Corona Part 2

South Korea has gone to full alert status due to the virus and the American community seems to be in near-panic mode.

Even though there are very few cases of the virus in our area, yesterday almost everything non-essential was shut down. Schools, child care and any church-related activities are canceled: pretty much anything that would mean gathering in groups. Most of the base gates are closed, and the few that are open have staff to check your temperature and symptoms before you can enter. This has caused hours-long and miles-long traffic jams, which means that most people in this area can't get to work. I'm not confident these measures were really thought through in the way they should have been!

My Korean tutor texted me yesterday to see if I could still come to my lesson. She's super bored because lots of Americans are too worried to go out. I went to my lesson partly because I wanted to hear how things are on the Korean side of things. People don't seem to be overly worried, although there were fewer people out and about, but support for the church at the center of the biggest outbreak is waning. It seems Koreans are very tolerant of alternative beliefs as long as the members keep it to themselves more or less, but now that the church's activities are affecting everyone else people are not so indifferent. The church was rather secretive prior to this outbreak, but they've lost all of their secrecy at this point. It turns out there are four congregations right here in Peyongtaek that most people knew nothing about.

Incidentally, this conversation led to an amusing one about religion in general in Korea. There doesn't seem to be any religion that wouldn't be tolerated here, but my tutor said she couldn't join any religion that would restrict how much or what kind of meat she could eat. They REALLY love meat here, especially seafood and pork. This might explain why Buddhism doesn't have quite the same hold here as in some other Asian countries, since it generally encourages a vegetarian or vegan diet.

So far we're surviving just fine, although I'm really regretting not going to the commissary yesterday. There doesn't seem to be any hope of getting either there or the post office in the next couple of days. I suppose this will be a good opportunity to explore Korean shops a little more!