When I was stationed in South Korea during the late 1980's I went on several Month long Field Trips to remote areas of the country and always enjoyed observing the Koreans and their daily works and play. On one such outing I was the Mail Clerk, making a 200+ mile route daily picking up and distributing mail. I'd drive to the local distribution area and collect several sacks of mail and packages and then return to the Command post and sort it by Platoon and give to the Platoon Leaders that made daily visits to the Command tent. The Command Tent contained the Commanders Field Desk, The 1st Sgt's desk and the XO's desk. I had a long table along one wall with a 48 cup coffee urn and my field mail safe and sorting bins, each labeled with the destination section. When I was there it was open and when I left the area it was locked and under guard.
On these daily drive arounds I noted an old Woman was always at the back wall of our walled Compound certain hours of the day. I walked around the perimeter until I got to the spot where she was essentially "goldpanning" the open drain that led out of the 8 foot high cement wall of the compound. She had several small wicker baskets and was carefully sorting corn, peas, bits of meat and other edible items out of the refuse stream. I walked back in the compound and followed the wall until I came to the place where the pipe entered the walls and followed the depression in the dirt to the back of the Mess Hall building. The old Woman was there every day as the cooks prepared the meals and sent the waste down the drains. I wondered how many mouths she was feeding with her daily pannings.
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