Mulmangcho Christmas Party (2014-12-21)

In late 2012, shortly after I became the volunteer International Adviser to the Mulmangcho School (for adolescent North Korean refugees), I talked with school founder Prof. Park Sun-young about us holding a Christmas Party for the kids. I quickly concluded there was no way I could do it on my own so I dropped the idea and ignored her when she tried to remind me about it.^^

But last year? Edward M. Robinson, a party planner in America, among many other things, took the lead! Helping Others Prosper Through English (HOPE) hosted spectacular Halloween and Christmas parties for the kids last year (I'm also the International Adviser to HOPE).

This year, Eddie took the lead again, but the crew organizing the party has increased. (I hope I don't miss anyone). Eddie is the energy behind the organizing, but we do have plenty of help. In-Jee Lee led the toy drive with her colleagues at the Chungdahm Learning Institute. Mike Ashley reached into his own pocket and bought many gifts for the kids. Rachel Stine helped with organizing the party. Kelly Pratt helped with organizing, also bought many items to donate to the kids. And then there are volunteers like Nina Hong and Kristen Lefebvre who seem to be at Mulmangcho every weekend now.

Jungah Ji was one of the main organizers of our Christmas parties at the Yonsei Severance Hospital and she joined us at Mulmangcho for the first time, bringing her friend Yoonjee Kim along with her. Aaron Grommesh is back in Korea, that means that he is back at Mulmangcho. Laura Nell, who knew me back in the day before I got involved in NK issues. Serena Ha is yet another friend who joined Mulmangcho, and keeps coming back. Whereas the rest of us volunteer on Sundays, she was going on Thursdays once a week to tutor one of the young adults. Hannah Acuña Nedrow, Kasia Middleton, Niina Cartier, thank you so much, too. There were a few other volunteers Eddie brought, and I didn't catch their names...

Nevada Rhodes brought the same rambunctious energy he brought to the parties at the hospital a few days ago. If you are looking for an MC for parties, he is definitely someone to look up.

Oh! And of course the high school girls from Wonju who are regular volunteers at the school.

Several of the volunteers are also regulars in the Teach North Korean Refugees project, so it is delightful to be able to collaborate with them on more than just one thing...

Here's video from the Chosun Ilbo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUqu-gkl7AA&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

When the party was over, we said goodbye to Eddie, who boarded the bus with two crates and a suitcase, then had three taxi drivers refuse to take him home later on. If only they had known what a great thing he had done, they might have given him a free ride. So next year, someone please remind me to arrange Uber for Eddie.^^

2019-12-19 Interview with Japanese reporter

"The interview is the honeymoon, publication is the divorce." --Shinae Chun I had a GREAT and FUN interview today with a reporter from Japan. Let's hope publication will also be great! www.lovetnkr.og

Chosun Monthly magazine [Korean language]

Chosun Monthly Magazine has made an announcement (in Korean) about the Seoul Honorary Citizenship award that I received on December 9, 2022. Our Korean staffers say that the magazine is a big deal in South Korea. Here's the overall roundup of media about the award. In the next two months, I have extended interviews coming up in two different magazines, one in the USA and one in South Korea. Both articles will be in respected publications so they should raise awareness of FSI's work that your support makes possible. * * * Support FSI via Stripe or PayPal . https://donate.stripe.com/3cs28F5IAcc85IAaEF or PayPal .

North Korean defector seeks justice (Korea Times)

It was international news when 12 North Korean waitresses and a male manager who worked at a restaurant operated by the North Korean regime in China arrived in South Korea in 2016. The waitresses have mostly maintained a low profile. There have been numerous accusations and assertions, with some saying the waitresses didn't want to escape, some accused the Park Geun-hye administration of playing politics by releasing details of the case, etc., etc., etc. My blog at the Korea Times today features an exclusive interview with one of the former North Korean waitresses who filed a criminal case against the former manager. You can read about it here on the Korea Times website. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/02/728_345165.html Keep in mind that there are many more facts to the case and that it is much deeper than this brief excerpt of her comments. She also shared legal documents that I shared with the Korea Times well in advance to give them time to review t...

Michael Vick ain't got nuthin on me!!!

After football player Michael Vick admitted that he had been running a dog-fighting business I wrote that he was an idiot. If he was going to engage in such activity he should have gone to Indonesia or somewhere else. He certainly had the money to do so at that time. If he knew then what he knows now then he would have spent $10 million to run his dogfighting ring in Manila. Today I did something that probably not even Michael Vick ever did: I ate dog meat. I never expected that I would do so. It is a bit scandalous because Koreans don't just kill the dogs and eat them. Rather, they will beat them to death while they are still alive. That allegedly is to get the adrenaline flowing which allegedly makes the meat more tender which allegedly improves a man's stamina. I had told a friend that I wanted to give it a try. But as we sat down to eat I said: "I want to try this but don't give me any details until after we are finished eating." It just looked like regular me...

Back in America, 4 days and counting

I got back a few days ago, I'm still unpacking... Some of the highlights so far: * Friday morning I was in the audience for a CNN/The Root discussion about being Young and Black in America . As a veteran of so many of these Washington talking events I am less than enthusiastic about them these days. Still, I bumped into a few friends, some of whom are neither young nor black. The discussion seemed so 1980s, with the panelists trying to figure out how to politically empower young black people. I guess it was appropriate then that the head of the NAACP was there. His most irrelevant concern was about hate talk radio...or I guess Rush Limbaugh being on the air all these years explains the high level of black-on-black crime. 20 years later, how is the Stop the Violence movement working out? The highlight of this particular panel was running into old friend David Plotz, who is now editor of Salon Magazine. I don't think I've seen him since college but he recognized me. I forgot...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

Search This Blog