The foreigner community

The foreigner community in Mokpo is pretty large. It is hard to tell exact numbers but the facebook group has 313 members and around 100 or so were listed as coming to the last big party and that seems about right. All of the people I’ve talked to have been English teachers of some sort, private or public. This group is fairly active and pretty friendly. On the new arrivals first weekend in Mokpo the people who had already been here hosted a dinner for us. They introduced themselves, listed some hobbies and offered advice. Korea can be a difficult place sometimes so it is great to have people you can ask about stuff like where to buy a bike, or the best place to find a western food item or just what to do on the weekend.

Also set up were the sports leagues that I play in, soccer and ball hockey, they have all the equipment (hockey sticks are hard to find in Korea) and manage to find a place to play. They were eager for new players to replace the teachers we replaced here in Korea. So that is great and a good way to make new friends as well.

The community also has a few leaders that are awesome at creating parties and running annual events such as the “show your colours waygook party” and the annual Halloween party. Laura and I attended the former last Saturday and had a blast. It was a dress up as your country idea to show that not all the foreigners (waygook in Korean) are from the same place. Canadians are in the majority but there are plenty of Americans and I have met a few people from the U.K., South Africa, Australia and even a German.

The foreigners here have also become involved in the community, in particular setting up an organization that helps the orphanage here in Mokpo. They organize people to teach English to the orphans and also run fundraisers such as the Halloween party. Laura and I have joined and teach English for one hour on Mondays. We have heard it is almost as much for the sisters (It is a Catholic orphanage) than for the students as they badly need a break as you can well imagine. I’ll talk more about the orphans another time.