hankyoreh

Riceballs are prepared by volunteers in Gwacheon. (provided by Baptong: A Rice Cart Dreaming of a Different World)

Warm rice balls were passed around on the afternoon of Apr. 16 to people visiting a government memorial to victims of the Sewol ferry sinking on the tragedy’s second anniversary.

Three thousand of the foil-wrapped treats were distributed to soothe the hunger of mourners, who had come to the memorial in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, from all around South Korea.

The snacks were served from a truck called “Baptong: A Rice Cart Dreaming of a Different World.” At one point, mother Kwon Mi-hwa, whose son Oh Yeong-seok was one of many students at local Danwon High School who lost their lives in the tragedy, climbed on the truck herself to pass the rice balls out.

The anonymous contributors to making the 3,000 snacks were a group of citizens working to make sure the Sewol is not forgotten. A committee formed to support Baek Nam-gi, a farmer left unconscious after being struck with a water cannon jet during a November popular indignation rally in Seoul, provided 200 kg of rice, while Baptong supporters and the Sewol commemorative group 4/16 Alliance covered the cost of ingredients.

The committee previously received three meals a day from Baptong while undertaking a 17-day-long, 400-km march across South Korea to demand punishment of those responsible for Baek’s injuries.

Early on, the organizers ran into difficulties with finding a suitable place to make the rice - prompting the Soha branch of the Korean Metal Workers‘ Union Kia Motors chapters to step in, with restaurant workers from the Soha plant in Gwangmyeong, Gyeonggi Province, cooking it themselves.

Early in the morning on Apr. 16, rice from the Soha plant restaurant was packed into 20 styrofoam boxes for transport to the Moojigae Education Village in Munwon, a neighborhood in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Over 100 people gathered around 9 am at Moojigae Middle School, ranging from elementary students to women in their 80s and members of Gwacheon Yellow Ribbon. Over thirty boxes were laid out on mats on the lawn in front of the school. Four different teams went to work: one for mixing the rice with ingredients prepared the day before, another for coating the rice balls with seaweed power, another for wrapping, and a fourth for loading the snacks into boxes. After three hours of hard work, the 3,000 rice balls were finished.

“These rice balls were an expression of solidarity from so many people and a way of sharing a message of commemoration on the Sewol’s second anniversary,” said Baptong manager Son Ji-hu.

“We will never forget this message of support and engagement, and we plan to keep going to and standing with the ones who are in low and unseen places,” Son added.

Baptong is a cooperative formed in Apr. 2014 with investment from around 30 people. Members have shown solidarity by traveling to long-term sit-in sites to pass out meals from trucks. On Apr. 20, they plan to head to Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul for the Seoul Disabled People‘s Rights Film Festival.

By Park Soo-jin, staff reporter

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