KOREA-part 2
So after we stayed in Seoul for 3 days, it was time to fly to Busan, the city where I was born. I swear, the graphic symbolisim I see everywhere is the best...
No rollerskating or dog-walking allowed...just slipping and falling at this airport!
My dad and I went that same afternoon to go to the Busan Social Welfare Services. The lady at this branch didn't speak ANY english, but somehow we arranged to go see the place I was born. I was told it used to be a hospital, but that it wasn't anymore.
Getting close..
We walked into the building and, upon realizing that this was some sort of catholic branch office, I immediately burst into flames. No, not really-but there were pictures EVERYWHERE of jesus and the virgin mary. Great, I thought-the hospital I was born in was bulldozed to further the bastardization of Eastern civiliation.
The woman we were with conversed with a gentlemen who was obviously a reverend of some sort, and we all had a decent staring contest before the man gestured (by pointing to a photograph) that he was going to get another gentlemen to act as translator.
When I saw this guy, I thought it was the pope himself. He had apparently come to Korea 40 years ago to spread his religion and opened up a home- and so I learned that this WAS indeed where my birthmother had given birth. The man said that 22,000 babies had been born while he headed the clinic out of the very building we were standing in. So perhaps he knew my birthmother, although of course he wouldn't remember her out of so many woman. The thought began to creep into my mind that perhaps adoption is as huge of an industry in korea as it is here. I wondered if many women's access to abortion was limited, and I hoped that my birthmother hadn't been coerced into doing anything she didn't want to do.
But anyway, here is myself and the pope-lookalike, along with one of his friends who spoke very good english.
And me and the nice lady who brought us to the building. I have no idea what her name was.
I have an affinity for phallic shaped objects that I thought I'd share with you all. I am a little delirious at the moment, I suppose it's that darn jet lag. So instead of an artful post about how seeing these beautiful things made me feel, let's just have a mindless photo-hog.
And now I'm going to pass out.