An overcomer

Like many others, I have been blown away by the story of Song-bong Choi, a 22 year old manual worker from South Korea. The guy has an amazingly tragic story. Just when you think its bad, it gets worse.

Despite his background, Song-Bong has worked hard to support himself, from the age of three and learnt to sing. Appearing on Korea's Got Talent, he blew away the judges with both his story and his song. I was warned when I saw this clip to have tissues. Choi's voice  confounds and astounds-you really really never know what gifts and talents those around you have.

Watch the video of 22-year-old Choi's performance below - and be touched.

Learning about training in South Korea

I was privileged to train in South Korea this week- the first time ever. Thank you to IAVE, Seoul Volunteer Centre and Volunteer 21 for hosting me. Apart from falling in love with the country and renewing my passion for Korean food, I learnt a few other things about training,  NGOs and volunteerism:

• the South Korean NGO sector is incredibly well developed
• there are a massive number of volunteer centres across Korea
• they have developed a set of 12 standards for volunteer centres
• the Koreans probably do volunteer recognition better than any other country I have seen
• The Koreans who attended my workshops participated in my small discussion groups but getting feedback from the groups to the presenter (ie me) was a stretching exercise for everyone concerned 
• Most of the presentations I observed were very one way with questions at the end
• Questions were excellent and on topic
• they were very visual - the Korean trainer's had power points that were full of colour and animations and pictures. Some pictures, I believed, in the West would be seen as very "cute" ie little bunnies in the corners
• they liked stories
• they are very respectful of teachers/trainers
• they very honest with me about things they liked and didn't like in training
• they loved photos....I have never smiled so much!!!