Janghueng County/ May 16 – May 18

On Wednesday, May 16 we were transferred to Jangheung County. We met again a group of Rotarians who greeted us with the utmost respect and dignity. They were dressed up in their suits and shook each of our hands as we introduced ourselves to them. We exchanged business cards and began taking pictures with the big welcome banner sign. This is the beginning of more photo ops with this banner. We met a few of the Rotarians for the area and met our translator. There we began our adventure in Jangheung County. The van took us to our host family homes, traditional Korean style. Though traditional in style it had many of the modern essentials like running water, electricity, and guess what? a four-port hub. Yeah, you heard me right. KT (Korean Telephone) came and hooked us up with four lines so each of us can hook up our laptops and get connected to the Internet. We had our own computer lab. It was surreal. So the reason why we’re able to get pictures and update our blog is because of our hosts families generosity and kindness to our “American” society needs.

On Thursday, May 17, we visited an eel farm. This farm is owned and operated by one of the local Rotarians. The farm breeds and exports eels to different countries. As our Group Leader, Justin put it, ‘we’re all in the wrong business. We should be in the eel breeding business". The owner has generously donated $35,000 to scholarship programs through the Rotary. Oh and by the way, a very important information you might want to know before investing in this is that the eels get full grown in a year’s time. So it takes one year before the eels can be sold.

We visited an information village. This was very intriguing. Jangheung is a predominantly farming community. We visited this information village, which is a community computer center fully equipped with up-to-date computers for community training. This is a government funded program that provides training to the community. There are ten computers in the lab. We were told that the village consisted of 70 homes, which includes 200 people. Each of the 70 households received free computers and is wired with Internet access so that each family can get connected to the Internet.

We visited the Folk Village museum where we saw traditional Korean objects from weaving machine, traditional Korean home, food, clothing and more.

We visited the "Saturday Market". There we were escorted around and shown a variety of things unique to Korea and more. We met more past Presidents of the Rotary. We were treated to Green Tea in one of the Rotarian’s shops.

After the market, we visited one of my favorite places; the local library. The “Jangheung Public Library” is a small community library that consists of three floors. The first floor is where the collection is housed. Though small, the collection consists of adult and children. There is a designated area for New Books, CD’s, and Videos. The books were all in Korean except for a small section where books written in English were housed. The books are classified in Dewey Decimal. The library provides reading programs for the children. Items can be borrowed for one week time. There is a computer lab on the top floor in which one has to have a library card to sign on to use.


After the library we visited the “Poetry Road”. This is a road designated to famous Korean poet; “Han Seung Weon”. We went from there to a break at the “Water Park” by the river where we had some cold drinks. We proceeded to the “Walnut Museum” and saw many different types of walnuts. Before we got to the museum, we thought we were going to the “wallet” museum because that’s what our interpreter said. Well, we found out what we thought was a “wallet” was actually a “walnut”. This experience taught me that slow communication is truly the key to breaking the language barrier.

After we were dropped off and given an hour to rest, we were again picked up for dinner. After a huge dinner, we left for the Rotary meeting. When we got there, we were surprised to see another huge banner with our pictures blown up and names welcoming us to the area. When the meeting began, we were introduced and welcomed in a warm way. We sat through the meeting, showed our program and questions were asked of us, of which Justin answered beautifully. After the meeting, pictures were taken and we were driven to the local supermarket to pick up a few items for breakfast.