She is one of two people in the village who stand out, she said. The other is the only handicapped person there. He is mentally retarded, cannot speak and has difficulty getting around. One day, she was using public transportation in another city and noticed him waiting for a bus. “It was getting dark and he looked cold and a little worried,” she wrote. She realized he couldn’t read — the only way to decipher which bus to take — and so she got off to help him. “He cannot speak but he smiled happily when he saw me and grunted.” She gestured him onto the correct bus and held his crutches while a stranger lifted him on. Then she directed the bus driver to his house. “I felt responsible for him because I was the only one on the (bus) from Khutsubani and since he was from my village I had to take care of him,” she wrote her father. “As I was walking home I felt proud that I was able to look out for the handicapped man the way other villagers looked out for me when I first arrived.” Later, she wrote, she laughed when she realized that she had — at one time — felt sorry for the “village idiot” because he couldn’t communicate and is so different. “I laughed when I realized there are two village idiots,” she wrote. “I am number two.
Jeesun “Agnus” Shin serves as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia
Life in the Peace Corps
Niceville High School graduate volunteering in Republic of Georgia
Wendy Victora
Sunday March 23rd, 2008
BLUEWATER BAY — For his birthday, Ong-In “John” Shin asked his youngest daughter to write him a story about her life as a Peace Corps volunteer.
The Bluewater Bay businessman hasn’t seen his daughter since last June, when she left for a Peace Corps assignment in the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union.
Jeesun “Agnus” Shin, a 2002 Niceville High School graduate, gave her father the present he wanted. She sent him a story about her life in the small village of Khutsubani that made him smile and made him proud.
“More than funny, it touched my heart,” said Ong-In, who brought his family to the Emerald Coast from South Korea more than 20 years ago. “She was helping handicapped person.
“The way she writes it always makes me laugh at a point, but underneath laugh there is something that touched my heart. I felt strongly that she was doing something nice.”
Jeesun will spend 27 months in the Republic of Georgia. Her parents are planning to visit her this spring.
She is teaching English at a school in the village of about 3,000 residents.
In her story, Jeesun writes about her arrival in the village, where she was clearly recognized as “different.”
“I was their American,” she wrote. “Even people I did not know recognized me as a member of their village and would help me.”
She is one of two people in the village who stand out, she said. The other is the only handicapped person there. He is mentally retarded, cannot speak and has difficulty getting around.
One day, she was using public transportation in another city and noticed him waiting for a bus.
“It was getting dark and he looked cold and a little worried,” she wrote.
She realized he couldn’t read — the only way to decipher which bus to take — and so she got off to help him.
“He cannot speak but he smiled happily when he saw me and grunted.”
She gestured him onto the correct bus and held his crutches while a stranger lifted him on. Then she directed the bus driver to his house.
“I felt responsible for him because I was the only one on the (bus) from Khutsubani and since he was from my village I had to take care of him,” she wrote her father.
“As I was walking home I felt proud that I was able to look out for the handicapped man the way other villagers looked out for me when I first arrived.”
Later, she wrote, she laughed when she realized that she had — at one time — felt sorry for the “village idiot” because he couldn’t communicate and is so different.
“I laughed when I realized there are two village idiots,” she wrote. “I am number two.
“People still communicate with me even though it is difficult and they help me because they know it is harder for me.”
Just like the mentally retarded man, she added.
