28th of June marked our 2nd volunteer day. It’s SeoHyun’s birthday! We were asked to get to the welfare center by 9:30 am (World Vison has 10 welfare centers). I met up with the rest of onnies after I got inside the World Vision building. And so we walked into the office together. I thought that it’ll only just be two staff members, being the welfare centre manager and the head office donation manager whom I have been in touched with since the beginning of the project, who will welcome us. But no! There were three more! One with an iPad, one with a camera, and one with a video recorder. O.O
After the briefing with translation, we were informed that the production crew will be there to film and document our whole day of volunteer work. What’s more! There will be an interview after (sweat). After we filled in our information on the volunteer form, (having lots of difficulties with that, my proud moment is I have my Chinese name to write in their Chinese character section of name LOL) the welfare center manager explained to us the history of World Vision, how the Lunch Box Program started and how it works. The system is very organized. They have a list of the kids’ name to which they are providing food for. Some of those kids have parents/single parents who are too busy, or sick, or they are being cared by other relatives and so they are not being given regular and nutritious meals. For the center we visited; after we prepare the lunch boxes, the volunteer drivers will have to bring all of the lunch boxes, packed in baskets, and drop it at designated shops around the street corners. The kids living around their streets will go there after school and pick up the food.
After a cup of coffee, I passed my gifts to the donation project manager who happened to have same age as mine, and Australian nougats to the welfare center. We went to the kitchen and started doing preparation. Some onnies did the food preparation (thumbs up to the one who cut onions; two of us were tearing up just standing by the table next to hers), while we do the cleaning of the lunch boxes – one box has many boxes for side dishes! The cooking was also done during this time. The last bit was to clean the rice and cook it. Then we were off to lunch. Thanks to the donation project manager, I had the honor to dine with the rest of the staff. Unforgettable experience! During lunch, I was sitting between the project manager and the journalist. Good thing that he speaks English.
When we got back to the kitchen, it’s time to put food on the table! Since there were many boxes (two side dishes, one rice, one main dish), it took us about two rounds to fill up and pack everything. The last bit was to put all of them into one blue lunch box bag, made especially by World Vision. The drivers then arrived and picked them up for delivery. Then, it is cleaning time. Big woks! Big pots! Finally, the kitchen lady served us watermelon and we signed off on their volunteer records. ^^
When we were already fixing ourselves, the staff members approached us for the interview. Yes, interview with video camera and camera. >.< I wasn’t told beforehand! And so onnies were caught off guard too! Anyways, because it was so embarrassing, I couldn’t remember much. A few questions were asked, onnies answering in Korean, I answered in English. Some of the questions were how did our fan clubs come about, what this project is for, why we love YongSeo, and one question I clearly remembered (besides what’s my role in YSI) is that, when does YongHwa and SeoHyun shine the most. Couldn’t quite remember what onnies answered and I was kind of doze off already. My first answer was – “When they are with each other <3333.” I think onnies understood what I said too (LOL) but I quickly gave a follow up answer – “When they were on stage performing, doing what they do best.” Hmmm… for more on the interview, stay tuned. More embarrassing moment will come out soon, once World Vision releases the article. Finally, we finished off with a group picture.
After saying our goodbyes to the World Vision staff, we headed off to Jass Café! Indeed it’s Jass Café aka Yongseo Café. Goguma latte wasn’t too bad. I had the cold one and it’s a bit grainy. After asking onnies to write a few words on the photo book filled with artworks from three YongSeo fans (@xhachimitsu, @walkontheside, and YuFen@weibo), we asked for permission to leave it there. As expected, the owner agreed. Another group of fans, Japanese YongSeo fans who happened to be there too were so excited about the photo book. It’s a success! (I only bought the “book” for the photos two days before that.)
For this trip, I didn’t really go to a lot of places that Yongseo visited. It’s mainly because I didn’t have the time and I wanted to shop! And with the meetings and volunteer work, my time was being cut too. But, I am happy with my trip because I was able to eat in most of the famous “YongSeo eatery” ^^
Until next time, xoxo.
@shazza83L
Sharlin@YongSeoInternational.com
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful FA. It's so nice too see gogumas joined the volunteer work and that yongseo photobook is really cute. YSI Daebak!!
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