Burning In Korea

The dark circle on the right side of the street by the curb is a little fire pit.

I returned home with Lauren after attending a field trip and found the neighborhood filled with smoke. The farmers were burning in the fields. I decided to grab the camera and document this practice. Burning the fields, trash, etc., is so common here in Sacheon and I'm assuming rural Korea. It's also normal for our neighbors to burn trash and weeds in the yard. I've seen small unattended trash fires set by the street. We constantly smell fire here. Coming from North Texas and California it seems strange and dangerous.

What seems especially odd is that I've never seen a fire truck or wildfire here. I'm sure it helps that everything but the fields and hills are concrete or marble but seriously people burn all the time and no wild fires, accidents??? I mean things catch fire all the time at home. I'm constantly hearing the fire engines or watching a news report about a fire on the Tellie. Here in Korea, they do things that seem so careless to a westerner but it somehow works for them.