"Up from Here" Chapter 5 : Hawaii
In mid-April of 1995 I quit my Job in Seoul, South Korea teaching ESL in the third largest city in the world. They would not get me a bed to sleep on. Part of the teacher’s agreement is the employer provides for housing, which included furniture. Teachers paid for their own utilities. I was tired of sleeping on a mat, so I quit and left two weeks pay behind with a $1,000.00 in my pocket cash, a one-way ticket to Honolulu, Hawaii because I did not want to go home to Redding, California. And why not take a chance, as I may never, ever get another opportunity in the future to go to Hawaii in my lifetime. I ran out of money after about two weeks of staying at a YMCA Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii. If I would have thinking straight at the time I would have waited until payday and then left. Because that school’s payday was in the middle of the month. Instead of at the first of the month like the first school, I worked at. I can’t go back and change it now. It was too late, I was already here.
I was working on a book at the time called, “The Miracles of God”, which I have yet to finish it if I ever will now. After two weeks in the YMCA, one of the least expensive Hotels at $32 or $36 dollars a night, I do not recall which. I was hoping to find a job, it never happened and I ran out of money after about two weeks and ended up pushing a shopping cart to the homeless shelter in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii. This was the first time in my life I had been homeless.
I kept looking for work but could not find any. I kept going to the job placement center looking for work, as that was one of the requirements for getting emergency food stamps that I had to apply for because I had no more money left. The social worker even let me use his P. O. box to get my mail, instead of having my mail go to the homeless shelter. I still do not remember his name, but he was a native Hawaiian working for the Social Services Department.
The homeless shelter kept the homeless close to downtown and away from the regular tourist areas. In order to get a mat the homeless had to get in line around 4 p.m. to get a number that could be used at 7 or 8 p.m. when the doors opened for the homeless shelter. You were kicked out after breakfast and could not come back until lunchtime, then, at 4 p.m. the lottery more or less for mats. At 5 p.m. dinner call, then kicked out again until 7 or 8 p.m.
I complained about not having a mat to sleep on in Seoul, South Korea and end up in Honolulu, Hawaii sleeping on a mat. The Lord taught me to be thankful for what you do have as you never know where you may end up in a worse situation, than the one you complained about being in. So where did I end up? I ended up on the Island of Paradise, sleeping on a mat on the floor in a homeless shelter, on the Island of O’ahu in Honolulu, Hawaii. There was no way I could hitch a ride home, as it would have been a long swim across the Pacific Ocean.
I had applied for a job teaching English as Second Language where else but back in South Korea. I was willing to give it one more try and what choice did I have I could not go back I had no money for airfare for a return trip back home to Redding, California. Even if I would have wanted to no one in the family had the money for it either.
In fact at the YMCA there was a time I was thinking about committing suicide and I at least called the helpline and they contacted my family in Redding, California and my sister-in-law Nancy Dickinson called me in my room at the YMCA and put my Mom on the phone. who had been worried sick because they had not heard from me since I left Seoul, South Korea in April. It was the middle of May and I recall going to the shopping mall and seeing them videotape the “Wheel of Fortune” game show. I even went to a church service and they were no help either. Some guy from the church said he was going to stop by and bring me some food, but he never showed up. I do not know what happened to him and why he never came to help me. So much for someone claiming to be a Christian, I guess.
For me Hawaii was an interesting place but too expensive to live and find a job, at least for me it was at the time. Other than, odd jobs that construction contractors would hire homeless people and then cheat them out of their pay by paying them the first day in cash and then carrying the rest of the labor, then they would refuse to pay you. They even promised lunch and the first day was great take-out food, after that it was garbage you would not want to feed a dog. The only good thing about having a job was in the shelter, if you had a job, you could get into your locker and take a shower before everyone else did and get your number early for a mat. Where those without jobs had to wait in line at 4 p.m. for the lottery. You were given a mat number when you got off work and arrived at the shelter, which was one of the lower numbers.
I quit the job on the third day and walked to the homeless shelter, as I did not have any money for bus fare or a bus pass. While working I ruined a good pair of tennis shoes I had just bought a few weeks earlier, when I was still staying at the YMCA. There was a young kid in his early twenties I was working with at the time that was staying in the homeless shelter who said to me one day. “James,” he said, “There is one-way to look at this situation we are all in. I then said, “What is that?” and he said, “It’s up from here.” and he was right it was up from there to where I am at now.
One day this other friend of mine in the homeless shelter asked me if I wanted to go with him for a ride around the island on the bus. He said he knew a way to use bus transfers where we could ride around the whole island all-day in one direction and wanted to know if I wanted to go with him? I said, “Sure why not what else did we have to do”.
I had already applied for all the jobs I could that week and I went to the interview and met Sunny who was doing the hiring for the teaching job in South Korea and she said she would let me know as soon as she found out if I got the job or not. She said she would get in touch ASAP and for me to be patient. What choice did I have but to wait, as I was not going anywhere off the island to the mainland anytime soon?
We left for our little adventure; we headed in one direction on the bus and got a transfer, then got on another bus going the opposite direction and when we tried to get another transfer the bus driver refused because we had the wrong transfer to go the other direction. In the meantime, I watched as this person at the front of the bus said real loud, “I need to get to the airport, I need to get to the airport”. I thought to myself at the time, “Well, you are not going to get to the airport on this bus it is going in the wrong direction away from the airport and heading downtown”.
The only way she was going to get to the airport fast was for her to get off the bus and take a taxis to the airport. My other friend and I both decided his plan was not working for some reason, so we decided to get off the bus back at the shelter. So we got off and so did the woman that was in a hurry to get to the airport. I thought to my self, it was odd what she was saying and I watched her for a while until for some reason I looked away and she was gone, as fast as she had arrived on the bus. It was like she had disappeared and I did try to watch her walk away but something made me look away after I did she was gone and nowhere to be seen again, along with the person she was with at the time.
I then went inside the homeless shelter to check for messages that I might have on the bulletin board and there was a message there for me from Sunny? Sonny had left a message that she would be in the K-mart parking lot waiting for me to get back because she needed to see me because I had been hired for a teaching job back in South Korea. I rushed out the door because the message was a few hours old and I did not know if Sonny was still there waiting for me in the K-mart parking lot across the street for me to get back and get her message in time. Sure enough, as my luck was beginning to look up, Sonny was there in the K-mart parking lot with her daughter waiting for me to show up.
I went up to Sonny in her car and she said “get your stuff you are leaving on a flight tomorrow morning for Seoul, South Korea but the job is further south of Seoul by three hours in a city called Kumi City, South Korea and you will have to take two fights one into Seoul, South Korea and a connecting flight to Dague. Where you will be picked up and driven the rest of the way, which is about a 45 minute to an hour drive from Dague, South Korea. She asked me if I still had my passport. Thinking back just now I do not remember how I got a vacation visa. I think Sunny already did it as Sonny was also Korean herself.
Sonny said she would be back in about an hour she had to drop off her daughter and pick up her son. That way it would give me time to get my stuff out of my locker. She said she would be paying for one night stay at the YMCA and we needed to go buy me some new clothes and shoes to work in. Which meant new dress shirts, slacks, and socks, shoes and all new underwear too. A new haircut as well, I could pick up the rest of my stuff from the shelter stored in the storage area that you can only have access to when you leave the shelter for good, permanently. I could pick it up on my way to the airport in the morning with a taxi.
We met again about an hour later and went shopping and everything else on the list, then to the YMCA where Sonny gave me my airline ticket and my vacation visa and $40.00 cash for food and a taxi in the morning. Sonny left after dropping me off and I went into the YMCA to the room she had already pre-paid for me. It was on the same floor but the front street side of the building instead of the backside room like I had before, where the room was overlooking the pool area below. After I took a shower I got on my knees and began to pray and cry in thankfulness that I was finally getting off the island of paradise. Hawaii is a nice place to visit but trying to survive and live there is another story in its self.
In the morning after I woke up I stopped at the shelter to pick up my three suitcases, gave away all of my food stamps that I had left, as I had no need for them anymore. They do not take food stamps in South Korea. I gave a small amount to this one person I knew that needed them and the rest of them to a young mother with four children on that Sunday I left, which just so happen to be Mother’s Day 1995.
After ten days in the homeless shelter I finally found employment again as an angel was looking over me. I was right back where I started and came from when I was teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in Seoul, South Korea (third largest city in the world) at another Hog Won (Private School) Tun-Tun Language Academy, but this time it was Kumi City in South Korea, a little farther south at an Elementary School with twenty minute classes that were in conjunction with private classes that were held after school hours in the afternoon until around 5 PM. I had a car provided to drive for my use and better housing with a bed to sleep in, on the second floor in an apartment complex (located near Camp Casey, a US Army camp in South Korea) a 30 minutes drive out in the country from the school in downtown Kumi City, South Korea.
I ended up quitting this school too and found another job at Prime Language School two weeks after I quit Tun Tun. I was still living in the same apartment as they had no way to kick me out of it, because the owner of the apartment said I did not have to leave.
I Believe in Angels
Heavenly angels, often referred to as guardian angels, are mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures. Therein we learn that angels are spiritual beings created by God to serve him, and sent by God to watch over the human race, to deliver his message, to guard and protect us from danger, to do battle with other spiritual beings on our behalf.
Since the beginning of time, angels have delivered God's messages to mankind. Sometimes the messages are warnings of impending danger, sometimes instructions as to what to do in a particular situation, sometimes they are simply "there" as protection from enemy forces. Sometimes they bring joyful announcements as in the day they announced the birth of Jesus.
I don't know about you .... but I Believe in Angels!”
Comments
Post a Comment