Today, for part of KATUSA Friendship Week we held a clean up day in Anjeong-Ri. As I was walking down the sidewalk with my husband picking up trash an elderly Korean lady came up to us and started talking to us but we had no idea what she was saying. Then she started to pull weeds and we thought that she was trying to help us. She kept pulling weeds and trying to hand the weeds to us but wouldn't let us put them in the trash bag. She would try to talk to us and of course we didn't understand and she was starting to get excited. We tried to just keep walking and picking up trash but she followed us. The whole time she is picking weeds and cleaning the roots off and trying to give us the weeds. Finally she took my husband's bag and started to pour it out on the sidewalk. Thank goodness, someone working inside of a store that we were in front of saw what was going on and talked to the lady and translated for us. It turns out that the lady didn't realize that we were picking up trash. She thought that we were picking plants to eat. She was trying to tell us that the plants weren't good to eat. She was trying her best to help us but we had no idea what she was saying. Although, I don't know why she thought we were picking the plants. We weren't touching the plants, just picking up trash.

Misunderstandings happen on both sides of the language barrier, eh?
A good lesson to learn! I'll bet you she was as surprised as you were!

It was nice of you to help! In Seoul, the local residents go volunteer at the Dong office. Usually the Office buys them a unique hat or bonnet,and often they wear colored vests to show that they are cleanup and flower planting volunteers. Today, 28 April, on the way to picnic in Hyeochang Park, we saw a group of college girls. I thought they were on a field trip, but closer inspection showed they all had white gloves and were picking up all sorts of
paper and street trash along near the college and outside the park area. Nice.