13 January 2008

Black Gold? Texas Tea? NOT!!

Spent today at the oil spill on the west coast of Korea.
As we got close to the area we saw lots of these banners welcoming and thanking the volunteers. (also complaining about the government, per the folks who were translating for me.)

Several organizations had truckloads of provisions on-site to nourish the help.

These protective suits and boots were provided for us. That guy who is not suited up is one of the fellows on hand to instruct us in what to. Otherwise, we'd have had no idea how to even get started. I now know more than I ever wanted to about cleaning up oil slicks.

The sacks lining the road are filled with oily sand and rocks collected today. I would have thought that we'd have at least felt happy to have done something to help, found it a good experience and all that. As it turns out, no amount of comraderie and pulling together can make up for the heartbreak of an oil spill. Besides, it was a bitterly cold day and we suffered mightily for our efforts.

On a lighter note, this pretty sight right here is a Ewha University student from Zimbabwe. She and I might be in the papers. We were the only foreign looking ladies there today. Some guy with an impressively large camera wanted our picture.

3 comments:

Allan said...

My hat is off to you. It must have been really cold dealing with all that oil.

Beloved said...

That does not look like fun. Kudos to you for helping out. I bet a lot of people (and animals!) are grateful.

Anonymous said...

so miserable..T-T
I want to go there..