Peace Corps Volunteers celebrate decades-old ties with Korea during 2024 Revisit program
Peace Corps Korea volunteers and their family members pose for a group photo at the end of the 2024 Revisit program organized by the Korea Foundation at Sebitseom in Seoul, Nov. 1. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
Posted by Glenn Blumhorst for Peace Corps Worldwide
Excerpted from The Korea Times
By Jon Dunbar
Alan Taylor first arrived in Korea in 1966, as part of K-1 the first dispatch of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers. He and his wife spent two years in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, which he described as a “pre-industrial countryside.”
“Gongju of the mid-1960s had no private automobiles, and one TV. Farming was done with oxen plowing, and there were few mechanical sound, and so… much physical labor for men and women,” he recalled. “We were immediately struck by how vital and animated Koreans were. I saw more smiling and less rushed pleasure in conversation than it seemed in the U.S. The Korean Peninsula had seen so much tragic violence and dislocation, but the energetic spirit of Koreans was striking to us.”
He gave these remarks many times last week, while on a week-long revisit for Peace Corps Korea volunteers, organized by the Korea Foundation (KF). He even worked with an online tutor so he could deliver the same message in Korean.
“I’ve always felt that I gained more in those two turnings of the seasons in Gongju than I was able to give back,” Taylor said. “I will always feel partly Korean because of those two years.”
Taylor was one of approximately 16 Peace Corps volunteers who attended the 2024 Revisit, out of a group of 30 that included spouses, children and grandchildren — including Taylor’s own grandson. The oldest was 91, and while most traveled from the U.S., three participants who were at the farewell dinner on Nov. 1 hadn’t needed to travel far, as they still live in Korea.
Approximately 2,000 American Peace Corps volunteers were sent to Korea between 1966 and 1981. They provided development assistance primarily in English education in middle schools and universities, as well as health education and care, especially for patients suffering from tuberculosis and leprosy.
The KF has been organizing the revisits for Peace Corps Korea volunteers for 16 years.
Gerard Krzic of the K-41 group and now president of Friends of Korea, a U.S.-based NGO founded by former volunteers who served in Korea, revealed the exact origin of this program. It was at the Korea Society 2008 Annual Dinner on April 15, 2008, when the Peace Corps Korea volunteers were given the James A. Van Fleet Award. Then President Lee Myung-bak, who had been in attendance, was surprised to learn about their work, and came up with the idea of a revisit.
“So that was April,” Krzic said. “That autumn, we had a revisit in Korea. We all know about how quickly Korea developed, and that was just one example of how quickly things can move.”
Since then, over 800 Peace Corps volunteers have had the opportunity to return and marvel at how far Korea has come since their service here.
This latest program had the smallest number of participants, but they were still a lively bunch. Between Oct. 26 and Nov. 2, they made several visits as a group to various facilities. The stops included a tour of Cheong Wa Dae, Hankook Woojin School for students with disabilities, an elevator ride up to the top of Lotte World Tower, Korea’s tallest building, and a visit to Hyundai Motor Studio, where they got to see an old familiar car model, the Pony, side by side with Hyundai’s most advanced car, the IONIQ 6 electric vehicle.
On Oct. 30 and 31 most of them dispersed across the country to revisit their original service stations.
Donald Grandis (K-51) paid a visit to the southwestern island of Wando in South Jeolla Province, where he had worked at a public health center, or as he called it, “bogeonso,” in the late 1970s.
He went there hoping to reconnect with a Korean former colleague, Mr. Yi. He said they had stayed in touch after he left Korea, but ended up losing contact.
“So at the bogeonso, I showed them a picture of him, and they knew who it was. One of the workers called him on their cell phone, not saying why, and just handed me the phone,” he said. “We instantly recognized each other’s voices, and of course, you could hear on the other end, the blood was rushing through his head, he couldn’t believe it.”
They got together that night for dinner.
“While we were drinking some soju and talking, we talked about what makes this (revisit) special,” he said. “And we talked about “jeong,” and not just the relationship with somebody, but the deep affection for, the trust, and I really think that was what makes this whole experience for us coming back so special to know that even after 40 years, that jeong is still there, and he felt it, and I felt it, and it was just a moment that few people get in their life, and we were grateful for it.”
Not everyone got the same reunion. Brothers Sean and Jackson Wells visited Korea to trace their parents’ footsteps. Their parents Tom and Lucy had served at Jumunjin, a seaside town in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, where they worked at the bogeonso providing tuberculosis care from 1979 to 1981.
Their father had passed away four years earlier, and their mother couldn’t come due to health reasons, so they went on their own, joined by family friend Paul Courtright, himself a Peace Corps Korea volunteer who has returned to the country many times.
“It’s been an amazing visit,” Sean said. “Our visit directly to the bogeonso in Jumunjin was amazing. They welcomed us and had a presentation and had a slideshow of some past video of that time when our parents would have been there. It was just really nice hearing their appreciation for our parents’ work back then. And it also gave us a chance to tell them how wonderful our visit has been in Korea and just a beautiful country, amazing food and welcoming people.”
During their visit in Gangneung, they saw a lively nightlife, and visited a local brewpub, things that their parents likely did not experience over 40 years ago.
” I mean, I knew it wouldn’t be like the Korea that my parents were in, obviously,” “Sean said. “But I would say it’s more modern and just exceeded, you know, anything I could have thought of.”
Gavin Timony (K-48) received a lot of amusing reactions because of his surname. “I’ll never forget your name, Mr. T-money,” he recalled someone telling him. T-money is the name of a popular transport pass in Korea.
On Friday morning, some participants visited the office of the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. KOICA is an overseas development assistance organization founded in 1991 from the influence of the Peace Corps.
After the service station visits, everyone reassembled in Seoul for the farewell dinner at Sebitseom on the Han River in Seoul, Friday.
“So, returning Peace Corps volunteers,” did you have a good time?” Krzic asked the gathered crowd, to which everyone replied yes.
“Did you have enough to eat?” Krzic asked the gathered crowd, who mostly answered yes.
“Do you think we should try to continue the program into the future?” he asked.
“Yes,” was the consensus.
“And do you think there are other Korea Peace Corps volunteers who would be interested in coming?” he asked.
The answer was also yes.
“And the last question, what is the best place in the world to have been a Peace Corps volunteer?” Krzic asked.
“Korea!” everyone replied.
Krzic added that the mission that brought them to Korea originally has not fully ended.
“Our work continues in Friends of Korea,” he said. “We’re not just a nostalgic organization where we get together. We actually have expanded our membership to include younger members, and we plan to continue the mission of Friends of Korea to create bonds between Koreans and Americans. That is our ultimate goal.”
He added that all the membership fees and donations the nonprofit receives are returned to the community in their Giving Back Initiative.
“We primarily donate funds every year at our annual meeting to Korean American or Asian American organizations in the United States,” he said. “We have done it in Korea, as well.”
“We truly appreciate your commitment and efforts to the development of Korea,” Rhee Jong-kook, head of KF, told the group on the final night. “Your efforts inspired a lot of Koreans. We will remember every one of you forever.”
The Peace Corps Korea volunteers sometimes hold reunions in the U.S. Their next Revisit to Korea may be held next fall. Visit friendsofkorea.net for more information.
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