46. My Visit to Korea

As I continued to make promotions, my salary went up. Also, I taught classes at IEA and made extra money. Once I finally got some breathing room, I missed Korea, my home. In Korea, the military regime finally ended and President Kim was elected.

 

I wrote a letter to him. I introduced myself and expressed my desire to contribute to the disabled community. I thought my personal experience would help to improve disability awareness in Korea. I got a letter from Woon Whan Na, a director of rehabilitation center. Presidential office sent my letter to his office. He introduced me to Disabled New, a paper for the disabled. 

 

I wrote weekly columns for them for next three years. They sent me the paper via air-mail. I found out things had changed since I left Korea. Welfare and civil right of the disabled in Korea had greatly improved and there were lots of new organizations related to the disabled. 

 

I saw an announcement of non-fiction contest sponsored by the agency for disabled employment. I wrote about how I, who had no formal education, overcame the obstacles and became civil servant in America. I won the first place. Later, I heard there was some serious discussion about my qualification since I resided in oversea. The chair of the judging committee, Bang, felt the best one should be selected regardless of the residence issue. Thanks to her, I got the award. 

 

They invited me to attend the award ceremony. It was my first visit to Korea in 17 years. I expressed my desire to do something worthwhile. Na referred me to Sam Yook Rehabilitation Foundation and I was able to stay there for two weeks. I interacted with the teachers there, gave a speech to school kids and their families, and had evening meetings with students in the dorm. 

 

The price of land in Seoul rose a lot over last two decades. Most of facilities for the disabled in Seoul sold the land, built the bigger buildings, and moved to the suburbs. Since they got bigger and better, they got more funding from the government. Sam Yook where I stayed had three sections; school for the disabled kids, a dorm for those who lived far from school, and rehabilitation center for those who got injured due to the accidents. 

 

Those who became disabled due to the accidents or worker’s compensation injuries had nice foreign made wheelchairs and equipment since they were covered by the insurance. They formed a group among themselves. I saw them drinking and cooking BBQ. 

 

I stayed and ate meals there when I did not have any outside activities. I realized the lunch was better than the breakfast or dinner. Lunch was served to the whole school including facilities and commuting students. Breakfast and dinner were only served to those who lived in the dorm. I was told that the lunch was funded as school meal while the breakfast and dinner were funded as meals for institution for the disabled. 

 

Some of the students in dorm did not want to go home during the vacation. The school was lot better than their home. Some did not make it to the society and moved from one facility to the another.

 

Students were placed in the same class regardless of their academic levels. Only because they were all disabled, they were treated the same. Several students I met expressed their frustrations. They were not getting competitive learning. It was very hard, if not impossible, to go to college from there. 

 

Every opportunity, I told the people I met the disabled should be kept with the general public. They should be in the same class and be allowed to play together. It is the only way to improve the disability awareness. Those who grew up with the disabled friends would have no issue working and living with them. Disabled kids who grew up with the able body friends would know who to compete with them. 

 

There were advisors at the dorm. The dorm was divided into male and female sections. Adolescent kids in their puberties needed some supervision and guidance. I stayed at the male section of the dorm. They gave me the room for the advisors. One of the female advisors had the crush on me. She visited and talked to me in the evenings. After the first week, I found her waiting for me in the room when I returned from the outside events. She saved sweet potatoes or corn on the cob served at the lunch. It appeared she had the past. Once she lived in Southeast Asia, and had a child who did not live with her anymore. 

 

I had a couple more days left. I was late coming back from the outside engagement. I found her waiting for me. We talked as we usually did. I felt something was different about her. I had not been close to the woman for many years and I had a sudden desire to have her then. I quickly changed my mind. I was a guest to the school and did not want to do anything that I would regret. I told her it was not a good idea for either of us to get involved. On the day I left the school, everyone came out to say good bye to me. I could not find her.

 

Once she told me she wanted to go to America to study. Upon my return, I sent her an ad on schools for foreign students. I never heard from her.