As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Wishing More for Granny Kim and Myself... Saturday, April 18

Granny Kim is one of my favourite people here in Korea.  She's a super sweet, ultra tiny lady with always rosy cheeks and rough-skin hands.  She is one of my favourite people here but she is also the reason why I don't want to grow old in Korea.  I don't think Korea is very good to it's senior citizens with regards to old age pension plans, retirement and government assistant.  The proof is in the elderly women sitting on the sides of the streets selling random piles of vegetables, the older men collecting boxes, and the numerous seniors working in the fields.  Proof of this is Granny Kim.

Granny Kim is a beautiful woman who lived her years in Buyeo where she raised four children with her husband.  Her husband passed away some five years ago now and her children have all moved away and had their own children.  Some of their children have also had their own children.  But Granny Kim has remained in the house out in Buyeo, alone now.  

She is 86 years old now but she has a job.  The loss of her husband several years back has really financially strained her and so she works 8-5.  She works out in the fields by her village where they slice the grass so that she and the other senior ladies can roll it and then tie it.  Later it will be sold to various golf courses for people with the luxury of having extra money can play on it, hack it up with their overly expensive golf clubs and then require Granny Kim to roll another roll of grass.

In addition to working in the fields, Granny Kim has returned to school so that she can better fun.  It's a local two room building in her village that's caters to the older members of the village, teaching them not only Korean but also other subjects like math and social science.  I found one of her school books and flipped through it.  She got a bad grade on her last Korean spelling test.  

She was working today when we arrived at her house.  "I'm at work", she told Snickers when he called her cellphone. [Enter cool points to Granny Kim for being 86 and rocking a cellphone!!!]  We knew work for her meant she'd be out in the fields by her village so we headed out there to find her.  When we pulled into the field in our SUV, we could see a work truck approaching us.  She was in it, along with her boss and coworkers.  They stopped the truck, Snickers ran out to meet them, and then he opened up the door to help Granny Kim out.  

The plan was to return Granny Kim to work after lunch but in the car she pleaded with us to let us take her away from work for the rest of the day.  "Let's go have fun... I want to play!", she said.  So that's what we did, we drove back to the field and told her boss she was taking the rest of the work day off.  And just like that Granny Kim was free to "play" for the rest of the day with us.  

Granny Kim is 86 years old and she pulls nine hour work days hunched over in the fields.  I don't know how many days a week she works but it's too many in my mind.  She should be living out the rest of her years with her heels kicked up on the porch, sipping on green tea, listening to the birds, and with not a care in the world.  "But this is Korea", a phrase too often I am told and too often I hear.  It's like the go-to excuse so many use and now the fact that Granny Kim, a 86 year old woman, is working has the same phrase attached that has long time burdened me with regards to my boxing.

I get the impression that, for the most part, the government expects the families of the elderly to take care of them and this is definitely the case with Granny Kim.  The Kim family takes care of Granny Kim; they try their hardest but it's hard when they all have their own children, jobs and homes to tend to.  Today one of Snickers' uncle arrived to continue building a new metal fence around the house.  He's put a lot of effort and a lot of money into it and not just because he knows Granny Kim can't but because she no option but to do without if someone in the family doesn't help.  The government doesn't give any kind of assistant or help to Granny Kim "but this is Korea" so I suppose I shouldn't have expected that they would.  I love Granny Kim and wish she had an easier old age.  This is not how I want to grow old and live out the last of my years.  

1 comment:

Valerie said...

Your Granny Kim is adorable. I totally understand your feelings about he situation for the elderly here. It breaks my heart. I would love to help some of them out more.Right now I try to slip a canned coffee and bun to the cardboard collectors but it isn't much.

Perhaps people could sponsor a days pay to let Granny kim and her coworkers have the odd day off. I gladly would.