By Carolyn from Maine
We will try to
do a thousand bows in Seoul and on the bridge [in Gangjeong], a man tells
me.
We will
try.
A light snow
covers the ground.
He writes the
word peace in Chinese characters in the snow.
The bows begin
at 9 a.m.
Three of us are
on the bridge;
another, in
front of the gate.
The wind snaps
the yellow No Naval Base flags behind me.
After two bows,
someone scoots an extra cushion
beneath my
knees.
Hands to the
heart,
knees to the
mat,
hands and head
to the ground, palms facing upward,
then a return to
standing.
Despite the
repetitive motion,
our hands and
shoeless feet grow colder and colder.
Chimes bring to
a close the first one hundred bows.
Mr. Rhee gives
M. and I hugs.
He stays on the
bridge, kneeling in prayer,
while M. and I
walk across the road to the barrel stove
to warm
ourselves.
The budget for
continued base construction passed the next day.
___________________
The Rock
Wall
A petite woman
begins to unfurl a sheet of plastic atop a wall of volcanic
rock.
I stop walking
and grab the edge of the plastic to try to help.
She speaks to
me, but I don’t understand.
Two activists
behind me laugh. She wants to give me oranges, they say.
Leaving us to
make a tent of the wet plastic so that it can dry out,
she enters the
grove on the other side of the wall to collect oranges in a round
basket.
I accept a
couple, so does Lou.
But she wants to
give us more.
They’re organic,
she says, and gestures for me to open my bag.
After a dozen I
pretend that my bag has become very very heavy.
She smiles and
lets us walk on.
_________________
New Year’s Eve
in Gangjeong
Women drummers lead a march
from the village center to the port. Behind them are men and women with flags
and streamers, some wearing papier-mâché conch shells and sea gulls on their
heads.
From 5 p.m. when the march
begins to beyond midnight, the celebration continues. People visit the activist
tables, eat rice cake soup and sweet pancakes, and visit with friends. Empty
bottles of rice wine cover the tables. With the wind blowing in from the sea,
some find warmth by standing beside fires; many, by dancing.
Dozens line up for the
arrow-throwing contest. After the first participant lofts all five rubber-tipped
arrows into a large ceramic vase, the line of contestants shrinks. Winners
receive gift certificates to the farmers’ cooperative.
Between singing acts, short
videos show the struggle against the naval base, a labor organizer gives a brief
solidarity speech, and people chant Hai GunGiJi GeulSaBanDai. (No Naval
Base!)
When midnight arrives,
flying paper lanterns are lit and sent with a prayer into the
sky.
A bonfire
blazes,
people
hug
and dance some
more.
The more joyful,
the more powerful, said Mr. Rhee.
––––––––––––––
picketing2
Yuri told me she
was so afraid of the police. Still, she stood with a sign in front of a cement
truck, demanding that it back up and make a sharper turn into the construction
site to avoid hitting her.
oranges
Gangjeong had
the tradition of pumashi, a work party. During harvest time, perhaps ten
people would go to a family’s orchard to help, and the next day, to another
family’s land. Conflict over the base has strained such collaboration. This
year, it was difficult to find people to help.
As four of us de-seeded
peppers today, the cook said pumashi makes the food taste
better.
sos
Before a member
of the Save Our Seas team got into one of five tandem kayaks, she said, “I can’t
swim.”
Carolyn
Maine
No comments:
Post a Comment