Group Study Exchange and Katie Deverson

Group Study Exchange is a vocational program that is designed to link people and cultures and help build world peace. Katie Deverson's visit to South Korea as part of this year's GSE team certainly fulfilled those criteria. Katie is a registered nurse in pediatric critical care at McMaster Children's Hospital. She is also a photography lover and took many great photos of South Korea.

Bob Morrow a member of the district GSE committee and a past GSE team leader introduced Katie to the club. 

She gave an overview of the variety of foods she ate while in the homes of various host families, indicating that she enjoyed everything even though it was quite different from her usual foods.

She was quite taken by the DMZ or Demiltarized Zone, a 4 km strip of land that separates North and South Korea. The constant and very evident military presence is something most Canadians are not familiar with. She visited Cherowon, Yanggu and Sokcho which were close to the DMZ. She was close enough at times to take photos of the North Korean Soldiers across the DMZ who were in guard towers.

Katie taked about High Five Moments. The temple stay in Sinheungsa had the GSE team in monk uniforms doing evening prayers and 108 bows to Buddha. She said this was very spiritual but quite a workout. Hiking in Seorakson National Park and walking the beach on the Sea of Japan were highlights. In Donghae and Samcheok the team had a cabin by the water and was able to share in a grand Canadian style BBQ where they made instant connections with their hosts. The last High Five Moment was at the district conference in Wonju.

Katie thanked the club for sponsoring her and allowing her to learn about culture, religion and her vocation from her South Korean experience. She said she learned more about herself in the 30 days than she thought was possible.