해외봉사활동

 Hug the World in My Twenties


By Kwon Jeong-ha, Senior, School of Biological Sciences & Technology

The writer (right) and campers getting their faces painted with their national flags at closing camp fire.


  Before finishing my final year at university, I wanted to get work experience abroad to step out of my comfort zone. Fortunately, an opportunity came my way and I got a job as a camp counselor at Camp River Ranch, one of the camp properties of the Girl Scouts of Western Washington in the USA. There was over 90 staff members from all over the world and only two of them were Asian.

  The whole summer camp was composed of 9 sessions and one of them was an "International Session". As a camp counselor, we generally taught American brownies or juniors how to do archery, kayaking, rock climbing and so on. I also taught them how to count from one to ten in Korean, the children’s song "Gom-saemari" and also served Buchimgae as the Korean dish during that session. At the end of the session, the entire staff and all the campers painted their national flag on their cheeks or dressed up in their traditional costume. I was impressed when my campers mumbled the song "Gom-saemari"! At the closing campfire, one staff from Ireland started to sing an Irish song. Though many of us couldn’t understand the lyrics, we could feel its meaning. Like this song, sometimes I could understand what my friends were talking about even if they were speaking in Russian, Czech or some other language. Even though I only stayed in the United States, I could share in various cultures from all over the world. It was an incredible chance for me to have an adventure abroad in my twenties.

저작권자 © Chonnam Tribune 무단전재 및 재배포 금지