Eugene: The personal side of my experience

Posted 10:29 PM, August 01, 2006, by esyim

A couple days ago, I met a young North Korean girl who was admitted to the hospital for a hepatitis B infection. Her family lives at the southeast tip of Korea and traveled almost half a day to bring the girl to the hospital in Seoul. Since her father works, he had to travel back the same day she was admitted. This left the little girl all alone in a hospital.

The VP of the NGO and I went to visit her the day she was admitted. We gave her our phone numbers and told her to call whenever she felt lonely. The very next day, we got several calls from the lonely girl. Unforunately, I have to travel with the VP to a remote site outside of Seoul, and we were not able to get back to her until around 5.

Here is a picture I took with her the day we first met:

I have decided to bloop out her eyes for her safety. Anyways, she really likes giving the peace sign when she takes pictures and insisted I do so as well. She says it is a requirement. Of course, I quickly gave in to her request.

As we were going to visit her at the hospital today, we asked her if she needed/wanted anything. She asked for some slippers to wear at the hospital. The VP and I went to the market and bought her some princess slippers... take a look...

Guess who picked them out? :) They are sparkly pink with pretty little butterflies on them. She was a little embarrassed when we first showed them to her in front of the other kids in the ward... but I think that she really likes them :) She wore them out as we were saying goodbye.