Oh okay. I asked little miss VIPPER what she thought stood out about the time spent there, and she said something that was pretty interesting to me. She said that once the culture shock wore off it was pretty much like living anywhere else. Maybe this is just us, but once you acclimate to a particular culture's idiosyncracies you stop judging them and just see them as people. One of the VIPest things about being military I guess is learning that all people are basically the same!
Well one of the things I did notice and never did grow accustomed to was the way Fillipenoes are treated there. They are the manual labor, the sex trade and the slave labor. As I understand it the prevailing view in Asia is that they aren't really people so it doesn't matter how you treat them. I found it really disheartening hearing the stories that some of the civilian labourers would tell. During my lunch break I started to make a habit of heading into the ville and frequenting the smaller stands and restaurants. No particular reason, I just like a varied diet. Anywho many of the Fillipeno labourers spoke English as well as tagalong and hangul. Their stories were always different but there were common themes. The woman almost universally were told they were being brought to Korea to become dancers, singers, or artists by 'scouting companies.' They were brought over on entertainers visas and as soon as they got there they were told they had to pay the cost of being brought. The 'scouts' would take their passports and drag them to juicy bars where they were told they could make money to pay back what they owed. These bars sold over priced drinks to service members and used the girls as slave hostesses. The whole thing was disgusting. The girls never were able to pay off what they owed because the bar would charge them food and rent at an exorbinent rate. If a girl didn't make enough money for the bar they would sell her to a whore house. If she did make enough any guest that paid the bartender could do whatever he wanted to her. IDK the whole thing was disgusting, but according to the girls I met, it was much better then they could expect in the rest of Asia. I don't know if that is the kind of thing you were interested in hearing about but that is how ugly the world can be.