A trip to the Orient

The weather was perfect, most of the time!

We've just spent three weeks in South Korea, a country so different from any that we have visited before, we've grown to love Kimchi (the spicy fermented vegetable based food that accompanies almost every meal), we've learnt to use chopsticks (metal ones not the wooden ones that are found in most other nations), we've explored Seoul (the huge capital city), used their extensive subway system (only slight shorter than the London Underground), we also ventured out on the 300 kph KTX train, we've run and walked, climbed mountains and taken lifts to the sixth tallest building in the world but most of all we've made new friends as we shared the Leadership for Life programme in three other cities in this most interesting of nations.

The Olympic Park Gate and Lotte World Tower
at Sunset

Since meeting our great friend Yougmum Cho in 2014 when he visited us at the Village of Hope in South Africa we have becoming increasingly more connected to South Korea, as you may remember Cho and his wife Deborah run the amazing 'Love'nCare' project in Madagascar, and are the people we stay with during our trips to Toamasina. This link has meant that we have met many Koreans, both in Madagascar and also South Africa, it was via this connection that we were invited by African Leadership to visit South Korea to share the Leadership for Life programme with three different groups of people.

Maz teaching about 'good financial management'
as applicable in South Korea as in Africa!

You may find it hard to understand our decision to make a trip to South Korea, a nation who in the 1950's was ravaged by war (a war that actually still continues with its northern neighbour) and had most of its culture and buildings stripped as the Japanese ruled for 36 years in the early 20th century, but one that is now amoughts the most powerful in the world with a GDP that puts it well within the top 20 nations in the world, a far cry from Madagascar or Zimbabwe which have been at the forefront of our most recent of trips.

Floor sitting students at our time in Daejeon

That thought could be correct, but as we've found when sharing either the Leadership for Life or LEAD NOW programmes, we are looking at a problem that affects all of mankind, it's not a poverty in your belly or bank balance issue that we are looking to address as we help people to start to lead their own lives and in doing so bring about a wider transformation of their communities and personal finances, but it's a poverty of thinking, thinking that is hopeless and leads nowhere. We are trying to help people become the amazing leaders that they are crying out for as they often look to others to become the answers to their current issues and people in South Korea are as human as the rest of the people that we have shared the programme with be that in South Africa, Uganda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe or Madagascar.

Students in Pohang with poor thinking that leads nowhere!

We were based in a small apartment towards the east of Seoul which afforded us quick access to the subway and also the wonderful hills and their paths that surrounded that area. Seoul is a huge city, it has 2 million more people than New York or London but has almost twice as many people per square kilometer, London at 5,518 people/km² vs 16,000 people/km² in Seoul. However as we said the transport system is vast and very very well managed, everything seems to run on time but as you can imagine the roads are packed full of vehicles, and as always most cars are only occupied by one person!

Our friends Pastor Kim and his wife.

A Pastor and his wife who we know from South Africa were also in Seoul at the same time and they were able to transport us to our three destinations outside of the capital. Our first delivery of the programme was to a group of students who attend the Hangdong University in Pohang, a large coastal city on the east of the Korean peninsula. These students were children of Korean missionaries and had a very good understanding of English which really helped us share the programme. They made us feel very welcome and we stayed in a stunning guesthouse (used to host missionaries). 

Standard city skyline from the Highway

Our second weekend again took us south to the city of Daegu, this time we stayed with a lecturer at the local university who also made us feel so welcome, she stayed on the 20th floor of one of the many apartment blocks that are synonyms to the city skylines. We shared the programme with around 60 people at a newly opened church, a church with strong links to Madagascar so it was nice to see pictures of their trips to places we know so well.  

the policeman and his wife!

The final city we visited was Daejeon, south of Seoul and home to our friend and trip coordinator Jinseong who after we'd arrived off of the extremely fast KTX train took us to see a traditional Hanok village in Jeonju. It was here that we saw a stunning demonstration of Taekwondo (the Korean martial arts combat sport) by some local young people and got the chance to put on some traditional Korean dress which was interesting and attracted some attention from the locals as we walked around their town for an hour dressed up as a local policeman and his wife!

Maz and Jinseong at a tea house

We stayed in the local Presbyterian college over the weekend which was close to a running track where both myself and Maz went for a couple of runs, the weather was perfect, the late autumn morning was cool but sunny with little breeze and as such we both recorded our fastest times (since we were teenagers at least) for 10km and 5km distances. 

Some of the group who attended our programme

The programme was run in the youth centre of a large church where over 30 people joined us for the four sessions, it's a big commitment from the people who attend, each session lasting between three to four hours and although the programme is designed to be run over a longer period to give the people time to apply the leadership principles in their own lives, we are pleased with how each of the groups received the programme and are looking forward to hearing how they have started real projects for the benefit of others in their communities.

We were joined in Daejeon by Cho who was visiting his Father in the east of the country, it was great to see him and share a meal together. We also met up with Lenna and Paul, again a couple who we knew from Madagascar, it seemed that we were connecting with some great people again! 

the Korean bullet train KTX

Unlike Africa where the issues around poverty, rubbish, poor health, uneducated youth are plain for all to see, Korea was slightly different. A culture built upon respect, good manners, efficiency and productivity mean that on the surface everything looks fine, however once we got to understand the people and helped them peel back their reserved masks there was still a sense of hopelessness, a sense of trying to be something that one could never live up to, a sense of the things that you own giving you that a self worth that was only as good as those around you, a striving for that elusive thing that you could never reach, an expectation from the elders to become better than them via education, better jobs, faster smart phones and bigger homes and cars and the very fact that other people were dictating their lives rather than them leading the lives that they wanted for themselves.

During our days off, we worked mainly over the weekends, travelling to the three other cities on a Thursday and then sharing the programme on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were able to explore, as we said we ventured up the Achasan mountain, in fact I have the Strava record for the fastest ascent of the mountain which took in one of my many runs around the city. We visited the Kings Palace (Gyeongbokgung the seat of the Joseon dynasty built in 1395 but broken down to its foundations by the Japanese in the early 20th century), our visit coincided with a public holiday so we wandered around this extensive site with thousands of other people. 

Street march

On that same day there was a huge public protest which so happens to be taking place at the exit of the subway station that we had nominated as our starting point. We never thought we'd get out of the malay as throngs of older people made their protest against the current government.

Buddhist Temple just up from our house

We also visited the local Buddhist temples where we spent some time just sitting and reflecting on life and how we'd ended up on this crazy journey, we were served tea by a local Buddhist in his tea shop and enjoyed the opportunity to sit cross legged on many a floor enjoying food and good company.

Maz bucking the system whilst buying veg!

South Korea cities are an amazing blitz on your senses, the bight flashing signs above the shop fronts, the smells of street food (of which we will speak of in a moment) and freshly roasted coffee, yep Seoul has an up and coming coffee culture with over 18,000 coffee shops and more starbucks outlets than New York, people 'do coffee' at any time during the day but to spend time at a cafe in the evening after a meal is to be Korean!

More food.

.....other sights that take up your view along a street are the following:- Restaurants, Clothes stores, especially outdoor walking shops, people walking around with masks on, Fresh fish stalls, fresh veg stalls, no Coke signs, exercising in the parks for the over 50's on the gym workout equipment, people looking at their phones, Pet grooming stores, Nail and hair salons, car sales, hardly any european people, we think we might have seen a total of 50 during our whole three week trip, however one thing we haven't touched on is the food that we ate.

Maz up the Lotte Tower

We were in awe of the food, yes meat is high on the list of items that are consumed, with the Korean BBQ being high on the list, but for us the plant based eating was amazing, each meal was made up of separate little side dishes rice and or noddles and vegetable dishes that you could mix in together with your soy based Tofu, sizzling or not, each meal was hot and spicy (they were surprised that we liked spicy food but coming from England where Indian/ethic food is a staple this was great). Although the meals were healthy we are certain we put on some weight by the shear volume that we ate.

Maz at the city walls, she always seems to
be hanging on, shame she doesn't do heights!

To end our trip we took a day to walk around 12kms of the 18km Seoul city wall which was interesting as it went through a military zone and two very steep mountains, like much of Seoul, and South Korea in fact, the government is striving to rebuild the culture and traditions that were lost in the last 100 years and the reconstruction of ancient sites is a huge part of that. 

The view down from the 218th floor
glass viewing platform.

One late afternoon we took the 123 floor lift to the top of the Lotte World Tower, standing at 555 metres this is the sixth tallest building in the world, it was awesome to look down upon the Olympic park, home of the 1988 Olympic games, the Han river and the rest of the Gangnam district as the sun set over the city and our trip.....we will be back!