Two families and instant noodles

By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Abigail D. Albino

Photos = Abigail D. Albino

It all started with a strange phone call I received last March.

My father wrote my phone number on a “House for Rent” poster outside our old home near downtown Davao City in the Philippines. I didn’t sign up to be an agent for the house, but since we’re family, I had to take calls from people who were interested in renting it. I assumed it was a non-Filipino at the other end of the line when he asked me in English about the rent and number of bedrooms. By the end of the call, he said, "Ne, ne," which made me assume that this person might be Korean.

Off I went to our old house in Matina, a neighborhood in Davao City, thinking that this might be another potential renter that would back out due to this or that reason. Our house is quite old, and this is where my siblings and I lived all our lives. I still kind of miss this house, but we were now living in a new and smaller home somewhere far from downtown.

I met Pastor Lee first and he introduced me to Pastor Kim and his wife. With them was a Filipina who was fluent in Korean. I showed them around the house and discussed what they wanted with it. There were times that they would speak in rapid-fire Korean in front of me. They have been looking for a house in Davao City for four days in the sweltering weather, which would reach 35 C on most days. They had to decide now because the pastor and his wife would have to go back to Korea the next day. 

Pastor Kim (left), his wife Gumyoun (second from left), Pastor Lee (third from left), Anna (fourth from left), their Filipina translator, and the author pose for a photo outside the house.

I didn’t expect anything. I think it was a mixture of desperation, tiredness and the thought that “this house will do” that led made them come to the decision to sign the rental agreement immediately.

Over the next few weeks, my family and I prepared the house for the Kim family. We weren’t able to do everything they asked because we still had to wait for our father to come home in June. I was always worried about how the Korean family would find our house.

The two families first meet

Pastor Lee asked me to pick up Pastor Kim’s family at the airport because no one could help them at that time. I was happy when I met Pastor Kim and his wife, Gumyoun samonim, again, together with their three kids. Their baggage filled up the entire van, which made me think that they were definitely going to live here for good. I was informed that they were going to live here for five to 10 years as missionaries. There were many Korean missionaries that came before them. Many of these missionaries have lived in the Philippines for so many years that they’ve made quite a difference in their respective communities.

I found that my family and their family have certain similarities. They have two girls and one boy, while our family also has two daughters and a son. My father needed to take regular insulin injections, while Pastor Kim needs to inject magnesium sulfate every one to two months. The eldest daughters in both families also wear braces. 

I had the feeling that everything would just fall into place.

I believe the Kim family has been our best tenants so far. The house is always spic-and-span; I want to go back and live there again. When we lived there for 25 years, the house was always messy. We are a family of pack rats and the house was always in shambles no matter how often we cleaned it. I’m happy that our old home is being taken care of by new tenants.

The Doromal-Albino family (left) and the Kim family learn to live together.

Day-to-day life

The drive back home from the airport was interesting. We mostly communicated through Google Translate. I tried my best to understand what they wanted to tell me. I knew it! I should have hustled in learning Korean when I had the chance. Lesson learned: If you have the time to learn a new language, do it now before it’s too late.

We helped them settle in the house, and left early because we needed to pick up my sister at the hospital. Before we left, they gave us a lot of presents: boxes of instant noodles, a mosquito net, ballpoint pens that we could also use as a stylus, reusable shopping bags, a ceramic mug and a tray stand. My heart just melted. 

Pastor Kim sent me a message via Kakao Talk that the person who would install the internet had come to the house. I called the person in charge of it and he said they’re just communicating with “yes” or “no” while installing. The Koreans only knew a little bit opf English, and the same went for the Filipino who installed their internet, but -- hey -- at least the internet installation was a success!

We went to the house regularly because we wanted to make sure they could adjust to their new life in the Philippines. We helped them install a gas tank, find an English tutor, and also get a dog that would guard the house. My mother told me that we should always help them because even if we might not know it now, helping them might be the key for them to help a lot of people, especially the poorest of the poor here in the Philippines.

Solving health issues

We usually communicated using Google Translate. They would translate their Korean phrases or sentences into English. I would translate my English into Korean. Most of the time it helps, but I really needed to hustle up with my Korean. I wanted to meet them halfway. As they learned English through a tutor, I also wanted to become better in Korean. 

Then one morning, Pastor Kim sent me a message to ask if I knew a doctor. I said that my sister was a doctor. He asked what “treatments do we have.” I tried to ask what were the symptoms. He said that he couldn’t lift his finger, so off we went to the house to see what was going on. We were relieved that Pastor Kim was already being assisted by their Filipino community leader, being taken to a local hospital to get an injection. We told him that there was a clinic near the house where he could get a nurse to do it. It took some time for both sides to communicate, and Pastor Kim drew something like this:

It took a while for my sister and I to understand that the drawing meant “home service.”

My sister contacted an IV therapist who could come by the house every month or so to assist Pastor Kim with his medicine. 

My sister also did a quick check up on their son, since he had gotten sick for four days. His fever was gone, but he would get rashes each time he took a bath. She wrote a prescription and instructed him to take one tablet now and another one before bedtime. The boy just gave her a mischievous grin which made my sister realize that the kid had no idea what she was talking about. We bought the medicine and dropped it off with them before going back home ourselves.

I was really touched because whenever we’d say goodbye to them, they would all walk together out of the house and bow to us as we left. 

The hearts of my family would melt with such thoughtfulness and respect. We don’t have such customs here in the Philippines, so it’s new to us.

All those times that Google Translate saved us or failed us, the sign language, the yeses or nos, the switching between English, Korean, Tagalog and Bisaya, and the drawing of pictograms in the hope that people who speak different languages could understand each other: I have now truly witnessed that there’s indeed love and care among people, no matter which country they came from and no matter how high the language barrier may be.

The family that I've come to love

To Pastor Kim Jeongrak and his wife Gumyoun, together with their kids Sung Eun, Eun Bin, and Sung Bin, thank you for coming into our lives. I am 100 percent sure that God is on your side wherever you go. I pray for your health, safety and happiness as you live here in the Philippines. May you succeed with your missionary work and I look forward to more experiences with you. From my family to yours, kamsahamnida!

wisdom117@korea.kr

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