MEDICS IN PNG - Royal New Zealand Navy

NAVY PEACEKEEPERS
BY LT JEREMY PACKHAM RNZN
LIVING IN
SOUTH KOREA
At the Bulguksa
Temple, which is over
1200 years old, in
Gyeongju City
ABOVE: LT Packham
standing by a guard at
the Gyeonbuk Palace
in Seoul. The original
palace dates back to 1394
but was demolished in
1911. The South Korean
government rebuilt the
palace in the 1990s.
‘ANYONG HASAYO. Nanoon bymujang
jidae eh keonmu haneun Jeremy Packham
haygun daewi imnida. Geurigo nomuna
maume turoyo.’
‘Good morning. My name is Jeremy Packham,
working here at the DMZ and I am a
Naval Lieutenant. I like it here very much.’
That is my standard introduction, but also
virtually the limit of my Korean language
skills! I have been here in the Republic of
Korea for just over four months now, working
for the United Nations Command Military
Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) as the
Corridor Control Officer for Transportation
Corridor East (the highway between North
and South Korea).
Because of our location, we (I and 4 US
Army and Air Force personnel) live in a
small town called Ganseong which is about
30 minutes south of the DMZ. The town is
home to approximately 15,000 people. We
live in an apartment block of eight 15-storey
buildings - which seem to just appear out of
no where, surrounded by rice paddies.
The locals are very friendly and always
come up and say hello in English. On the
whole though very few people in the town
speak English at all therefore communication
is quite interesting at times. There is a strong
temptation to merely rely on our translator
to get by when in the town itself, but I find
it forces you to try and learn more of the
language. The funny thing is that most of the
locals don’t expect you to speak any Hangukmal,
so if you respond in their language,
they sometimes think you are fluent. I very
quickly learnt the phrase ‘chanoon hangukmal
chogoon haljool arayo’ which means ‘I
only speak a little Korean’.
One of the hardest aspects of life in the
town to get used to is the fact that you are
an oddity, being one of only 5 non-Koreans
in the town. People are always staring at you
and wanting to come up and talk - you soon
get used to it though.
The culture is so vastly different from our
own and is totally fascinating. On the whole,
the food is fantastic. I love going to Hansui
houses (restaurants where you sit on the
floor and cook your own food) and having
Kalbi (BBQ pork). You have a gas grill in
the middle of the table and cook the meat
yourself, and it comes with lots of different
side dishes ranging from crab to kimchi to
pickled eggs. I still haven’t got used to kimchi
(fermented cabbage) and probably never will.
Rice and kimchi are on the menu - breakfast,
lunch and dinner! Though to be honest, I do
miss good old Kiwi fish and chips or a steak
and cheese pie!
Driving is probably the biggest challenge
over here. Apart from driving on the right
side of the road, and the signals being different
(orange warns that green is coming), the
problem is the way they drive. For example,
red lights seem to be an advisory - people
frequently run lights! Police cars always
drive around with lights flashing, even if they
aren’t actually doing anything. Motorcycles
and scooters prefer to ride on the footpath
and the speed limits only seem to be there
for show. In Seoul, it is not uncommon for
people to be doing speeds of over 90kph
down busy streets (imagine doing that down
Auckland’s Queen St!)
I have done a lot of sight-seeing and no
matter where you go, the locals are all very
polite and gracious and generally interested
in you. The country itself is beautiful and full
of history, both good and bad (how many
places in the world can you go into a 1300
year-old tomb?).
The Korean people have endured terrible
hardships over the last hundred or so years,
but have persevered and seem to be stronger
because of it. I feel very privileged to
have been given the opportunity to experience
true Korean culture at the town level
and to be able to learn from within about
the Korean people.
Katchi Kapshida!
We go together!
ABOVE: A traditional dance performed at Yongin Folk Village. BELOW LEFT: Sitting down
with my Korean and US team to a traditional Korean meal of Kalbi (bbq pork). BELOW RIGHT:
This is typical of how much the Koreans load up their bikes and scooters!
RAILWAY TO
NORTH KOREA
Photos: LT Packham
THIS YEAR, 17 May became an historic day
for the people of South Korea and North
Korea. That day saw the first train crossings
from North to South and back, since the
outbreak of the Korean War 57 years earlier.
It also marked a potential step towards the
reunification of the Korean Peninsula and the
beginnings of a rail network that would link
Seoul with Europe. Both of these reasons
are very important to not only the region
but the world. A unified Korea should add
stability to the region and the greater world
community, while a rail network linked to
Asia and across to Europe would mean a
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