Finally, the full-scale snow that the children had been waiting for has arrived here in Seolpi Village. The day before, it started snowing lightly around lunchtime, and it got stronger at 5pm, when the kids came home and played a game of badminton. Until then, it didn’t fall that much because the excited children had just raked the snow off the ground and made a snowman. By the time I went to bed, the snowfall had thinned and showed signs of stopping. Then Gyeongjin, a fourth grader, becomes impatient. However, the weather forecast said it would snow throughout the morning and continue to snow even after the sun rises. So I said something. “When you wake up, there will probably be a lot of piles. Don’t worry~”
The child smiles brightly and says, “Thank you.” I don’t know what I’m thankful for… After helping the kids make an ecological map, I fell asleep while thinking about what to have for breakfast, and I continued to nap. I woke up once an hour. In the end, I woke up at 2:30 in the morning and completed the draft of the ecological map. Then I thought of snow. When I opened the window, I saw that Snowflake Village had turned into a snowy country, as expected. There was a soft layer of snow on the car roof, stairs, yard, and roof. I think the kids will probably be closed from school today. Teachers go to work from Hyeonri. If this much snow accumulates, it would be very difficult to remove it within school hours.
Local road 418, which runs from Yangyang through the Jochimryeong Tunnel to Hyeonri, that is, Jochimryeong Road, snow removal work is proceeding smoothly. There are also snow removal vehicle bases located throughout the area. However, the snow-covered field road that leads to Seol-pi Village from Jindong Intersection is far behind in snow removal priorities. It’s like removing snow from the main road first and then clearing the smaller roads. So, last winter (in fact, in mid-March), due to heavy snowfall, teachers were unable to come to work because they could not clear the snow by school start time. The teachers who came to Jindong intersection turned around and went back to Hyeonri… Thanks to this, the children had fun playing in the snow all day. I think it will probably be the same today.
My expectations at dawn were completely wrong. Snowplows came in early in the morning to clear the main road. Thanks to this, schools were not closed. The story I heard later was that the head of Jindong 2-ri strongly requested a snowplow since dawn, so a snowplow came to Seolpi Village. Thanks to this, recycling collection vehicles also arrived. I also took the village bus. Of course, the teachers also came to work well.
For snow removal work, you need to lend a hand, even if it’s just a little kid’s hand. lol I contacted the teacher around 8 am. If there is a place to clear snow at school, please let me know. Then they asked me to only clean up near the children’s school route. Starting school was postponed by one hour. Kyungjin and I put down our breakfast spoons and went to work on snow removal. It is usually a 2-minute walk from the accommodation to the school. But trying to clear snow alone is a long, long way. They say they even borrow a cat’s help to plant rice. When doing snow removal work, you must at least borrow a fern hand. This is because you cannot have lunch unless you have a car access road from the school entrance to the front door.
Jindong branch school cooks and delivers meals every day from Kirin Elementary School, the main school. So, a car loaded with food must arrive in front of the school entrance for the children to eat. Children gathered at school each carry snow removal tools such as snow shovels and snow shovels and shovel snow. The two teachers also push their eyes hard. As the only adult male, I pushed the snow with my entire body using the latest technology, a wheeled shovel. After clearing for about an hour, the entrance road for the food truck was secured. The children also sweated profusely and looked like they had accomplished it.
Dayoon, a first-year student who is good at imitating adult words, said this before returning to class after clearing the snow. “I was excited when it snowed, but it’s really hard to clean it up. I don’t think I’m going to like it all that much.”
The children have grown another inch. After returning from school, the children rolled around in the snow all day and enjoyed the winter wonderland that had come again.
