While at a sleepover at Justice Desk Africa we were preparing for the Women’s Month event on 12 August. As we were discussing and planning the layout of the day, Joanne came to us and said, “So guys, when we are finished here, we have a surprise for you!”
We were so excited and impatient to see the surprise, and were told to go to the training room. When we got there our hearts almost stopped beating from the shock. As we walked in the tables were arranged around the room and we each had to grab a seat in a group. Joanne then told us “Today we will be creating some zines!” ZINES! Okay! I thought to myself that it would take us forever! Luckily Joanne and Mama Su made it a bit easier with their instructions, but complicated with the writing - in a good way though! Joanne handed out the manuals, with the theme for the zines being DREAMS. On the first page we were tasked to write out our names in Korean; the second page had a huge picture with 5 words from the BTS lyrics, where each individual had to choose one word to write a poem or their story; and the third page in the manual had over 40 letters from the Korean alphabet that we learnt to pronounce.
Then the real work started as we set out to create our own zines. Joanne and Mama Su instructed us to take out 3 A4, fold them in half, and start thinking out of the box and using our creativity with crayons, magazines and different colour crayons. The thing that blew my mind the most was how we would use the Korean alphabet to create our names!
For me it was an amazing experience even though I struggled with writing my name in Korean. It was great but educational at the same time, because it felt like I was back at pre-school where I was learning to write my own name. We learnt some different types of Korea, that the Korean language is called Hangul and that their are two different ways to address someone depending on their age group. We also learnt how to say “thank you” and “I love you” in Korean and it was honestly so nice to learn to speak in a language we were not used to.
We also loved being able to spend some time with Joanne, Henry, Mama Su and Yunyoung! They welcomed us and loved us and even gave us all of the content we needed to make the zines. The day was incredible and I wish we could do it again and again. The most interesting part for me is that we all chose to write about Love. Clearly that was the strongest feeling we mutually felt on the day. We even ended the day with some music and dancing, it was a truly magical experience!
Written by Justice Desk Africa's Amagorhakazi, Talisha