Today was another change day, from Yesan to our fifth host city in Dangjin. We packed our luggage and our boxes of gifts to date, ready to be shipped home (thank you, Yesan Rotary Clubs!). Off we went.
First stop in the Dangjin area was the GS EPS electrical power generating plant. This is a new plant, built within the last few years, employing 60,000 people (a great boon to Dangjin!). After a movie and tour of the plant, we travelled a short distance to the Hyundai steel manufacturing plant. We toured the plant...huge machinery that takes 6" thick sheets of metal, thins them down to perhaps quarter-inch strips (elongating them tremendously in the process), then rolls them into 8-foot diameter rolls. Of course, the steel is red hot throughout this process. Fascinating. No picures allowed in the processing plant (since their technology has kicked the US out of the steel manufacturing business!)!
Next stop was lunch. As we learned that the Dangjin group was not prepared to provide vocational activities (where team members spend time learning about how their individual professions are practiced in Korea), we spent some time negotiating with the Rotarians to arrange our first vocational visits.
Quick note: Dangjin is a small town, so arranging 8-10 individual experiences is difficult in the first place; second, doing so on 36 hours notice is a monumental task. The Dangjin Rotarians somehow pulled it off, and by dinner we had vocational visits arranged for all team members. Not all are perfect matches, but this was a tremendous accomplishment.
As a result if the time taken negotiating, we canned a visit second electric generating plant (oh darn, we missed another movie and bus tour around a factory!), and instead went earky to a pottery and artisan's studio. We got to dye scarves to take home and made pottery items (candle holders, coffee cups or small trays) from raw clay. Our third grade elementary school children are in no danger of being outclassed by a group of adults...we learned very quickly why we work in other professions! Regardless of our (lack of) ability, this was a very enjoyable and productive afternoon. The pottery maker will fire and finish our items before we leave Korea, so we can bring them home with us...and we'll bring beatiful scarves home with us!
Dinner was eaten at a delicious Korean restaurant, then we were off to our new homestay families.
No comments:
Post a Comment