I've been talking a lot about refugee villages, but a lot of them are more historic and involve domestic Korean refugees who were resettled any time between the 1940s and 1980s.
But one of the abandoned neighbourhoods I've been visiting since early 2022 also hosted a few facilities designed to welcome and assist foreign refugees, and an Ethiopian community had sprung up in the area. A major redevelopment project has pushed them around and made them resettle, with less affordable housing to choose from.
One of these refugees has started writing for my newspaper, and I knew he still lived in the area, so I suggested we walk through the area together.
1. First he took me to this old market that he seemed to have fond memories of. His own home was right behind it.
2. I brought him up looking for a way into the sealed-off abandoned zone, and on the way he noticed this building, which he said he recalled being lively and full of people before.
3. As we navigated the maze of alleys, I slowly started to tell we were headed in the right direction.
4. Fences cut off most of the streets leading in, but the area is so porous that there are other ways in.
5. This was his first home he lived in after arriving in Korea and completing whatever processing.
6. It was small, just a kitchen and one bedroom, which he shared with one or two others.
7. This is the front entranceway of the place. On the left side of that big concrete block you can see a hook hanging off it. That's for a showerhead. The front entranceway to this house was the shower room. I've never seen anything like that.
8. The toilet was an outhouse right outside.
9. We wandered uphill through the neighbourhood, which was pretty overgrown by this time of year. I went first, carrying a stick to hack at plants and spider webs. He was wearing shorts, which gave me some concern about ticks.
10. We found our way gradually up higher.
11. This house was where he first stayed on arrival in Korea. It seems like it was a shelter for incoming refugees, though I don't know more details about who was welcomed there.
12. The interior was pretty modern.
13. Here's a view from a nearby roof.
14. That big tree that's directly above his camera is a huge ginkgo tree in the yard of that refugee intake house. He admired it, but I'm not sure what will happen when the area's redeveloped. I have seen trees saved before though.
15. Check out that overgrown building.
16. He led me deeper into the area, following sloping alleys he had walked hundreds of times.
17. Near one of the exits was a cat feeding area.
18. Down below, the demo had begun. That was where his second private home in Korea was. He's since moved to his third, also nearby.
19. We found a trampoline, and each photographed each other jumping on it.
20. Another view of the area, with Seoul's financial district in the distance.
21. At the top of the hill was a still-active park, which I expect will probably stay around if it hasn't been fenced off already.
22. Afterward, he brought me to a nearby Ethiopian restaurant.
