Secret

Or maybe supression.
I have been on Jeju-do for 23 days.  Some days I have wandered.  Some days I have stayed close to Gonae.  On Tuesday I took the bus to JeoJi. On the way back, while waiting for the return bus, a young fellow spoke to me.  (Few do.)  We talked about this and that and I mentioned I'd like to see caves, and he thought I'd said graves; the previous week, April 3, had been the Memorial Day for the Jeju Massacre.
"Haha, no caves! Wait! What? Massacre?"
I had learned through my years of teaching, about the GwangJu 5.18 Democratic Uprising in 1980, where protesters were slaughtered.  It predated Tiananmen Square June.4.'89, but was less known, because of there being less media coverage and no internet.  But "no," he said, "this was not it.  This was Jeju."
Whether it was his English, or his reluctance to churn up sorrowful past, we turned our conversation to caves, and I was left to ponder and google when I got back to my room.
So, in the sliver of time between the liberation from Japanese occupation, and the Korean War that resulted in the DMZ and two Koreas, there was a time.  People thought.  People expressed opinion.  People stood.  Military postured. Foreign powers (USSR, USA) stepped up. Governments were foundational.  Police was local. And Jeju was still an island, separate from the penninsula.
It was in 1948.

Estimates of up to 60,000 people on Jeju were slaughtered, women and children too.  Rape and torture.  Running to the caves. Police siding with the citizens. Radical splinter groups with power. It was the fear of Communisim by a military that had spent 35 years under Imperialist occupation. No time for discussion on Jeju.
I read the Wiki link about the JeJu Uprising (April 1948-May 1949).  So, no, I don't have my university degree in the history of this situation.
But, 60,000 was estimated to be up to 1/4 of the population of the island at the time.  And of course there are still people around who rememember, and people whose parents ran and hid.  And people who were raised in the shadow of this slaughter.  It is a small island.
But the WORST part is that the government of Korea made it a crime - <read CRIME>, to discuss this event.  No internet.  Isolated population.  No news. Never happened.  For at least 40 years, it was surpressed. Artists were jailed for writing, painting, portraying these events.
Oh, the people.  Today, I wonder if they look at me and are triggered.  Maybe she is American. There are plenty of old folks here (I am old), but even older, out and about, on the bus, in the fields, at the markets.  They remember.

There is latent fear and survivors' guilt.  These social layers do not evaporate.  They sift and become layered into the consciousness of people.  Babies.  Youth.
Korea embraces the beauty of Jeju, but they have a "dialect", I am told. BUT? Is this the Quebec of Korea? JeJu is an island.  A modern, busy place with unique landscape and lovely infrastructure. It is playful. But the people seem proud, not pushy toward a tourist, rather, I'd say, actually stand-offish. Independent.
Go Islanders Go.
I wrote this poem when I finished reading the wiki.  Humbly shared.

April 10 on a Jeju coast
I learned last night
About a week ago
That fifty years past
A secret was cast
Of Death

Women and men lost
And children and faith
For wanting a whole
No division for fear
And dread and loss
Of Breath

But the Boys had their say
Even the police agreed
And to caves they fled
Rape and slaughter
Piles of bones
Of Earth

Then say no more
Shouted the Gods of Now
We'll Jail!  We'll Kill!
Speak not or have
No bread for children
Of Birth

Artists wrote and were slayed
Writers drew and exiled
Though now it has some voice
What yet bleeds in the
Cells of Jeju
Of Truth

nem 10/4/19

I know.  It is not my politics.  It is not my business.  But, I sense it.  That is me.

~~nem post 31 Day 44/75

  

Beautiful Game

My pattern for travel is to sit tight.  Months satisfy me, but if I cannot visit for multiple months, well a month is okay.  Short vacations are time wasted with travel, luggage, rubber necking, and just when you think you are getting a sense of the place, you leave, and for me, unsatiated.
I am now two weeks in my adopted neighbourhood on JeJu Island (province), South Korea.  The municipality (eup) is called Aewol-eup and my neighbourhood (ri) is Gonae-ri.

The vicinity runs along the north west coast of the island for about 5klix between the seashore and a 4-lane highway, about a kilometer inland, and then across the highway.  It is farmland, and tourism, and pockets of low-lying houses with lovely walls and roofs.  The farms and the hotels and the houses cohabit the landscape.  There is no separation.
Commercial districts are few, with most of the commerce, other than convenience stores and high-end restaurants and coffee shops to serve the many tourists, centred around the Port at Aewol.  It is an impressive modern port.

I walk about an hour to Aewol, to the south for groceries, and about 45 minutes to the north, just for the walk. It is all a sea walk, with protection from the traffic and frequent places to sit and enjoy the expance of the South China Sea.
But closer to home.  My little place.  As a tourist we want to go out.  We want to see things.  But sometimes that prevents us from seeing what is in our own front yard.
For example, last week, seven small horses arrived in the quaintly walled field right below my balcony!  But the biggest local deal though, the one that took me the longest to realize was happening right, literally, under my nose, is the Football <read soccer> field and park that is being built below me.

It isn't open yet.  Full astroturf. Beautiful bleachers, lighting, bathrroom, consession, and even a performance venue.  It is tucked in on flat land, that might have been excavated over the years, between an ocean cliff, and the mountain side that houses my hotel.  There has been a small crew of workers with one piece of lifting equipment quietly paving and landscaping since I arrived.
They have placed two gentle harubangs as greeters.  They have planted palms.  They have hung a sky-high net to trap kicks that clear the fence on the north, and the mountain lobs the balls back to a catch-trench on the south.
It is not done yet.  There is no signage.  People are stopping by to take a look.  One gentleman walks his beagle there at night.  It is quiet.  I have only heard one game so far, but think it was a practice.

This is a fabulous venue. Ocean front, for the beautiful game.  I have such respect for these 4 to 6 workers.  Today I went in for a closer look.  I walked through as they were setting up.  I took my time. I felt the turf. I walked the field. Then as I was observing their paving from the bleachers, I was asked to leave, and complied of course, after telling them that I thought it was so so beautiful and they were gracious.
I doubt I will be here to see the opening of the park, but this hotel has a great vantage if watching the beautiful game is on your list.

~~n Post30 Day40/75

Haenyeo Co-ops

I was shy to take these photos without getting names and permission. I am in awe of these women. Out almost every day. They are a co-op. Free divers and seafood harvesters. It is Jeju heritage and many women are not spring chickens. 

(Click photos to enlarge. The video is a UNESCO project.) 

Haenyeo Wiki

Gonae Haenyeo

I came around the corner as they were finishing their daily business. I had seen the boats off shore and now, having seen the video, I realize they were working. There is another village Haenyeo group 3kms north.

Last seaweed back to sea

Gonae's Haenyeo

Gonae Haenyeos' sea view

Tallied weighed on the spot

Some don't get weighed

Take: Two full + one partial cooler.

Quick clean 'n' outta there

Current price. Deal.

Are they abalone shells?

Guts and seaweed

Is it abalone?

Packing gear after cleaning catch

Statues frequent shoreline

The buyers and the divers.

~~n Post29 Day35/75

Islandy

Jeju Vancouver Sardinia Malta Xlendi Ireland EngScotlandWales Cortez Lasqueti Saltspring PEI Cape Breton Penelakut Manhattan Montreal Laval Newfoundland Iceland Galliano Sicily Pender Hornby Madeira Valdez Jamaica Bahama KeyWest Herschel Thetis Gabriola.

So, right off the bat, because of their bridgeyness I have to count Manhattan, Montreal, and Laval off the list. These are pretty much urban spaces unto themselves, and have lost their islandness. Gadz, there are even tunnels that give them the continental connection, and as such, I am tempted also to eliminate EngScotlandWales from the list. But the chunnel hardly serves the whole British island, and though it is more than twice the size of VancIsland, and the largest island on my list, I will leave it on here, because it was there, on that British island, that I first coined the term, "islandy": an adjective that comprises oddities (to me) that result from its being surrounded by the sea; that is, it is finite.

 I do not live in a finite world. I can always run away, north, east, west, and if my passport is valid, south. As a definitely continental woman, I can sense traits of islands. These traits are subtle, and I cannot generalize across all islands, because population and climate are factors as well, but islandness is definitely a thing.

Walls: Because of limited space, walls, be they stone, or dirt, or thorny shrubs, or rubble piles, these exist on islands.  One can seldom just "cut through" or take the short cut, because many of these hedges and walls and boundary defining barriers are friggin' impenetrable.  In Ireland, on Malta, here on Jeju, especially on the hillyer islands, my Manitoba instincts tell me where I am, and that where I am going is "just over there", but private property is not the only issue.  These lands are hashmarked and their hiking paths are set, defined and it is a done deal. On continental quests, there are always options.

Gardens: This is a matter of scale, and I concede; what we call gardens are actually farms. What we call flower beds are actually gardens. When I walk in the rural areas of most of these islands, Vancouver Island and Newfoundland included, I see small fields - here, cabbages, there vinyards. Maybe 50 meters across, or even 25.  Humble plots, surrounded often by houses and lanes. It feels kind of urban, but then you see them harvesting, commercial-style harvesting, and you realize, no, this is agriculture.  It is not a personal project.  I always thought the Brits' use of the term "garden" to describe the shed-sized plot where they hang their laundry and have a private beer, as quaint British lingo, (we say, our "yard" which is about the dimension of theirs) but now I see it is "islandy". Our garden is their allotment.  Islanders do not have the space to expand, nor often the soil.  Rocky islands experience this even moreso - see NFLD, VancIsland.

Flotsam and Jetsam: I supposed any costal areas, not only islands, are marked with seafarer's castoffs, but to me, it is an islandy thing.  I am prone to picking up things when I walk.  When I travel, I walk and when I walk by the seashores, I pick up and notice the fishers' and boaters' worlds.  Rope. Net. Floats. Screens. Wood. Buoys. Bumpers. Here in Jeju, the flotsam is gathered and left to be recycled reused or refused, somewhere.  It is on the roadside for pickup.  And on islands, this is neverending.  I have brought home driftwood boathooks from Ireland, polyester rope chunks from Sardenia, and little floats and markers, beautifully worn by their life adrift, from all across the gulf islands.  Certainly, there is some litter, but largely, what we see on islands is what was once at sea.  We don't have such pretty litter at home.

Cities: They are smaller.  Some islands have biggish cities.  Some have multiple cities, say two, and one is generally a lot smaller than the bigONE. But urban sprawl is often controlled. (I'd place Victoria as an exception on that generalization.) Historically, unlimited import was an iffy assumption to island folk, so the farms (and the sea of course) were important for survival.  Nowadays, air cargo can bring fresh lobster to fine diners high above Portage and Main. Conversely, islanders can get their wheat flour and almond milk with guaranteed regularity, so self sustenance has become less of an urgency. Fresh water, on the smaller islands can be hoarded against boaters (I have first hand experience on this one), so the finite island mentality increases, the smaller the speck on the sea.  Land on an island is finite.

Soon, I will add Japan to my list of islands.  I like islands.  I suspect that people who live on populated islands with multiple big cities, don't even sense their own islandness.  But, if they come to Manitoba and see how the roads run straight, for more than 500 meters a-stretch, and how the fields expand to create horizon, and how the towns end and grant tens, or even hundeds of kilometers of hamlet-free landscape to passers-by, they will sense the difference that I have been struggling to describe, but in reverse.

The differences are not only landscape, climate, and geology.  The difference are humanly manifest in attitudes of daily life.

When I visit The Island and people ask where I am from, I tell them, and 7 out of 10 times, the interrogative response is, "Why would you live there?".  The answer is, that I am not an islander.
~~n Post28 Day32/75

Canola Bliss

Canola Flower Cupcakes

Oh my! Trade wars no less! To me, it was mustard, then rape, and now canola, and no, never sexy, never special. But certainly, it has become an economic force for Manitoba (and other) farmers, and a controversial crop, what with its round-up readiness and gmo kind of way.
I was forwarned by one of my Korean friends, that because of my timing on Jeju Island, I might miss the intensity of the Cherry Blossom season that is so huge in the southern penninsula, but to not fear, the Canola is beautiful on Jeju.
"You will see it!" he promised, "It is lovely,"
I jerked my head back and looked at him to see if I'd heard correctly, "Canola? Are you kidding me?"

Essential Oil of Canola Honey

Nope. He wasn't kidding.

What I see here by roadsides and in modest empty lots, is beauty to these islanders. What we would weed from our back lanes and corner lots, they enjoy, full force, beside thier blooming gazanias and calendula.

So, I have been taking some pictures, trying to see its beauty.  What I did not expect was cupcakes!
And essential oils, face creams and lip balms!
And these selling at premium prices because of their essense of Canola, and canola honey.

I think we need to get Wendell Estate Honey onto this, if they are not already (and they probably are).
I will confess that I walked past a field of it  this afternoon, and I did notice a sweet pleasant waft of its essense, very nice, especially since I'd just picked a cherry blossom and put it to my nose - and nada.

So here's to our lovely yellow fields, acres and acres of them that could attract hoards of Korean tourists who could "field bathe" in the flourescent yellow, then stop by the honey farm for some perfume and tea, somewhere near Roblin or Macnutt.
It really is a thing here.

~~n Post27 Day30/75

with Cherry

by the sea

meh. don't think so

Photo Friday III

All Jeju-do. (click to enlarge photos)

Garbage Receptical
Seogwipo, Jungmun

Horse. Jeju Olle
(Trail) Markers

Haenyeo. Women.
Free Divers

2 Hareubang (Grandfathers)
and a Crone

Vols Kafe - Seogwipo

Osulloc Tea Museum Art

Hallabong Crates (oranges galore)

polygons  of volcanic rock

Seogwipo to Andyeok
South coast.

Aewol-eup
My daily walk

~~n Post26 Day29/75

My Friend

Lee JungSeop and JiYeon

I have been moved to tears a few times over the past few days. Life is such a wonderful journey. But sometimes there is static. Pride and humility are such a scrappy duo. Sometimes Mr. P can really keep us from reaping the most of the air we breath, the paths we walk, and the experiences we face. Our inner voice will say, "Oh no, I'm okay. I wouldn't want to be a bother", while Mr. P is saying, "You can handle this on your own.  You do not need help." I see Pride dominating my choices and my actions.
And then I walk into a land where the alphabet on signs is not familiar, the language is foreign, and still, I am determined to wade through.

But it was not to be.  I have a friend.  A determined friend.  A particularly beautiful, smart and loving friend.  And she has pushed through and awakened the quiet and stand-offish child H, in me.  Exhibiting Humility is required when one reliquishes Pride.  Then gratitude spills forth leaving a golden walkway of light and love.

It isn't just the Yoga.  JiYeon and I both love to practice yoga and she has helped me to find three lovely and varied practices since I arrived in Korea, one in Seoul at Yoga en Leibe, her home studio, and two on Jeju, Yoga Borom, at Andeok-myeon and 30Yoga in down-town Jeju City.  All three practices left me bursting with, what I belive to be humility!  I could not have done this without my friend. The joy of meeting these other wonderful yogis and seeing how graciously they welcomed me, a funny-looking Canadian elder from the prairies, and truly I felt crushed with love.

It is true friendship to surrender and let a friend care about you. I see where in my world, Pride has been a brush-off master. Cold. Even arrogant. But Humility is a shy little critter. I did not know her power.  Ultimately I feel stronger for having relinquished the force.  The wall has been shattered.

Together, JiYeon and I scrambled across the Seoul she knows so well.  Time was short and she made sure I would see plenty.  She enlisted the support of her friends and family, and I was swept away.  Then here, on Jeju, she came and spent time with me and again, pulled me from one interesting  moment to another dilectable landmark and across busy and remote landscapes.  Where to next? This is her homeland.  She knows her way and she gave me everything.  Why do I weep with Humility and Gratitude?  It is the purity of love and friendship.  Never ever ever take it for granted.  It is a beautiful human trait.
Thank you JiYeon. And Brian, thank you for finding an impossible piece of time to meet me in Gangnam.
And DaeHyun, my day in GyeongJu City was far beyond what I could ever have imagined. These three are my longest standing students and stand among my closest friends.

~~n Post25 Day28/75