Lena Nystrom tells the story of how NCS was first founded- When we started it it was reallv not called anything, although I cannot recall exactly when it happened it probablv was in 1967 or 1968. At eh time there was a lot of Scandinavians present in Seoul at the national Medical Center, but they mostly kept to themselves in Ulchiro, and apart from them there weren't that manyScandinavians in Seoul. I had made aquaintance with a Norweigan lady called Rando huh, married to a Korean and a nother Norweigan gal Nora Saevereid, a missionary who managed the World Vision's Childrens hospital near Gimpo. They travelled to the orphanages and brought back the sick children to their hospital.
Another Scandinavian was Randi Eriksson, the wife of Sweden's Charge d'affaire. Her husband was the first diplomat from Sweden sent to Korea, along with some Swedish and danish missionaries and also o doctor from the Faero Islands.
We all decided, in order ti keep our sanity, to meet for dinner at someone's house the first Monday each month. The first dinner was held at my house, we were about 8 people. We all enjoyed these dinners very much and looked forward to them
After a couple of times we thought we should all be of some use as well as enjoying ourselves. Nora S. had told us all about the cold floors in the hospital wards and that the children had nothing to wear on their feet, so we decided to knit socks for them. Who knows the number of socks we produced throughout the years ..
Lucia was celebrated by the Scandinavians at the Medical Center, there was a swedish manager there at the time who arranged for all the baked goods. After the NMC became under Korean management we held on to havin ghte celebration there. We all helped out to bake -the Saffrons buns were supplied by the Swedes in Panmunjon for many years. When Birgitta Shin arrived in Korea in the 70ties she took care of all the bun baking and arranged so that there was a proper Lucia parade. If there was a shortage of children volunteering, we could always make use of the vocalists and stjärngossar from Panmunyon. We also participated in the SIWA bazaar. We knitted garntomtar swith bleeding fingers as well as other decorations for the Christmas tree, and home bake dgoods to sell. The Danish ladies were some mean liver paté bakers and produced a fair amount. One Danish lady did Clara Waever embroidered Chrismas decorations, fantastic workmanship!
I had contacts and could provide us with table cloths from Almedahls weavery in Sweden. As soon as the doors opened at the bazaar, SWC- Scandinavian Women' Club, as was by then the name, was more or less runned down and we sold out on every single item! Through the years we kept a book were everyone attending a meeting would sign their name, it has been lost through the years. |
