You just never know.....

Today, we got to experience the most unbelievable thing in the world...

In Korea, the elders are treated with sooo much respect that there is no comparison to the U.S. at all. The city arranged for us to visit the "Silver Center," which is what they call their homes for the elderly. The one we visited had 106 patients who had either suffered from a stroke, had dementia or alzheimers, or was paralyzed for some reason. We got to spend the whole morning with them and let me tell you, I have never found a new respect for something like I did this.

When we first got there, they gave us a breakdown of how the center worked and how many patients they had and such. Afterwards, they gave us a tour. The center had everything from a beauty salon to a movie room. We then got to meet some of the patients. I have never seen someone light up so much like they did when we walked in the room. They never get visitors so to see us was the highlight of their life. Some of them spoke some English and do not get to use it very often so when they saw we spoke English, they were sooooo happy. I'm trying to think of the words to explain their excitement and there is nothing that would do it justice. It was a "had to be there" moment. With the help of some Korean soldiers (who are mandated to work for 2 years in the Silver Center), we got to talk with the patients and learn all about them. Some of their stories were amazing!

Then we got to help with art therapy. The center was covered wall to wall in things that the patients had made, everything from paintings to little carved eggs and piggy banks. We got to help them make stamps. Here in Korea, everyone has a stamp made that has their name on it to sign important documents. We didn't make actual stamps but something that resembled them. We took pieces of paper and wrote their name on the. Then we used rolled up tin foil to glue over the letters so they were raised. Many of the patients were paralyzed so we had to help them write their name (which was an experience considering none of us know how to write in Korean). I got to help two people, an 85 year old man and a 76 year old woman. The man was paralyzed in his left arm and the lady in her right. The man was the cutest thing ever because he finished his first and then wanted to help all the ladies. Stacy and I took the extra foil and made flowers for the ladies and they could not have been any happier! There were a couple of ladies at the table that asked the soldiers how to say handsome in English. They had crushes on Schuyler and wanted to tell him. One of the ladies spoke English but because of her alzheimer's, didn't remember much of it. The soldier told me that if I spoke it to her over and over, she might start to remember. However, she had a huge crush on Schuyler and no matter what I said, all she would say was "Schuyler handsome." It was the funniest thing. Everywhere we go, they love him! There was one lady that tried to make friends with all of us and was the social butterfly of the bunch. When she saw him, she told the nurse that she would marry him if she could but Koreans can only marry Koreans! I've never laughed so hard in my life when she translated that to English for us.

After arts and crafts, we went downstairs to eat. The workers eat first and then help the elderly about an hour later. The ones that are paralyzed have to be helped and boy, did we NOT know what we were getting ourselves into. Schuyler and Judit were put on one side of the floor, while Stacy, Zach and I went to the other (Travis was at home sick still). Schuyler and Judit said they had it easy but it was the complete opposite for the other 3 of us. Stacy seemed to be doing okay with hers. My lady held her head down to her chest all the time, so the worker had to keep coming over and pulling her head up so I could feed her with no problem. She was SOOOOOOOOOO picky. She only wanted to eat certain things but because I don't speak Korean, I had no idea what she was asking for and the translator kept walking away! I've never felt so useless. Zach's lady absolutely refused to eat. She didn't want anything and any time anyone tried to get her to eat just one bite, she would hit them. She was sooo funny. We were trying so hard not to laugh because we didn't want to upset her. But there was another older man with alzheimer's sitting at our table with us that gave us all the shock of the day...

The soldier told us that he spoke Spanish and asked us if any of us spoke it. Zach and I both speak it so we started talking in Spanish to him. He then began to breakdown in tears!!!!! We thought maybe he didn't remember how to answer or something and it upset him but in fact it was the complete opposite. The soldier explained to us that the man used to be in the army when he was a young adult. He worked as a translator! He would translate Spanish to Korean and vice versa. So when we started speaking in Spanish to him, he started to remember all of the fun times he had when he was younger. Stacy and I both started crying because it was so touching that we could help him remember those things! When he finally calmed down, he thanked Zach in Spanish. It was at this point that I realized how greatful these people really were that we had come to visit them.

After lunch, we helped the staff clean up. Stacy mopped, Zach cleaned tables, and I helped do the dishes. The same lady that told Schuyler she wanted to marry him, came over while I was doing dishes and was trying to teach me how to speak Japanese not even realizing I do not know Korean or Japanese. All of the staff was laughing because she didn't understand that I didn't understand her at all. There was one man that Zach helped during craft time that loved all of us. His name was Mr. Shim and he spoke very good English for the conditions he had. The soldiers and staff were telling us how he loves to tell stories and make stuff up. He kept telling us that he was super rich and has written books. They all laughed. He brightened our day.

None of us wanted to leave. We will all be forever changed by this experience. We exchanged numbers with the soldiers so that on Saturday they can go out with us and show us the town where all the people our age hang out.

When I got home, my family wanted to go to the park so we walked about a mile to this huge park with a ton of soccer fields and a small water park. We walked around while the boys played so that we could get the baby to sleep. One of my host mom's friends came and met us with her son and we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I had these noodles in a sauce that was kind of like BBQ sauce. It was SOOOOO good! What I found super funny though was almost the instant we got home, the son really wanted Chicken, so they ordered another dinner to be delivered. All the people do here is eat! They didn't understand why I didn't want to eat the chicken after eating so much at dinner. Since the time we got here, all these people want to do is feed us! HAHA....

I am going to call it a night soon. Tomorrow, the 6 of us are meeting up for lunch and then going to meet with the English teachers we will be working with. I'm kind of glad tomorrow is a light day because my feet are killing me from all of the walking around....

By the way, I've already lost two pounds....


Goodnight everyone!!!