The Jeju Folk Village is known as the most Jeju-like place among Koreans.
Although it has all disappeared now, from the 1890s to the 1980s, it is a place where the lives of the people of Jeju remain as they were.
The houses, villages, schools, clinics, and workshops where hunters, farmers, fishermen, and haenyeo families lived are well preserved.
Jeju, a beautiful island at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, has a lot of volcanic rocks due to frequent volcanic eruptions until a thousand years ago, and a lot of sea breeze blows.
To block the sea breeze, the people of Jeju built stone walls and firmly tied the thatched roofs with ropes so that they would not fly away.
In one corner of the pigpen, there was a toilet on top of stone steps, and every time people used the toilet, the pigs came and ate what fell underneath.
When I traveled to Jeju Island in my 20s, I stayed in a homestay at a family's house and had to meet small black pigs snorting and staring at me eagerly, waiting for something to fall from under the toilet floor every time I went to the bathroom.
The old man was a farmer growing grains and veggies, and his wife was a Haenyeo, diver to catch sea cucumber, sea squirt, sea snail, abalone and octopus.
At that time, Korea was one of the economically poorest countries in the world.
However, most households were socially and culturally very rich based on love and friendship among family, friends, and neighbors.
The Jeju Folk Village has the house where I stayed and the toilet.
There are also the small black pigs, still smiling at me.
Today, the black pig pork barbecue and meat noodles are the most beloved traditional Jeju Island dishes among Koreans traveling to Jeju Island.
The black pigs are fed with grain, not human wastes any more.
