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www.groovekorea.com / May 2014 34 Edited by Elaine Ramirez (Elaine@groovekorea.com) COMMUNITY An elderly lady nearby sat close to the school gates with a bewildered look. Like Kim, she was also waiting for the bus to Jindo, where she would join her daughter and son-in-law. “They received a message from the Coast Guard that their daughter may have been found. They (Coast Guard officials) asked them if she was wearing Adidas. They said, ‘Does she have a spot on her stomach?’ The Coast Guard doesn’t want the parents to see the bodies. They are trying to identify them to spare them more trauma,” she said. “They (my daughter and son-in-law) said the screaming inside the gym has stopped. It’s calmer. I want to be there.” Park Na-young sobbed as she laid a bou- quet of flowers on the memorial that had been she collapsed. Sh e had hope, but then all her hope was gone.” As of press time, the cause of the catastro- phe remained unclear. Experts suggested that a sharp turn may have caused the boat, which was running late due to earlier fog, to shift off balance. The government has said that exces- sive cargo or renovations may have destabi- lized it. The search effort has involved more than 200 rescue boats, 35 aircraft, 13 fishing boats and more than 600 people, including navy and civilian divers. It has been hampered by bad weather and strong currents, and res- cuers have told of how they have had to inch their way through the upturned boat’s decks, feeling for bodies with their hands due to poor visibility. Friends and relatives of the missing were at first hopeful that their loved ones could be found, but as the days passed, it became ag- onizingly clear that it was no longer a rescue operation. Relatives now say they simply want to retrieve the bodies of those who perished as quickly as possible. Many parents have ac- set up at the school. Her friend from elemen- tary school was presumed dead. “Even though they hadn’t seen each other in a while, she wanted to be here,” explained her mother, who accompanied her. Each night after the Sewol sank, mourn- ers gathered at a local park near the school to hold candlelight vigils. On Easter Sunday, around 2,000 mourners joined together in the darkness to remember the victims and pray for a miracle. At the gathering, during which members of the Christian and Buddhist faiths spoke, a pastor told the hushed crowd that the deacon of the local church could not be there because his son was one of the victims. “It’s been 100 hours since the boat sank. Even if there is a 1 percent chance that survivors can be found, we must keep searching,” he said. Another woman fought back tears as she explained that she had traveled to Jindo after hearing that her friend’s daughter had died. “It was so painful to watch my friend agonizing. At first my friend’s child was on the list of sur- vivors, but this was misinformation,” she said. “After she found out she wasn’t on the list, ‘It’s been 100 hours since the boat sank. Even if there is a 1 percent chance that survivors can be found, we must keep searching.’ Local pastor in Ansan