Let's make the Tae-Wak
And painkiller of Haenyeo
Tae-wak : The symbol of and the essential item of the Haenyeo
Formal Haenyeo school classes start at 13 o'clock, but today the class starts at 10. Tae-wak making class is scheduled from 10 to 12. A student who graduated from the introductory and vocational classes of Hansupul Haenyeo school came here as the instructor of making Tae-wak.
The essence of Taewak is styrofoam. We tie it with plastic strap, and we tie the net(mangsari) around the styroform so we can put in what we caught. The more seafood one brings in, the bigger the net becomes, and because styrofoam has to withstand, the heavier weight, its size of styrofoam needs to be large. Haenyeo's Taewak is a lot bigger than what we make.
The class was scheduled from 10 to 12. It was half past 12, when it was actually done. If we make the line prettier and we put a lot of effort into a string, it could take much longer than this. We are greedy to make a more complete Taewak, but we were all sorry we can't help it because of the time.
Cleaning the sea
We did sea purification activities. Taking Taewak out and diving, we pick up trash instead of sea urchin or octopus. There were a lot of bait of fishing people on the breakwater. In the water, this bait really looks like a fish.
The rainy season of Jeju starts from today. Raining a little when I came to school in the morning, the rain stopped soon. But the wind is strong, I was swept from the coast to the sea continuously. While diving, Taewak flows towards the sea before I know it. It's more of a job to pick it up. Picking it up frantically, I hear a whistle in the distance. I was swept too far away. I thought it was a tide, but it wasn't. Because today 12:40 is the low tide, and it's time for water to continue to enter the coast afterwards. It was just the flow of water created by the wind. I came back thinking that the playground of Haenyeo school isn't that deep, so it's okay to go a little far. The further from the coast, the more garbage.
The chronic disease of Haenyeo :
headache, earache and the ringing in the ears
Today Haenyeo uncle is 77 years old. Is it because I'm used to it that I'm not surprised to hear she is in her 70's now? She says she has been doing water work since she was 18 years old, when young she has been to Kyeongbuk for water working for 4 years.
Haenyeo's 'eyes' are different from normal diving mask.
Older Haenyeo-s wear "big eyes" with magnifying glassIt's not because it is the symbol of their own and they stick to it, but because it has much better view. This rubber "big eyes" can be bought at Jeju 5-day market. Older Haenyeo-s wear the 'big eyes' with magnifying glass attached to the front. Anyway the 'Big eyes' have much much better sight. However the problem is that it has a nose in it and can not be pressure balanced. Failure to balance pressure can cause pain, pushing the eyedrums to the internal ear owing to water pressure. Taking this pain for granted, they take painkillers and work in the water. Today Haenyeo uncle says that she has taken painkillers for 30 years because of Haenyeo's chronic headache and earache. If they do only pressure equalizing wearing the mask to have a nose coming out, their earache would go away. However I can't dare say that to those who have worked in water for over 50 years.
Spartan teaching of Haenyeo
She is the Haenyeo uncle to keep diving in the water more than she breathes on the surface of the water. She can't go to work today because of Haenyeo school. She keeps going into the water over and over again, not floating on the water for a rest with us.
"Uncle! Why do you keep going in? Get some rest~"
"You guys look at me. I keep going in to watch me and learn! Go in! Go into the water and get something. You have to keep going to get better!"
Maybe this is how she started when she first learned water work(Mul-jil, 물질). Diving once or twice, she filled the net (Mang-sa-ri, 망사리) with seeweed (Cheon-cho, 천초) already. It's a great reward to go to Haenyeo school only to watch her slow and slow but fast and fast water work. It's a touching and on the other hand heartbreaking water work.
As a perfect duck dive she went into the water, and picked a huge sea urchin and gave it to us to eat. She even chewy and salty sea cucumber, picked and we ate it.
We said to help herself, and she said, "we are okay to eat a lot."
When she comes out to the land after class, I'm afraid she'll fall on the slippery floor with water, with the wight of the Tae-wak she's holding, and with her bent waist. I'm worried when there are so many people, so I deeply hope she doesn't get hurt every time she comes out of the water work.
#JeJu_Hansupul_Haenyeo_school #Jeju_Haenyeo_school #Hansupul_Haenyeo_school
#Hansupul #Haenyeo_school #Haenyeo
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#disease_of_Haenyeo #chronic_disease_of_Haenyeo
#cleaning_the_sea
