[FRIENDS OF KOREA] An American teenager in Seoul in 1967

In August 1966, an American family of 10, including eight children aged between 1 and 15, arrived at Kimpo Airport in Seoul. This was just prior to the arrival of the first volunteers of the Peace Corps K-1, as their school began in early September. The older children attended Seoul Foreign School (SFS) in Yeonhui-dong, located behind Yonsei University.

The school's founders were among the same missionaries who had established Yonsei University, such as the Underwoods, Allens, and Avisons. Today, a statue of Horace Grant Underwood stands in front of one of the Yonsei buildings.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the children were not very familiar with the outside world. When their father, Kevin O Donnell, who was the first Peace Corps country director for Korea, told them he had received a new job and they were moving to Korea, the kids initially thought he had said Berea, a Cleveland suburb near the airport.

They wondered why anyone would want to move there. However, their father clarified that it was a foreign country situated between China and Japan. This news excited most of the family members, except for one older sister whose thoughts were not recorded in the source.