천사의집- Angel House

Welcome to Angel House!

If you take the SeoulMetro to Yeonsinae Station 연신내역 , walk up the stairs of Exit 3, take bus number 703 to Goyang market고양시장, ride it for about 30 minutes, transfer to minibus number 54, and ride it all the way to the end of the bus line, you’ll find Angel House 천사의집, an orphanage catered to people with disabilities. Every first and third Saturday of each month, a group of volunteers take a trip to Angel House to help out for the day. Saturday June 3, 2012, three Student Ambassadors of the USA pavilion traveled to Seoul in order to be a part of this group. The ambassadors include Eric Park, Brisbane Naomi, and myself.

Because of its location in Goyangsi Dukyangu 고양시 덕양구 on the edge of Seoul, the residents have very little interaction with people outside of Angel House, hence why the first and third Saturday of each month is really special to them. Using the word orphanage is not quite the appropriate description for Angel House. The house is home to 50 residents of all ages with various disabilities.

When we arrived, the 40+ volunteers split up into 4 groups. Brisbane and I joined the laundry team while Eric joined the cooking team. Being part of the laundry team did not just involve washing, drying, and folding. The washing method we used made it feel like we were back in the 1800s. One of the volunteers started by stomping in a big tub of wet laundry, 7 other volunteers, including Brisbane and me, used wooden scrub boards to clean the clothing one-by-one with soap, and the rest washed the soap out in the washing machine and hung the clothes on the clothing line. During this time, Brisbane and I had the chance to chat with other volunteers. Everyone had a different reason for being in Korea and volunteering at Angel House. For some volunteers, this was their first time at Angel House. Others, like Nadia, a chemical engineer from Mozambique, are veterans. We also met an English teacher from Cincinnati, OH, two engineering students from Seoul, retired US soldiers, and an English teacher from Great Britain.

Working hard scrubbing! This was my first time using a wooden scrubbing board. Left: Engineering student friend, Yohan. Right: English Teacher from Great Britain.

끝나! All finished!

After about 1.5 hours later, with the laundry completely finished, we went back into the house and helped put instruction stickers on the back of nail polish packets. We didn’t know why exactly we were doing it but our best guess was the company that owns the product supports Angel House in some way or another and Angel House repays them back with small labor tasks. After tediously putting sticker-after-sticker on, it was time for the residents and the volunteers to eat dinner together. The cooking team made black bean noodles자장면and dumplings 만두. Once dinner was finished and everything was cleaned up, everyone headed upstairs for music, fun, and games. During this time the volunteers got to meet more residents, converse with them, take pictures together, etc. Game time was not perfect though. One of the residents started kicking and punching other residents. It took a while for him to calm down but once he did all peace was restored and everyone continued to have a fun time together.

Picture time!

Dancing~ :)

As 7pm rolled around, it was time for the volunteers to return to the city. You could tell the residents were very grateful, however, I felt even more grateful. I noticed

by the end of the visit that my mind had forgotten all about things outside of Angel

House, including my cellphone. Usually I am constantly checking my phone to see if

there is Wi-Fi or if any messages arrived. However, during the 5 hours I spent at Angel

House I did not take out my phone once. Parting with Angel House was not sad in the slightest because we know that we will be back next month, hopefully with even more Student Ambassadors.

Brisbane, Eric, and me with one of the residence