Web neighbors

• One Love Theater
• Awassa Children's Project
• ICCF Holland
• Ministry of Education, Ethiopia
• Korea International Cooperation Agency
• Korea Overseas Volunteers Association
• YouHost.KR
• HostHow.NET

KOV quarterly report (only in Korean, though)

• 1st year (1999): September [ PDF | PS ], December [ PDF | PS ]
• 2nd year (2000): March [ PDF | PS ], June [ PDF | PS ], September [ PDF| PS ], December [ PDF| PS ]
• 3rd year (2001): March [ PDF | PS ], June [ PDF | PS ]

Publications

• Hyok Kim, Building Educational Information Network and Accessing World Wide Internet on Ethiopian Telecommunication Environment, Proceeding of Institute of Educational Research National Conference 2001, Addis Ababa University and USAID, November 2001. [ PDF | PS | PPT ]
• Master Thesis (only in Korean) Performance Analysis of TCP/IP Data Send/Receive Processing Under UNIX Operating Systems [ PDF | PS | PPT ]
• H. Kim, H. Sung, and H. Lee Performance Analysis of the TCP/IP Protocol Under UNIX Operating Systems for High Performance Computing and Communications High Performance Computing ASIA '97, Spring, 1997 [ PDF | PS | PPT ]
• H. Kim, H. Sung, and H. Lee, Performance Analysis and Feasibility Study of a Parallelized TCP/IP Implementation Conf. of Korean Institute of Communication Sciences, Fall, 1996 [ PDF | PS | PPT ]

One frame presented upon my return from Ethiopia hung on a wall for a long time. The frame was made from coarse materials showing Ethiopian lady performing coffee ceremony in front of incense pottery. Long time eroded it day by day; several characters attached on it fell down already. The color of photo has faded with the passing of time. The value priced in money is very low. However, it's unmovable evidence that I had been to Ethiopia and I got invaluable experience from there. Today, I made up my mind to put it in a safe place to protect it from damage.

I could realize that too many souvenirs took much space at home. They were from largely Japan, Ethiopia, USA, and other places I visited or friends did. Re-arranging them into appropriate slots took nearly all day. I could recollect beautiful memory linking a souvenir and whoever gave it to me. Fullest smile stayed with me all through the arrangement. What a virtue of travel and staying overseas!

Aiming at a feasible approach for the conservation of natural forests in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia, dwellers there offer ecotourism program of hiking and horse riding exploring Bale Mountains.

In the year of 2000, the second year of my stay in Ethiopia, I had been there with colleague Korea Overseas Volunteers (KOV). I never dreamed of such a great experience until the arrival there. My story from that place, thereafter, became one of big topics to speak about Ethiopia's nature.

Today, I came across official web pages of the trekking program. Get excited with information and enjoy photos by visiting this link. Photos below show eco-friendly slaughter that I performed with the help of guides and colleague volunteers. :-)

Korean usually complains the decrease of appetite from excessive sodium loss by sweat and after exhaustion of physical power in struggle against hot weather during summer season. Simple solution to revive appetite is to visit restaurants serving spicy and/or cool food. Enjoying home made recipe like "seaweed and vinegar over cold water" will be another way.

In search for memory how I sustained during dry season in Addis Ababa (not so hot as you imagine, though; refer to this link), I could enumerate what I usually chose for lunch and dinner to stimulate appetite. Then I revisited Ethiopian cuisine pages from Wikipedia and my bookmarks reminding me of real shape, color, odor, and taste. However, I can't prepare Ethiopian style dinner table at home now because several core ingredients are not available in Korea.

We call this situation, "A pancake in a picture" :-) The photo below is to show you how much I enjoyed Ethiopian food.

I had never been to Lake Tana, the origin and source of Blue Nile River during my stay in Ethiopia. This place has been thought of just as a lake for me till now. One article, titled "Egypt and the Hydro-Politics of the Blue Nile River" by Daniel Kendie surprised me by delineating SO SO complex issues born of historical, cultural, economical, political, religious background around the corner of the Horn of Africa. You can get a certain insight about what's going on there in connection with water resource.

View Larger Map

Paying a visit to 70th anniversary of one of relatives made me recollect when I departed for Ethiopia at Gimpo International Airport in 1999 immediately after local orientation training as a Korea Overseas Volunteer. That's because the party venue was one of restaurants at the international passenger terminal complex of that airport.

The return flight in the year of 2001 from Bole International Airport was headed for Incheon International Airport, newly constructed for high flight control capacity and with tidy premises. Gimpo International Airport, thereafter, played a role as port of only Gimpo-Haneda route or other special flights as an international airport. In the meanwhile, my itineraries for overseas trips were mostly limited to Incheon-somewhere so far.

Anyway, it elapsed nearly ten years since the departure for Ethiopia. I could again feel the inspiration that I felt as a volunteer when I repeated to look back Mother and relatives on faces shedding in front of passport check desk at THAT departure gate on the photo. Time is flying, huh?

Korea Overseas Volunteers Association (KOVA) hosted year end party, named, evening of Korea Overseas Volunteer (KOV) last Saturday.

It is an annual event to welcome successors returned back to Korea this season from overseas where they served as a KOV. Predecessors join together to speak high of their sacrifice as well as to congratulate on safe return with invaluable experience accumulated during their voluntary operations. In this way, the party can give us a great chance to understand diversified cultures one another simply by saying which county they were dispatched to, what they did as a volunteer, how they survived harsh living condition, whoever they collaborated with, and more.

Of course, everybody could feel great joy from the party. In addition to that happiness generated from an ordinary party organization, regional music performances triggered the rise of homesickness to attendance. African music performance out of them (I could not get the synopsis of the dance, the origin of the song, and the theme as a whole, however) aroused remembrance in Ethiopia. Regardless of my feeling based on affinity with African continent, everybody could be absorbed in dynamic and powerful rhythm from the performance. The more exposed to another culture like this, we can expand our life view wider. It's one of virtues of diversity!

Recollecting what I had done as a Korea Overseas Volunteer (KOV) in Ethiopia, I still wonder what the true volunteerism is. I redefined my volunteerism into "technical cooperation" in the article from KOV category of this blog because spiritual understanding in grass root level was missing. Specifically speaking, I was always busy in preparation of network with cutting edge technology, training materials, reports to the Ministry and KOICA regional office, and any other tangible matters only. At the end of stay in Ethiopia, only thing that I could do was just to keep unforgettable memory with Ethiopian around my residence. If I revisit Ethiopia as a volunteer, I will be able to behave in different way by devoting myself to understanding existing Ethiopian cultures as they are now. However, will my revisit happen? Of course, not! Whenever I read articles from "One Love Theater/Blog", I can imagine what and how the volunteers there are doing in Awassa with the spirits that I should have shared with colleagues from the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia. Look up article from this link!

I am far away off international society in Ethiopia where I cooperated with so many volunteers, advisors to Ethiopian governmental organizations, NGO staffs from over the world. However, even though I am staying in Korea I have several chances, fortunately, to travel abroad in business and/or for private matters every year. In addition to direct overseas experience above, I can hear something from whoever visited overseas. Of them, returned Korea Overseas Volunteers (KOVs) revisiting where they stayed with a certain purpose, deliver interesting stories all the time. Storied told are heartwarming anecdotes, funny happenings, cultural shocks, mythical allegation, and whatever.

Surprising fact heard from my junior recently was that the Ukraine is one of cognac producers! Cognac in the small bottle next to Ukraine doll is what I received from junior as a souvenir. We had no idea when, why, and how the Ukraine started to produce it. However, further curiosity is non-sense; one bottle of cognac is already at my hand. Something new always makes me open eyes toward all directions across the globe. Whenever I come to know one thing, I can add one more topic in story pool and life memory. Existence of Ukraine cognac can be the latest topic. :)

I've just closed Ethiopian age by continuing diary keeping from where I stopped and hitting the last sheet of notebook shown in the left side of the photo. I opened the new notebook right after returning back from ZhanJiajie. The former came from stationary shop in Ethiopia, whereas the latter from Korea. :) It is nearly six years since the last purchase of that notebook. I will not miss my invaluable history from now on. Please ask me regularly whether I keep on writing down as I swore!

Diary archive came out to world! I pulled out all the notes from container to check their physical status and to skim over poor scratch in English. Retention was perfect with some blurring by ink from ball-point pen. English writing was, of course, poor in style as well as in its contents. Only one value is that I can recollect clearly what happened those days even though I can not remember several names, places, and their contexts. Oldest archive dates back to year of 1987 when diary keeping was a part of vacation assignment in middle school. At the end of respective notes, there is a stamp affixed by teacher. With the start of high school year, I might initiate voluntary history records. University days were full of complexity toward life planning with intensive endeavor. During my stay in Ethiopia, philosophical thinking induced from life uncertainty covered all pages. That's all. I missed most part of memory since 2001. However, longevity will make enough room for me to drop valuable lines from now on.

Now, look it up from this link with my annotation!

Even though I did know already what the wikipedia is and how it work, I never utilized it as a reference link to explain terms and keywords intermingled in articles on my blog. Instead, I had spent so much amount of time to explain them with my broken English. :) Here are the reference terms that I added for better understanding inside this blog.More references will be available on the fly over this blog

Ethiopian_calendar, Matiz, Amharic, Klaus_Kleinfeld, Kibaale, Corydoras, Lake_Langano, Pleco, Awamori, Awassa

At last, we've got together in Seoul! I and junior Korea Overseas Volunteers (KOVs) had a good time by talking about something Ethiopian and their experience from there. It passed nearly six years since my return to Korea. What I had known about Ethiopia varied from what they told me. According to their comments, Ethiopia is growing in its economy. The sign of economic expansion was the boom of construction and civil engineering. Regardless of what is going on in Ethiopia, gathering together made me very happy by itself!

It was the first rural area visit upon my arrival in Addis (July 1999). Experiencing wildlife and staying with local residents could be enough cultural shock on me. More understanding of people and way of their life kept me inside their society even in Addis Ababa. Though physical condition was unfavorable (I am afraid, still is), excursion to Langano lake became the central part of life long memory.

In Ethiopia, there are so many and big lakes along, called, Rift Valley area. The lake Langano is safe enough for entertainment in it. Everybody can enjoy swimming, boating, fishing, and any other inner-lake activities. Refer to UNDP health guide (may be obsolete, though)

Click: Lake Langano photo archive

During my stay in Ethiopia as Korea Overseas Volunteer, we KOV and Japan Overseas Cooperative Volunteer (JOCV) members had a regular sports event apart from daily and private friendship exchange in their duty stations. Staffs from Embassies and regional offices were also welcomed. We approached one another by playing bowling and softball game. However, I have no more contact with them upon my return to Korea. Maybe, others, either. :( I wonder what they are doing in Korea, in Japan, or overseas where they live.

Photo set here

The word "volunteer" from Korea Overseas Volunteer, itself, implies sacrifice innately. When it comes to engineering, my volunteering should be considered as technical cooperation, I think. Enumerating what I did at that time, I repeated introducing new technology, persuading its implementation, making MOE staffs understood from training, following up progress, and discussing issues to escape from stalemate that most of KOVs were prone to encounter in the middle of cooperation. That's it! Interacting with local staffs was the very virtue of volunteerism.

I returned back to Korea, November 2001. My juniors took over duties and are still managing their KOV operations very well. Refer to this link for more details. Photos below are snapshots taken while staying there (years of 1999 ~ 2001)

Photo set here

Since the end of 2001, returning back to Korea from Ethiopia, no further information was available regarding the fight over what they faced. It is attributed, of course, to my indifference. Today, I could locate one of NGO operation sites in Ethiopia, called Awassa Children's Project.

Here below, access URL is available.

[Awassa Children's Project]

[Photo gallery]

Movement by performance, another type of endeavor, we can experience indirectly from there.

에티오피아 문자와 실제 손으로 쓴 글씨 입니다.

Alphabet of Ethiopian language (hereinafter, called Amharic) consist of numerous characters as shown in this link.

As a part of KOV orientation training prior to departure to Ethiopia, I had a chance to learn Amharic from native speaker. Unlike the appearance of typical Amharic typeface above, my handwriting for simple Amharic sentences visualize practical use of Amharic characters.

This is scanned copy of handwriting written by native Ethiopian.

한글 번역은 아래에 있습니다. (Translation in Korean is availabe at the foot of this article)

Tour guide for Ethiopia sometimes says the phrase, "Thirteen months of sunshine." The 13rd month is additional short-term month. Right after rainy season around September, Ethiopian new year starts with great celebration.

Anyway, special calendar system implies Ethiopia's in-depth culture and historical prosperity. Ethiopia suffers overall difficulties in low economic condition, famine, and drought in lower land, however, on the other hand, has bright side in sophisticated culture, history, and potential natural resources.

Therefore, tours to Ethiopia can be meaningful for whoever are interested in history routes (especially on Christian sites), diversified natural environment from low to high land (around 3,000m above sea level), and modernized capital city of Addis Ababa.

Here below, photos taken by me or colleague volunteers and collected from magazine can be the starting point for you to imagine tour in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa Overview

- Commercial bank of Ethiopia

- Addis Ababa city Overview from Piasa area

- Meskel square

- Ethiopian traditional dance performance

Sheraton-Addis: Fantastic illumination and luxurious premises

Hilton-Addis: 2nd rank hotel in Addis

---

에티오피아를 소개하는 자료에 보면 "13개월의 햇살" 이라는 말이 가끔 나온다. 12개월 이후의 짧은 한달을 말하며, 일반력으로 볼 때 우기가 끝나는 시점인 9월에 해당된다.

낮은 경제 수준, 가뭄, 기근 등으로 인한 어려움은 에티오피아를 부정적으로 보여지게 하는 것이지만, 세련된 문화, 유구한 역사와 천연 자원은 에티오피아의 발전 가능성을 긍적적으로 보여주는 것이라고 할 수 있다.

에티오피아에 산재한 고대 기독교 유적, 저지대로부터 고지대(해발 3,000미터 이상)로 이어지는 다양한 자연 환경, 현대화된 수도 "아디스 아바바" 등은 에티오피아 여행에 관심 있는 이에게 의미 있는 것들이 될 수 있다.

아래 사진은 본인 또는 동료 봉사단원이 에티오피아 체류중에 찍었거나 잡지로부터 얻어낸 사진들이다.

수도 아디스 아바바 사진들

- 에티오피아 상업 은행

- 피아사 지역(거리)에서 바라본 수도 전경

- 메스켈 광장

- 전통 춤 공연

쉐라톤 호텔 (에티오피아 최고의 호텔, 객실료 무지 비쌈, 아프리카에서 손꼽히는 호텔 중 하나, 국내 호텔과 비교 불허)

힐튼 호텔 사진 (2번째로 좋은 호텔, 객실료 비싼 편임)