Roller Coaster Day in Korea

I am way behind in blogging, but no internet last night at hte hotel, even tho it was a very nice hotel. So will try and catch up at least a little...

Two days ago...
Packing for a 4 night trip and trying to separate from what you think you will need to what you think you won’t need, not easy. Then try to remember all the donations for along the way. Onto the bus and buckle down for a four hour trip to Jeonju. The people on our bus though, we are dropping like flys with people getting sick. Not sure exactly what it is going around, but it usually lasts around one day, but it’s not the pretty stuff going around.
The rest stops in Korea are more like strip malls. The snacks are pretty amazing there, some hot, some cold, this and that, and then some. Very cool. We began watching a movie, “The Little Bride”. Took me a while to catch on that the little girl, who was playing a 15yr old, was named Boeun. That is Kora’s Korean name. How ironic on such a trip! I think Taylor and I were the only ones watching the movie, it’s quite different watching a Korean movie and having to read subtitles. But then we arrived at our destination before we could watch the ending.
Our first stop was the Jeonju orphanage. I’ve been there plenty of times on my previous trips but it never gets old hearing the excitement of the children’s voices even before we reach the front door and it’s not even Christmas time. Imagine the excitement to have people come and give attention just to you for a short time. Really, the feeling is amazing for us visitors.
Those that have traveled to this orphanage with me, you know how special the performances are and how adorable the kids are. This time didn’t disappoint either. It’s amazing to see the joy in performing for us but it’s such a gift to us to see them. It touched my heart to hear one of the girls say to a staff member that she remembered me.
Kora was then able to give the Director the gifts that she had received from her friends for her birthday party that were donated just for this trip. The Director said to Kora how blessed she was to have such giving hearts. So for any parents of Kora’s friends, or even Kora’s friends, that are reading this blog, thank you for your generous hearts. You have no idea the joy that you gave to these children that are in such difficult circumstances with their current families. I always appreciate all of the giving hearts when I make my trips here.
I was fine with my emotions this time visiting until I watched adoptees and parents holding the babies. It tugs at my heart that these children are in the situation they are in and that their parents are struggling with life. I see myself in the eyes of these children every time I’m here because I was a child of these difficult circumstances. I always pray that these children will soon be reunited with their families or be able to be adopted domestically into a loving family. These children and their families didn’t ask for this difficulty in their lives, but I do know God will watch over all of them.
As always, the time spent with the kids is cut too short. It’s a struggle to get everyone to let go of the babies or toddlers they are holding. I literally have to pull off some of the kids that are hanging onto people. It’s tough letting go on both sides.
After lunch, we were on our way to Daejon for our homestays with Korean families. Each family and adoptee on this tour were assigned a family to stay with for an overnight to experience traditional Korean life. Since we have five people in our family, we had to be split up. I was with Kora and Taylor and Skip and Erika were together. After the introductions of tour participants and host families, everyone went their own way for the night.
Our host mother, she came up to me and gave me a huge hug and gave Kora a huge hug along with Taylor. Our host mother spoke English, so was able to communicate with her well. When we arrived at her house and we all got out of the car, Kora was not looking well and she started to cry. I couldn’t believe she was not feeling well and we had just gotten to our homestay! I told her to suck it up since we had just gotten there. Not a good start…
We met our host father and 11yr old son, which neither one spoke or understood English. The 11yr old was playing video games on the computer so the dad handed Taylor a Nintendo DS, but Taylor couldn’t figure out how to play since it was in Korean. So we all sat around almost in silence. No one asked us any questions. Our host mother had said we were going out to dinner for a traditional Korean style meal. We first had to pick up their 15yr old son from Academy, where he was studying for his exams. He had been there all day and it was Saturday.
Taylor did his best to engage in conversation. It’s quite the learning experience when there is a language barrier but Taylor did well with the 15 yr old’s limited English. We arrived at the restaurant and enjoyed the meal. Taylor was really into the meat portion as usual. Kora at a little since she hadn’t really eaten much at lunch but I told her she had to eat something. The host family’s friends had arrived and sat down for the meal, but none of them asked us any questions. We just ate the meat the mother was giving us. I looked at the clock and it was only 7:30pm but I was exhausted already and could have fallen asleep right there. I think Kora and Taylor felt the same way.
On our way home, we had to drop off the 15yr old back at Academy for him to study some more. The Korean education is very hard and Academy is another way of gearing up for final exams though this is an extra cost to the family. During Academy, kids can study up to six hours a day just for exams. I kept telling Taylor he had it very easy back home.
When we arrived back to the host family’s house, Taylor, Kora and I were gearing up to go to bed even though it was only 8:30. Kora and I would be sharing one room and Taylor in another room by himself. As Kora and I got into bed, both of us were too hot to sleep. There was no air conditioning in the room. Kora was using her little portable fan but the air in the room was very stifling. This time of year in Korea is monsoon season, so the humidity is at a ridiculous level. I felt bad for Kora, she hadn’t been feeling well from the time we arrived and now she had to suffer not feeling well in a hot room. I didn’t want her to have to suffer, let alone me getting a tremendous migraine from the heat so I was going to have to tell our host family that we needed to go to the hotel so I could take care of Kora.
So, I go to tell our host mother, but she isn’t home, no one is but me and the kids. What do I do? How do I communicate with anyone in Korea? So in desperation, I turned on my blackberry. I didn’t care how much it would cost me, but if only I could get a hold of Skip on his blackberry. So as I turned on my phone, I began receiving many messages from not having it turned on continuously. I sent an email to Skip hoping he would check his email, that is, if my blackberry would even work in Korea because we hadn’t done anything to it for international travel before we left home thinking mine had no capabilities in Korea as we learned from my previous trips.
By a miracle, I received Skip’s automatic out of office email from work…I was so excited that my blackberry worked! So I sent Skip an instant blackberry message praying maybe that would work too, but that wasn’t looking good so far as there was the unreachable symbol on his bb messenger. I continued to check my email to see if Skip would happen to respond back…it seemed like an eternity but by a miracle, the bb messenger worked and Skip had actually checked his blackberry…we were connected!!!
I told him the situation with Kora. He immediately said I needed to get to the hotel with her, but how the heck was I going to do anything with no one home at our homestay?! So Skip was frantic in working out something via his host family as all the host families were given the contact number of Mr. Hwang, a Holt Korea staff member in charge on our trip. I told Skip he needed to have his host family call him for me since no one was home here. Skip’s host family helped him on his end to call Mr. Hwang and arranged for a hotel room and I guess now, for all of us, Skip and Erika were going to the hotel too to help me out with Kora.
It seemed like hours before I heard someone come home at our homestay. It was the father and his 11yr old son. I started talking to him explaining about Kora, but he didn’t understand me. He called his wife and I explained to her the situation with Kora and how I needed to get her to the hotel so I could take care of her rather than having her be sick at their house. I had to wake up Taylor and tell him to get ready to leave. He was so out of it and was sprawled out on his bed with just his boxers on. I told him it was 9:45 and he asked me if it was morning…I’d say he was out of it!
Our host mom got home very fast. I told her the situation with Kora and needing to get to the hotel. I told her we could take a taxi but she insisted on driving us there. On the way, she told me she was sorry that she was out but was shopping for a gift she forgot to get for me. Along the way, I bb'd Skip to let him know we were on our way, he and Erika had already headed out too.

When we arrived at the hotel before Skip and Erika. It was nice to be able to be in one room with Kora rather than in someone's house I didn't know. Skip and Erika arrived soon after and we all settled in for the night.

At breakfast, we heard someone else was sick too. Something has been going around and it hasn't been fun! Luckily, whatever is going around usually lasts only a day. Onto the day's adventure...which I will have to type tomorrow since I have to go to bed right now, I am tired!