On April 5, 2014 to April 6, 2014, also
known as 식목일, I went to
Naksan Temple to help prune and discard burnt trees with a student body
organization called Korea University Social Service Organization (KUSSO).
Although I do not have much information about Naksan Temple, I was informed
that the trees around the mountain are prone to forest fire due to the dry and
hot weather. As a result many trees had died so we had to help replant and
prune the remaining trees to preserve the natural scenery of the temple.
In the beginning, I was a little nervous
due to the language barrier but my group gave me a lot of support and we had a
lot of fun throughout the weekend. Before departure, the crowd of approximately
100 students were separated into different groups for recreational activities
and efficient management purposes. It took us 2-3 hours to arrive at the temple
by bus. However, it was because of the long commute, I got the chance to meet
many friendly Korean students in KUSSO who are very passionate and motivated. On
the first day, because of the unfortunate rainy weather, we couldn’t get any
work done. So we stayed inside a nearby accommodation for the day and carried
out many recreational activities to get to know each other. My group completed
assigned missions, such as taking a group picture with a certain pose and
making a dance video. We also had some friendly competition between the groups.
Although this is not a typical activity a tourist would do, it was an amazing experience and I would recommend anyone to visit Naksan temple just for the beautiful and natural scenery.
