Spreading Christmas Cheer

This Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to participate in KKOOM's 6th Annual Holiday Party at an Samsungwon, an orphanage in Gumi, South Korea. KKOOM is a non-profit that was started by past ETAs and strives to enrich the lives of children in orphanages and group homes in Korea. The non-profit does unbelievable work and I encourage you to click on the link for lots more information.

On Saturday, several ETAs and other volunteers met to spend the day with the children at Samsungwon. The orphanage is divided into several single-gender, mixed-age homes and every volunteer was assigned to a particular house. I was assigned to Sarang (which means love in Korean), which was a house with boys ranging in age from 5 to 18. I was fortunate enough to spend eight wonderful hours with these boys.

The boys and I sang Christmas songs, played Ships and Sailors, took pictures with Santa, ate tons of Christmas cookies and more. During the course of the day all of the houses were competing in different Christmas-themed contests. The first contest was a door-decorating contest and I was surprised by how excited all of the boys were about making Christmas decorations. Even the high school and middle school boys were coloring, cutting, drawing, etc. They were great role models for their younger 'brothers'.

The door to Sarang

The next big contest was a gingerbread house making contest. The older boys in Sarang got very into this contest and even locked shut themselves in a room in order to concentrate more. Unfortunately minutes before the gingerbread houses had to be brought to the kitchen for judging our gingerbread train collapsed. We hastily repaired it but it collapsed once more in transit. I'd like to think that our gingerbread house was so wonderful it made up for the defunct train.

The last contest tasked the boys with dressing up one of the volunteers as a Christmas character. The boys had to use 10 sheets of tin foil, a roll of toilet paper (including the tube) and a roll of Scotch tape (including the outer plastic part). They were also allowed to use other supplies of their own. The boys quickly decided I was the one they wanted to dress up but we then hit a wall. I think at this point the boys were exhausted from the day. Luckily, they pulled together and transformed me into Iron Woman at the last minute. It was not exactly Christmas themed but the costume was made complete with a cup of Starbucks coffee and a hand-crafter 'Chanel' bag. We then headed to the auditorium and met up with all the other houses and volunteers. I was then judged on stage with the other costumed volunteers. The judges then deliberated while the kids sang Christmas carols, put on a few small performances and then opened their presents. It was so heartwarming to see how excited every single child was about their present. They all appeared very grateful and I was so pleased that I was able to take part in brightening three kids day with my gifts.

The last part of my night was arguably my favorite part of the day- karaoke! All of the kids and volunteers went to karaoke from 8:30 until 10, including the 5 year old! Only in Korea! I had so much fun singing with the boys and was very impressed with how into it many of them got. The middle school boys sang so passionately. The younger boys also graced us with Gangnam Style, which is the Korean National Anthem for the time being. All Koreans are so proud of PSY for penetrating the American and European Music Market.

Overall the day was extremely humbling. I was shown an unbelievable amount of love and kindness. Additionally I witnessed the boys truly acting like a family, which was really endearing. The older boys took care of their younger brothers and it was heartwarming to see them interact. I sincerely hope I can volunteer at Samsungwon later in my grant year. It was an unbelievably moving day.