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By Park Hyun-jung　

“It looks like it is going to rain soon.”

“Now, now. It’s not too late to have some watermelon.”

The place was the shantytown of Guryong Village in Seoul’s Gangnam District on Saturday afternoon. A good-natured argument was taking place between a volunteer and Ms. Lee, a 65-year-old resident of the village, as they stood in front of her house. A group of five to six young volunteers had come carrying sod to restore the wall of Lee’s living room, which had collapsed due to heavy rains on July 27. At the repeated urging from the residents, each of the volunteers bit into a slice of watermelon, their faces soaked in sweat.

Lee, who lives alone in the house, said, “They come around this all the time, picking up trash and helping out. I am so grateful to them.”

The citizens acting as volunteers have been working to reduce the suffering of Guryong residents following their flooding woes. Around 500 of the village’s 1,200 households suffered from water damages. In response, around 80 citizens, as well as prominent figures such as television personality Kim Je-dong, actress Han Ji-min, and singer Kan Mi-youn, joined in the daylong effort Saturday to restore the village, digging up dirt and clearing away garbage.

Previously, Kim sent out a message on his Twitter account reading, “Can we get some elbow grease out at Guryong Village again?” Sympathetic followers gave up their rest on the weekend to gather in the village. This was not the first volunteer effort. The Saturday before, Kim and around 150 citizens had traveled to Guryong for some sweat-soaked labor.

Kim Won-sim, a 63-year-old resident, said that university students had also been visiting the village during the week to lend a hand.

“Thanks to the efforts of citizens like this, the restoration effort has gone much faster,” she added.

Seeing the volunteers taking a momentary break near the village hall, an appreciative resident said, “The medicine they brought is ten times what the health center sent.”

The volunteers were also rare guests for village residents. As an unlicensed shantytown, Guryong Village has always been an island cut off from the outside. In the leadup to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the national government tore down a number of unlicensed homes in other areas to improve the cityscape. The village formed as needy citizens with nowhere else to go gathered at the foot of Mt. Guryong.

“I am aware that there have been some frictions among residents, and that there are a lot of different views on Guryong Village,” said Kim Je-dong visiting Guryong Village for the third time Saturday. “I just wanted to help out the mothers who cannot clean up all the garbage on their own.”

Kim also expressed concern about potential fatalities from the collapse of the precariously built structures.

“This is not a situation where we should offer help after distinguishing between those do and do not have money,” he said.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]