DMZ Tour

We quickly left the hotel this morning and headed out for the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). As I would come to feel, this would be one of the most intense days I have felt since crossing the US mexico border to do some work fro Esperanza...

A little history...the line of demarcation, the DMZ, or the border between North and South Korea came into exsistence arfter an srmastice at the end of the US involvement in the Korean War...today, the war is not over, there is a ceasefire agreement...

We approached the DMZ in our tour bus. OUr first stop was at a checkpoint in which a soldier, armed with his rifel, came onto the bus and checked all passports...he wore dark glasses and was dressed similarly to the pictures...we crossed a heavily guarded bridge still in South Korea...

The second stop was at a military base which is run by the US and UN as well at South Korea...at this point a US soldier entered the bus and checked all of the passports on the bus, his name was Rogers, a nice young man as would would learn later, who served in Afghanastan for one year and has been at the base for a little over two years now...

Finally through more windings roads and another stop, we could see the North Korean Flag...there are so many more details that will come to mind later...we finally stepped out of the bus for the final time...we had arrived, we were able to see North Korean soldiers and they watch ever move that you make...there is no pointing or lound noises aloud but you may take pictures...we were quickly shuffeled onlto and off of the "Freedom Tower" and then into one of the conrefence building which lies in both North and South Korea where we were able to set foot inside of North Korean territory for about five minutes and take pictures with the men who were guarding the doors and the room. They were UN soldiers...didn't move a muscle for three hours...they didn't speak, more, talk..it was realy intense as we only had five minutes...there is actually a table which lies in both countries, I will provide a picture...

It was interesting to be on both side at once, especially with all the tension, and even more so because we had to sign a waver which stated that we were soley responsible for being on the tour and no one else is responsible for our ssfety but us...we got to keep the paper we signed at the end because we survived...

As usual, more intense than I can explian in writing...but I have the details in my head...three only three more days as of tonight...

Many hugs...