Thoughts from a friend

I will all through try to ask some people that has been involved working with me at Yongdongpo. It is a great chance to read stories from different people and their different thoughts on different matters.
Hope you enjoy it

Emil "Project Yongdongpo"

Since the summer of 2011 I have been honored to frequently be involved with helping the homeless in Yongdongpo in southern Seoul through an endeavor called Project Yongdongpo, which was started up by an amazing Danish friend of mine who has continued to have the full support and backing of his loving Korean wife. As both the Korean ex-pat community and Koreans have pulled together to assist this great undertaking, relationships have been formed and change has been happening. When I leave for Canada, my home and native land, Yongdongpo will remain close to my heart. I have antcipated vacations in Busan, been overwhelmed by the vast unique product selection of Myeongdong's botiques and high end stores, have had times of relection along Seoul's Cheonggae Chun stream, I have been impressed with the beauty of the Eastern Sea, experienced fear on Korea's highest ferries wheel in Ulsan, been awestruck with the vibrancy
Gangnam's neon lights at night, and have enjoyed the vast scenary of rich green forrested mountains from the peak of Soyoo Mountain in northern Kyeongi province, but non of those places will compair to Yongdongpo. They are all worth seeing if you are in Korea, but they cannot leave you with the affinity that Yongdongpo can. It is because Yongdongpo is not about the lights, shopping, money, even nature or introspection, it is about the people. It is unfortunate that people from many countries feel shamed to talk about problems of poverty. Poverty is not something to be ashamed of, it has a real face with real people who have had real brokeness and real troubles and need real love. I postulate to you that in order to engage the lives of the underprivilidged that Koreans should not be ashamed of the poor in their own country and that the ex-pat community here ought not to take on an aire of superiority, or destain at problems we see, but rather we ought to work together to see change in our time in our generation. In the words of the song, "when we all pull together the happier we'll be."