Help me build houses in INDIA!!!

I've signed up to spend my Golden Week vacation this year volunteering in India. I'll be going with an organization called Longitude, a non-profit who "facilitates volunteer opportunities in conjunction with our foreign partners, raises funds for project growth and improvement, and provides material and programmatic support for the foreign NGOs with whom we collaborate". The specific NGO I will be working with is called the Association of Relief Volunteers, "an Indian non-profit working on issues of human rights and caste discrimination in rural Indian villages."


photo from golongitude.org

In particular, I will be helping to build houses in Chevuru Village. The following information is taken from the May 2010 trip page:

Chevuru Village Background

A total of 459 Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), including 70 widows, live in thatched mud huts in Chevuru. Most of the adults in the village are unskilled agricultural laborers and are unable to find work outside the 3-month growing season each year. Because they earn barely enough wages to support their families, missing even one day of work to repair their fragile huts after heavy rain or floods can affect their ability to feed their children. Acquiring permanent housing will not The only allow these Dalit villagers to work more days of the year but will also raise their social status, giving them the confidence they need in order to stand up for their rights.


Fifty-one families in Chevuru were able to begin building permanent houses under a state government scheme that provides housing grants to people living below the poverty line. However, these grants are not enough to cover the remaining costs of the houses. These families have requested Longitude and ARV’s financial assistance to complete their homes, which have been sitting unfinished since last year. In order to put a roof on every home, we must raise US $1500 per house.


How You Can Help

Our group’s fundraising goal of $15,000 will subsidize the completion of 10 houses in Chevuru. Please help us meet this goal by either fully or partially sponsoring one family’s home. A contribution of any amount will bring piece of mind and security to a very deserving Dalit family!

---

If you are interested in helping out, please visit the group page at

http://www.golongitude.org/www/JET_May_2010.html

You can donate online through the group webpage, or they have an option for if you prefer to donate by check ^_^

The start of the goodbyes...

Today was junior high school graduation day. It's my third one now, so instead of writing about the ceremony (which I did my first year) or my attire (last year), this time I'm going to write a top ten of what I've learned in 3 years of ceremonies in Japan, should you ever find yourself at one ^_^

1) Graduation ceremonies are extremely formal, solemn events, ridden with tradition and ceremony.

2) As such, there is no cheering, and only occasional clapping. Everyone does everything, and I do mean everything, as a group. Also, you will bow, in unison, many, MANY times.

3) In a shrewd display of planning, the ceremony is held mid-week, making it easy for parents to attend.
...Also, no friends or siblings will be there; for the most part it's the students, teachers, parents, and various "important" members of the community (PTA, police, mayor, etc).

4) Graduation is a white-tie affair. Occasionally, women will wear kimono.

5) Against all their effort to remain stoic, SOMEONE always ends up crying.

6) If you live in the mountains, be prepared for snow. Heavy, wet, spring snow. And yes, it's snowing here today :/

7) Be sure to bring a change of clothes for after the ceremony - nobody wants to be "that guy" stuck in a suit all day. Especially when the kids all go home at noon! And keep in mind you're going to have absolutely nothing to do afterward, you'll have to find something to do to keep yourself busy.

8) No school lunch! Yeay! Bento!

9) The graduation enkai (work party) is the first of the "spring-enkai season". 2 weeks later you'll have the end-of-the-school-year party, followed by the goodbye party for departing teachers, the welcome party for new teachers, and then there's the opening-day party. All within the span of less than a month o_O By the way, I work at 4 schools. They're fun ^_^ But can get quite expensive!

10) Charge your camera battery, clear off your memory-stick, and be prepared for lots and lots of pictures! It's the best (and last, in many cases) chance to get photos with your departing graduates. If you're lucky, you might run into them later on in town, or during the spring or autumn festivals. Sometimes I see them if I have to ride the train, but for the most part, this is kind of the end of your relationship with them, so make the most of it!

Winter Sports

I'm not much of a winter person. In fact, I'd say one of the only redeeming qualities of this season is that it's the only time I get to go snowboarding.



And, occasionally, there are pretty trees.



This year has been pretty snowy here in Japan. Much better for enjoying winter sports than last year, but fairly sucky in terms of everyday living :P

So far this year I've managed 7 trips:

1 time to Mary Jane/ Winter Park (Colorado)
1 time to Arkopia (Kuguno)
2 times to Mont Deus (Miya)
1 time to Goryu/ Hakuba 47 (Hakuba, Nagano)
1 time to Sun Alpina Kashimayari (Hakuba, Nagano)
1 time to Takasu Snow Park (Gujo, Gifu)

Hopefully I can squeeze in a couple more before the season ends. If I have to be cold, I should at least be able to enjoy it! ^_^

TV

I've been terrible about keeping up with the blog recently >.< I know! I know.

This isn't a huge post of interesting craziness of Japan. Well, maybe a little crazy. I've been watching my tv a bit more recently cause of the Olympics. It's kind of interesting, actually, to watch them here, the focus is entirely on the Japanese athletes. Which makes sense, of course, when you think about where I am.

Anyway, with all this extra tv-watching, I've also seen a lot more Japanese commercials, which never fail to amuse me. They're just so different from American ones! One of my favorite recent ones is this ad for Halls cough drops



And while I'm at it, I'll just go ahead and throw this one for the McDonald's Texas Burger in too. It's part of the new "Big America" marketing campaign, supposedly highlighting cuisines from different parts of the US. This one is, obviously, supposed to represent the Lone Star State... what Footloose has to do with that I'm not quite sure... but you can judge for yourself



The Texas Burger is set to be followed by the Hawaiian Burger, the New York Burger, and the California Burger, sometime this year.

And how about this ad for the Toyota Vitz... using the popular character Rilakkuma (relax bear)... O_o I think the concept is that driving this car is supposed to be relaxing for the harried, over-whelmed Japanese woman in her 20's or 30's... but really all I can think of when I watch it is "awwwwwwwwww!"

JLPT 3級

Just a quick shout out to say

I PASSED THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST!

Level 3, given December 6, 2009.

My final score was 316/400 for a total of 79% (you need at least 60% to pass).

And I got 100% on the listening section.

Yeay!!! ^_^

Kakizome

My first Japanese class of 2010 wasn't so much about language as it was culture. We did 書き初め kakizome, the first calligraphy of the new year. Traditionally, it's performed on January 2nd, although more and more it's being assigned as winter vacation homework for elementary school students (who all have to study calligraphy in school).

My teacher gave my partner and I the option of several different characters, including 虎 tora (tiger - this year's zodiac animal), 愛 ai (love), a couple I can't remember, and 夢 yume (dream).

This was a tough one. The character you choose kind of says a lot about your hopes for the coming year. I was debating between 愛 and 夢, love or dream. Which is more important?

There are so many reasons I came to Japan, many things I've learned, been disappointed by, been surprised by, enjoyed. The experience can been interpreted in so many ways. But what kind of fortune am I hoping for in the coming year? What do I still want to achieve?

I decided to go with 夢, dream. My partner did as well.


It's actually a lot harder than it looks. My teacher gave us each an example character to practice off, and several sheets of newspaper before we moved on to the rice paper for the real one.

">

We each got three attempts. From which we picked what we all thought was the best of the three to keep.



May we all have fortuitous dreams this year ^_^

Travelling

I'm currently at the airport in Nagoya. Well, not at the airport, I'm in a hotel very close to the airport (on the same island. Central Japan International Airport [CENTRAIR for short] is built on a man-made island), but that's beside the point.

I'm going home for Christmas! And my longest trip home (3 weeks) since I moved to Japan. Every year it seems to get longer by about a week, hahahaha.

Anyway, I decided to avoid the stress of same-day commuting to the airport and stayed in a hotel last night. Flight leaves in about 5 hours. And in true Jen-travel style, getting here was a huge pain, hahahahahhaha

Let me explain. We got a LOT of snow in Takayama over the weekend. The whole region got a lot of snow, I'd say. I was in Toyama Friday night for an end-of-the-year party for work and we basically drove through a blizzard out and back. Safety-first! Is not always the motto here, haha.

It continued snowing all weekend, to the point that they closed part of the highway between Takayama and Nagoya. I was planning to take the bus. But they closed the highway. Snowing all weekend, and apparently they didn't have ample warning to get the plows out. Although, as with most things in Japan, I only understoond about half of what I heard so there was probably more of a reason than that. At least I like to tell my self there was, anyway.

So I had to take the train. Which costs about twice as much as the bus and takes just as long. D'oh! But at least it doesn't depend on roads being open and it never gets stuck in traffic...

So I get to Nagoya and then I have to get out to the airport, where my hotel is. This is not my first time doing this; I've flown out of this airport several times. Most recently when I went to Korea in September. So I was fairly sure I knew what I was doing when I hauled my enormous bag down the steps to the Meitetsu subway line, bought my ticket, and went down to the tracks. On the "airport" side.

And then proceeded to get on the wrong train. oops.

It seems this line splits at a stop called 太田川 (Odagawa), and I was on the line that doesn't go to the airport. And I didn't realize this until I'd been going the wrong way for about 20 minutes. I got nervous, checked the map, and realized I was going the wrong way. I checked with the conductor, who gave me an OMG you dummy look and told me I'd have to get off at the next stop. Nice of the people on the train to say something right? I mean, with that huge bag and the fact that I'm a foreigner I'm sure it was pretty obvious I was supposed to be going to the airport... but I digress.

I get off, haul that bag (25 kg) up and over the rail line, and down to the other side where the station master informed me I'd have to go BACK about 20 minutes to the Odagawa station and change there. Noooooooooooooooooo! It was already 1030pm by this point. And although Nagoya isn't anywhere near as cold as Takayama, it still gets pretty chilly at night. Wah.

And then, in typical Jen-travel fashion, I met a really cool guy who could speak English! He asked me where I was going and said he would help me get off at the right station to change trains. He was on his way home in Nagoya.

Turns out he started using English about 30 years ago on a trip to India. He loves mountain climbing, and he spent several months there backpacking. And then he went back again. He's climbed mountains all over Japan, including Fuji, IN DECEMBER. "Yes, it's very dangerous. But very beautiful!" He told me ^^

He's been all over Asia, and once to New Zealand, and he studied for 2 years at a university in Thailand. Where he met his wife. They have 2 children, a daughter and a son, both grown now. The family makes yearly trips back to Thailand to visit her family, although he doesn't always have time to join them. He did, however, make sure to tell me the best places to visit :) He speaks fluent Thai, and his wife can (now) speak Japanese very well. He said it took them having children for her to really try to learn it, since she didn't want to be the only mother at the kindergarten who couldn't understand anything, haha

By the time I got to the stop where I had to change, I had learned so many interesting things about this man. Except his name.

What is it about travelling and meeting strangers that makes people open up so much? Maybe it's the fleeting nature of the encounter, knowing you will never see this person again. So it's ok to tell them things I bet even his co-workers don't know (or maybe have never asked). At any rate, my embarrassing mistake at Nagoya station, which I had been cursing as I got off that first train, hauled my luggage up and over the tracks, and down the other side, that mistake turned into a wonderful opportunity to meet someone I would have otherwise never encountered.

Merry Christmas everybody!