It was a very mentally-trying day that was
both mentally and emotionally draining. My Korean language skills got pushed to
the max, both in spoken and written, and I ended the day seriously craving
English.
It all started when one of my campers from
the camp I did in the winter texted me, asking me if I had another boy’s cell
phone number. The particular boy he was
inquiring about had no cell phone number, or home phone number for that matter,
because he had no home. He lives in an
orphanage but had come to the camp because of a sponsorship program the city of
Nowon (North Seoul) promotes. Apparently none of his fellow classmates at the
camp knew B’s story though as I was quick to find out today.
What started as a simple contact question
turned into a lengthy stream of text messages on Kakao Talk and one serious
phone conversation between me and a 12 year old boy who was in tears over the
news. I was in tears when I first found
out B’s story initially but having to explain it to his classmate was almost as
heart-pulling as the initial news was. Perhaps it wasn’t my place to tell him
but telling him the truth was really the only way I felt I could make sense of
everything for him. Kids may be young
but they’re not stupid. He started
noticing the gaps in my story and when he called me out on it I decided to tell
him straight up. I told him that B had
no parents so that’s why he ate with me on Parent’s Night and that’s why no one
came to pick him up at the end of camp.
“Is he a box baby?” he asked me.
His use of the phrase “box baby” was in
reference to something that a Paster Lee in Seoul created – a box at the side
of the church where new mothers can discretly leave their unwanted baby. I don’t think B was a “box baby” but he is an
orphan. I don’t know his full story
though so when the boy on the phone started questioning me, asking me why his
family gave B up, I responded by telling him that it really didn’t matter. “What matters is that he’s your friend. He is really no different than you – he too
is a Korean boy who likes baseball and soccer, hates eating spicy kimchi and
loves staying up late.”
No sooner did this lengthy conversation
finish but then it was back to business for me.
They say that miracles happen every day and
I totally believe this to be true, especially in my case. It’s inevitable that I have to use Korean in
Korea but doing business in Korean in Korea, now that’s a miracle – one that
leaves my head hurting but none the less a miracle.
A simple 15 minute business meeting turned
into a 6 hour meeting -- a miracle.
A 6 hour business meeting that ended with
us scoring a new financial sponsor for our boxing club – a miraculous miracle.
We have our fair share of “followers” –
people who have been following our boxing club’s timeline and story since we
first announced it, supporting us with encouraging words. This particular “follower” however has
evolved into quite a trusted confidant of ours. Before we started working on our
boxing club we hardly knew him but now we are constantly discussing in depth
details about our business plan. And
what started off as him simply being the manager of our friend’s shop has
turned into him becoming one of our sponsors.
He continually asks our friend about us and often calls us to come drop
by for a quick chat. We thought nothing
of it when he asked us to drop by today.
Six hours later, it was officially confirmed. Hands were shaken, smiles were given, and
tomorrow a trip to the bank will restate what was presented to us today – he wants
to financially set our club up.
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