the captain and crew but never initiated any rescue efforts for the children. The boat sat listing above water for two hours when rescue efforts where possible but the coast guard was told to wait for instructions from the government that never came. The boat then capsized killing 296 people on board, the majority of whom where all high school students from the same class in a low income community in Korea. Every where we look we see yellow ribbons as a symbol of remembrance and asking for government accountability.
On our way back to the school we stopped to visit another PROK church, this one has an after school program for area elementary children and has been active in starting a youth orchestra in the community. We returned to campus in time to help with afternoon work, today I helped to make steamed rice cakes for dinner and Jonathan helped the students to build a bench. We taught two more English classes in the evening before bed
June 29th 2016
Today's morning exercise was stretching with bamboo poles. We had breakfast and then worked on an outline for a presentation we were asked to give to the school the next day. Today we did some additional touring of the region including a famous poet's home, the home of an exiled scholar and the celydon pottery museum. Upon returning to the school the 6th grade class (seniors) took us on a two hour hike through the mountains including visits to a Buddhist Temple, tea service with a monk and respite lodging for Korean scholars deep in the mountains. The students wrote brief descriptions of all of the sites in English and served as tour guides along the way.
After returning to campus for dinner, Jonathan and I were asked by the students to sing in Wednesday Live! a weekly singing competition, we're not musically inclined but we did teach the students "We are marching in the light of God" in three languages.
We were whisked off to attend Wednesday prayer service in a remote PROK church, the congregation was obviously delighted to have visitors. We came back to campus and that's when we discovered that all of our photos from the trip were gone from our camera. It was devastating blow. (It's been three days and I'm still not completely over it). We tried to recover our photos and worked on our presentation for the morning. It was not a restful night.
June 30th 2016
Today's exercise was walking meditation for me, and going around campus to take pictures on his ipad for Jon. After breakfast we gave an approximately one hour presentation to the whole school including stories about our childhoods, education, families, careers, and church. The materials were well received. It took about two hours to say our farewells, the students gifted us with cards made by each class and over 100 hugs. We took big group pictures and pictures with each class. Jonathan and I were both incredibly impressed with the teaching methods, philosophy and holistic approach of the Neutbom School, this is a ministry that exemplifies the values of the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ.
After our extravagant farewells, Mr. Kim very kindly took us back to the Dolmens and to his village to recapture some photos. He then took us back to the nearest city for us to meet Rev. Min Hei Cheon who had already arranged for a van to take us several hours north to the town of Gimje. At Gimje the PROK was holding its national youth gathering. I had an opportunity to speak during plenary about the partnerships of Global Ministries and PROK.
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