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Latest news from our team in Korea
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| Team's welcome in Korea |
We are still on the go every day and have attended far more Rotary meeting than we expected, but are still not asked to give our presentation that we prepared. I fully understand as they will not be able to understand a word that we say. I am usually asked to say a few words which are translated by Lucy, our translator. After the first time Mr Choi has not bothered to warn me of any impending speech so I just have to wing it. However I include a few Korean sentences and it usually goes down pretty well.
We continue receiving the “honoured guest” treatment everywhere we go. The 2 words, South Africa and Rotary seems to get everyone jumping……it’s wonderful! We are also showered with gifts and pamphlets. Today we toured the Hyundai factory and were given a little scale model of one of their products. During the Rotary meeting, later, we received some Korean curios as mementos of the occasion.
We visit three different places every day, 5 days a week, then 1 on a Saturday and the day off on Sunday except not this Sunday as we are going to Choi’s church for the service at 11 and then having lunch at the church with his pastor after which, the team are singing 2 hymns at the afternoon service.
It’s now Saturday evening 10pm and we have just arrived back from our outing. We were picked up at 10am and went to the coast through the major agricultural plain where they produce most of the countries rice and barley. Very pretty on the coast. Had lunch in Gimje and then returned to Chon Ju to see a live show called B Boys Korea which is a break dance version of River Dance….very noisy but great fun and very professional. On to a walk through the Film Festival area and dinner. After dinner we went to one of the movies “Eye in the Sky” a Jap movie with English sub-titles, also very good….and that was the end of another day.
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the Int Pres, Bill Boyd, has just arived in Korea and there is a combined meeting of 5 Districts tomorrow which we will attend. We will have the opportunity to meet him as well as the other GSE Teams from the other Districts.
At the moment we are in Iksan which is about an hour out of Chonju. We are all staying in a hostel while we visit the places of interest around the area. Still pretty tiring but great fun.
I am glad to hear you are enjoying the Korean Team in KZN - They are great people aren't they? Their leader, Jang, is an exceptionally kind and caring man. He went out of his way for our team. I will try to spend as much time as posible with them at conference. Our team hope to sneak them away from conference for a while, after their presentation, until the banquet that evening; probably a pub in Port Edward or something.
You need to check out our Korean language - we do alright ourselves with Zweli being the star. I am working on our farewel presentation for the 9th as Chairman Choi wants a slide show of our stay and about 5 minutes of speech. We will probably do it all in Korean!!!
After the Korean District Conference at Chonju, we will do some more sightseeing around the area before we leave for Seoul on Sunday morning. After sightseeing in Seoul we catch the plane back home on Monday morning.
Please note, our GSE team will arrive back in Durban at 10:00 on Tuesday, 15 May 2007.
Submitted - 07 May 2007
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