Here is another great program by USFK that has gotten some play by the Korean media:

In the morning June 27th, 13 US servicemembers from the 2nd ID and 13 Korean families set up sisterhood relationship at the Uijeongbu Office of Education.

The program was provided by the Uijeongbu Office of Education in its effort to enhance understanding of each other.

Participating US servicemembers and Korean families are going to do a variety of activities together such as making traditional Korean foods and visiting historical sites. They are also planning on celebrating Korean and US national holidays such as Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving) and US Thanksgiving Day together until the end of this year.

Also scheduled are events such as pep rallies, barbeque parties and sports games.

The Uijeongbu Office of Education is going to have participating families submit User Created Contents (UCC) and writings that describe their experience. Awards are going to be given to the families with lots of activities.

SGT Roger Capote, who participated in the program with his wife and a daughter, said, “I wanted to make Korean friends and travel around the country. We will also be throwing birthday parties for children in both Korean and American ways.”

Son Chul-ho, the family who has set up sisterhood relationship with SGT Capote, commented, “Looking at the fact that both of our families love to travel, there seems to be a lot to share between us. The first thing we are going to do is to eat Korean food for the lunch today.”

Kim Hak-jin, the superintendent of Uijeongbu Office of Education, stated, “We hope the program could help US servicemembers to make events that deserve permanent remembrance of South Korea. Korean families will also have benefits of learning English and getting to know a little bit of American culture.”  [Yonhap]

This is actually a good idea if soldiers can be set up with Korean families with similiar interests.   In out battalion we had a similiar program but used the families of KATUSA soldiers.  Soldiers are much more likely go out and do things in Korea if they have someone to show them because the fact of the matter is that most soldiers are not comfortable doing things on their own in Korea and thus stay in the ville.  Every soldier who participated in our battalion KATUSA home stay program ended up having a much more positive experience in Korea, which this division wide program should have similiar results.