Review: "Finding Our Way" by Steven Gallon

Finding Our Way by Steven Gallon
Published September 2022 via Peace Corps Writers
★★★★

In the 60s, Gallon and his wife graduated from university, got married...and immediately set off for Peace Corps service in South Korea. At the time, Korea was not the highly developed country it is today: It had only relatively recently come out of war, connections with the rest of the world were of course not what they are today, and although major cities were of course more developed, that's relative.

After fifteen months in Korea, we were accustomed to a lack of development: dirt streets, open sewers, aging buildings, and an economy that primarily operated on the backs of manual laborers. Pockets of prosperity and economic signs of progress were emerging; new construction was on the rise and new businesses were popping up in the cities. Urban infrastructure, however, and life in rural villages contained few conveniences. Most people had little, and their lives were harsh. Per capita GDP in Korea at the time was less than $200 per year. (232)

(I assume that's 1960s dollars, so a quick inflation calculation: $200 in 1967 would be a bit less than $2,000 in 2025.)

It sounds like a wildly challenging experience and a wildly rewarding one. Gallon and his wife perhaps had an easier time of it because they had each other to lean on—most PCVs have their cohort, sure, but that's not the same as living with someone you know and love and who shares your cultural context—but I suppose it also takes a particular type of person to excel at being dropped in another country and another language and to make the best of it, and the Gallons were that type of person.

There's a richness of detail here that makes me think that the Gallons kept good notes and wrote long letters at the time; there's also a lot of affection for the people they met and, in some cases, lived with. Were I to join the Peace Corps I'd find public health work more interesting than teaching English (this assuming I qualified to do public health work!), but it sounds like they had, overall, an extremely rewarding time with their students and with their lives in Korea. An interesting story, well told.

Finally, one apropos-of-nothing quotation, because it made me laugh:

Our meals during training were never very popular. The cooks in our cafeteria were contractors, and to prepare us for what we would find in Korea, Peace Corps had requested they make something akin to a Korean diet. Everyday Korean cuisine traditionally consisted of homemade soup, moist and sticky rice, and spicy kimchi complemented with a variety of mostly vegetable side dishes. The basic menu was the same for each meal of the day. To introduce us to such a diet, the cooks served us Lipton chicken noodle soup and Uncle Ben’s instant rice, both out of a box. Side dishes didn’t make it to the menu, except maybe some toast at breakfast. (22)