Awoke after a fitful slumber at 3 a.m. yesterday, feeling restless, I poured myself a Soju mango cocktail and got to work, at last, on finishing this thing. Finishing something, at least! Something! So, thirty-two hours later – a nine-hour workday and a typical Friday night at The Underground in between, of course – I have, at long last, finished…something.

In spite of my slight embarrassment, I do feel a short disclaimer here is warranted and justified. So, here goes. As a college student (and an English teacher in South Korea), the acquisition of new editing software was (and still is) not an option (sadly) and so after many hours of woe, I finally surrendered to the fact that at this point in time the only feasible way for me to cut this film would be via Windows Movie Maker. (Boo! Double boo.) That being said, I have encountered lots of obstacles and little annoyances throughout the editing process, never truly feeling satisfied with the output. But. Despite my frustrations with the project and my disappointment with the final cut, I think posting what I have produced, regardless of its sub-standard quality, is still better than nothing, especially considering the time that volunteers have spent being interviewed (their generosity and patience) (when they could have been out playing in mud) and the nights spent trying to get around WMM’s single-track simplicity with the naïve hope of creating something worth watching.

So, on that note, I downloaded a trial version of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 in order to output the project because WMM can only handle about three minutes of video at any given time (argh!), but the trial version, it appears, is missing a heap of essential features and won’t allow me to export a clean cut with the proper frame size. Anyway! I digress. The moral of the story is that technology can be a saving grace (what I would do – what I wouldn’t do! – to have Final Cut Pro at my fingertips!); it is also possible to do something with a simple program like Windows Movie Maker. And, at the end of the day, all you can do is your best and your best is as good as it gets (mine anyway!) and that, that is good enough. So, I do apologise for the sometimes awkward transitions and the poor audio quality, but I have done my best to make it bearable! I hope you can put it out of your mind for the duration of the film. It is, after all, only seventeen minutes. What would you have done with those seventeen minutes anyway? Make some toast. Maybe eat it? Play some War Craft? Melt some cheese? Put it on the toast.

To find out more about volunteering in Seoul, please visit: Mustard Seed Seoul and Volunteer for PLUR! on Facebook.

At the end of February 2010, I moved from my bright and cozy bubble-gum apartment in Ottawa, Canada to Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea (on the Seoul Metro Yellow Line).

Here in Suji-gu, I am teaching English at a hagwon and producing a documentary film on expat philanthropy in Seoul, in correspondence with Algonquin College’s Documentary Production program.

Many foreigners and expats arrive in South Korea and wish to volunteer and make connections with Koreans. The documentary Seoul, Peace and Mustard Seeds aims to provide insight into the world of philanthropy in Seoul’s English-speaking expat community. Seoul, Peace and Mustard Seeds will look at the social issues surrounding poverty, education and unequal opportunity in the bright, vivacious capital of one of the world’s most developed countries. The film will focus on the ingenuity and caring of small clusters of compassionate individuals who have created a space in which they can give back – and are giving back (dearly) – to the community in which they dwell.

Mustard Seed Seoul is a new and relatively small group that strives to help underprivileged Korean children from low-income or single parent families learn English.

PLUR is a group that organizes volunteers lending their hands at soup kitchens every weekend, distributing food to the homeless around Seoul Station every Sunday, and coordinates regular visits to Hyang-ae orphanage.

HOPE, an organization created by three Canadian English teachers, seeks to address the issue of unequal access to education for children in Seoul by providing English lessons free of charge in a fun, safe and accessible space. It runs 20 different centers throughout Seoul and hopes to one day open The School of HOPE.

Seoul, Peace and Mustards looks at the beautiful collision of human beings, both foreign and native to South Korea, and how they are turning their work into love in action.