Christmas is not quite the same in Korea. Christmas Day is a recognized holiday, but many schools aren’t closed during the week that follows. Gifts are exchanged, but not to the degree that some of you might be familiar with in Western, Judeo-Christian environments.
Christmas at the orphanage is somewhat special though. Several different organizations and companies donate gifts to the kids. My church arranges funds to buy some new clothes for the pre-schoolers. Today was the shopping day.
Each volunteer was given an envelope with 100,000원 (roughly $100) to spend on the kids. $100 goes a long way, and if you go shopping at the right places, like 동대문 (where 현우 and I went a couple weeks ago), you can REALLY stretch it.
In 동대문 there are about a dozen buildings stuffed to the gills with clothes. It is truly remarkable. Armed with my cash, I set off to buy some clothes for 2 of the children from the orphanage. We were supposed to buy clothes, shoes, and jackets. Some other things had been prepared separately. So what can you get for $100? I managed to get a nice winter coat, a pair of shoes, a pair of jeans, some underwear, pajamas, gloves, and 3 shirts for each kid.
And yeah, I did manage to get a lot of discounts when I told the vendors I was buying clothes to give to an orphan. Sometimes it worked like a charm. One lady even gave me 10 fleece hats for free! But, some people weren’t so interested in cutting their prices! Other times, things were cheap enough, that I didn’t bother asking for any sort of discount.
Those sort of situations are sink or swim when it comes to using Korean. The vendors don’t speak much English. Sometimes they know how to quote a price, but that’s about it. And that’s when you realize just exactly how much you can communicate! I had to do all of the shopping and negotiating in Korean. While I get it wrong a lot, I am always amazed when something works out just the way I hope it will!
I wish I had a video of the shopping. That would have been fun. You’ll have to settle for Part 1 of the gift giving. I did my best to subtitle it in English and Korean. What I said is in orange, and the kids speech is in white. Enjoy, and part 2 should be out next week.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX6kgcA_8rQ]
