For a taste of home, Filipinos gather at `Little Manila`

For the hundreds of Filipinos who flock to a small corner of Seoul on Sundays, home doesn`t seem so far away.

Stacks of curry powder, shrimp stir fry sauce, instant noodles, shampoo, CDs - all from the Philippines - can be seen on the Hyehwa Rotary.

"Annyeonghaseyo," says a Filipino truck owner to Korean passers-by. "I`ve been in Korea for a year and I love living here." She also offers a slice of Filipino pudding, made of grated cassava roots, which tastes like sweet potatoes.

A healthy-looking Filipino man takes out boxes of frozen tilapia fish from his truck and sets up for the day. "Tilapia tastes softer than other fish," he says. He also sells dried fish and fermented salty fish.

Most of the Filipinos at the market are migrant workers, often exhausted and stressed out from frequent nightshifts. Speaking in their language, Tagalog, they meet like-minded Filipino friends, hang out, and join the mass at the nearby Hyewha-dong Catholic Church.

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Hernandez, 39, who sells international phone cards and a handful of second-hand mobile phones says he rarely sees Koreans at this Sunday market. "They are all Filipinos. Few other foreigners and Koreans come here on Sundays."

Another vendor lures passers-by with "turon," fried spring rolls stuffed with banana. The vendor peels off the banana skin and wraps the banana with dough, dips it in brown sugar and fries it.

"Isn`t it fun? Mmm. This is quite sweet," says a Korean man to his family as he tastes the turon. "I live around here, so I come here often. There are many interesting foods on Sundays here. This market used to be a small one but has grown little by little and now it`s big."

The intriguing Filipino delicacies do not stop there. Steamed duck eggs are available for Filipinos who long for a taste of home. Some visitors` foreheads wrinkle up at the scene but the seller brags that they are good for joints and stamina.

Across from the vending trucks, Filipino women sit on the street and sell vegetables such as bitter melon, sweet potato stalks, spinach, and long beans.

As more and more Filipino products fill up the street, the space gets crowded. Then, harsh yelling is heard from a couple of crackdown staff from the local Jongno District Office who are trying to secure enough space on the pedestrian street. "If you don`t cooperate with us, you can`t sell these here. Do you understand?" says the man to the vendors whose boxes of fish and vegetables seemed to get in the way of pedestrians. Filipino sellers put their boxes back on their trucks and the market regains its vigor as if nothing had happened.

When the clock strikes 1:30 p.m., crowds of Filipinos go into Hyewha-dong Cathlic Church which holds a mass in Tagalog as well as in English. "As over 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, thousands of Filipinos in Korea come to the mass here. I`ve been here over seven years," says Wilma, 43, who works as a maid during the week and helps the proceedings of the mass on Sundays.

Many Filipinos spare no effort and time in joining the mass every Sunday. Factory coworkers, Herman and Maria, make a four-hour journey from Icheon in Gyeonggi Province. "It is the only mass in Tagalog - we have no other choice. But we like being in here," they say.

Even though crowds of Filipinos nearly block the entrance of the church where the Filipino market starts, Korean churchgoers do not seem to feel uncomfortable about it. "I think it`s good to offer mass to Filipinos because they have rights to their religion and their culture. If we were in their shoes, we would want to do the same in a foreign land," says a Korean church member Yoo Myeong-ja, 50.

Many Filipinos in Korea carry on with their exhausting lives but put all their worries and troubles before God and forget them in this "little Manila."

To get to the church, take Subway Line No. 4 to Hyehwa Station. Come out of Exit No. 1 and walk toward the end of the street. The market is formed along the Hyewha Rotary, from Dongseong High School to the entrance of Hyehwa-dong Catholic Church.

(yoonmi@heraldm.com)



By Kim Yoon-mi