Village Pulling Out All the Stops to Welcome Roh

Residents of Bongha Village in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, and supporters of outgoing President Roh Moo-hyun spent a busy Sunday preparing to welcome Roh, who will return to his hometown after leaving office.

All day long, the village was crowded with visitors, as 3,000 people dropped by in the morning and 10,000 more in the afternoon.

Because of the endless array of cars, it nearly took an hour to drive the three kilometers from Bonsan Intersection all the way up to Bongha Village.

Since car access was banned from 2 p.m., some visitors walked 1.5 kilometers to get to the village. The snack bar at the village`s parking lot was so full, latecomers had to eat their food standing.

Visitors looked around Roh’s birth home and his new private home and took photographs. It was so densely crowded around the private home that moving a step forward took effort.

The village was filled with 25,000 yellow balloons hung by members of a pro-Roh group and countless placards set up by members of nearby civic organizations and colleagues, relatives, and supporters of the outgoing president.

Placards read, “You’ve Made Us Happy”; “The Beginning and the End Are Always One”; and “Tomorrow Again, You are Our Hope.”

The Committee for the Welcoming Ceremony for President Roh set up a tent, a super-sized cooking pot and about 2,500 chairs.

Bongha Village chief Cho Yong-hyo said, “We are expecting about 10,000 visitors and are preparing food with the women’s organization of Jinyeong-eup.”

The staff of the welcoming ceremony strictly examined the screen on stage set up at the village square and audio facilities.

“I think the village has never been so excited as this time since the party celebrating President Roh’s inauguration in 2002,” said Park Yeong-jae, chairman of the Jinyeong-eup Promotion Committee. “Ten thousand people visited the village just in the afternoon.”

When Roh arrives at his home village on Monday afternoon, the ceremony will feature flower complementation, welcoming speeches by South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Tae-ho, Gimhae Mayor Kim Jong-gan and lawmakers, and welcoming videos played on the screen. Roh and his wife will then give speeches and walk into their home.

Before walking into their home, President Roh and the first lady will say prayers while burning a small moon house.

He will have the first dinner at his home village with his family and attend a welcoming party prepared by a pro-Roh group near his private home.

Since the completion of the row houses to be resided by his secretaries has been delayed to late May, they will stay in apartments until then.

manman@donga.com toto@donga.com