Bangladeshi Traffic

Ever since I was a child, I have loved to travel even if it was only to visit relatives in a neighboring city. My favorite part is all the different modes of transportation we use to get around.　In countries like the U.S. and Japan I think that our perception of space and distance can be distorted by the ease by which we travel. We start to think of ourselves as being transported to a different place rather than physically going from one place to another. On our journey to Bangladesh we were forced to actively participate in getting ourselves from one place to another whether by running to catch our bus or bargaining with a rickshaw driver. In this way, we used all of our senses to experience another lifestyle and way of ‘being’.

Active Participation: From the moment we stepped off the airplane we could see, smell, hear, taste, and feel that this was a place drastically different than the ones we’d come from. Our participation in this journey continued on into all of our daily activities like eating using our hands, taking cold bucket baths, washing our clothing by hand, or cooking a meal using fresh ingredients. These activities reminded me the importance of making time to take care of myself. In Japan or the U.S. there are machines that do all of these things for me and free my mind to do ‘more important things’. But these ‘more important things’ are what distract me from seeing what is going on around me and who is there.

Language: Communication was often a stumbling block when most of our group spoke only Japanese and most of the people in Bangladesh only speak Bengali and the language of their village. Some of the young people we met at L’Arche did not speak at all. I learned from Naomi when I stayed at Pushpo Nir that young Bengali women are not different than Japanese women in that they are shy and often speak amongst themselves. Japanese and Bengali share a common unspoken dialect even with all the differences in culture and language. The same is true for the core members of L’Arche. They are human just like us in that they need to eat and bathe and be loved even when they are trapped inside their own minds unable to communicate.

Hospitality: While we were in Bangladesh we could not go anywhere without help and almost everyone was willing to help us (even if they didn’t know the way). Our 10 days in Mymensingh would have been infinitely harder if we had not had the guidance and hospitality of the Taize brothers and the‘Taize boys’ or Naomi and Ayako. They were constantly checking on our health and well-being. I will always remember the way that Ayako described life in Japan as being very stressful because a person could go from their homes to Narita airport all by themselves without talking to anyone or asking for help. I know that this was difficult for some of the members of our group because we are used to doing things for ourselves but perhaps this is because we are not yet acclimated to this form of extravagant hospitality. We learn if we can trust those around us that perhaps we can make a new friend along the way.

I was touched by the stories of everyone we met in Bangladesh. And I was inspired by how all the various projects have come out of the work that the Taize brothers began about 20 years ago. I’m sure we were only able to see a small bit of it but I’m excited to see what will happen in the future.

As my life continues on after Bangladesh one story always stands out in my mind from our conversation with Brother Joseph. He compared life to riding a bicycle in Bangladeshi traffic. If you hesitate or look back for even a moment you could be crushed between two buses or hit by the rickshaw behind you.

After returning from Bangladesh, my life has definitely felt like a long-distance bicycle race in Bangladeshi traffic. It is comforting to imagine travelling through life this way when I remember all the different modes of transportation we used to navigate these hazardous roads; both actively participating in our journey and accepting the guidance and wisdom of our hosts.

What an amazing journey both physically and spiritually. Thank you to everyone who was there to experience it with me, both seen and unseen.

February Emmaus Newsletter

Over the past two years, I have been a part of almost every activity at the Student/Youth Center from participating in study tours and work camps to sometimes cooking dinner on Friday nights. But, my work here as an intern has also included so many things that happen outside of the center's regular working hours like conversations over coffee at a nearby cafe, visiting small churches outside of Sendai, or organizing a trip to visit my family in California.

Through this ministry I've had the chance to see centers in other parts of Japan like the Tokyo Student Christian Fellowship and the Douhoku Center in Hokkaido. During the winter holidays, several students and I volunteered with a homeless ministry distributing warm clothing and curry rice. In the summer, we took a group of young people to Kesenuma to plant trees as part of a larger festival to raise awareness about environmental issues. These are just a few examples of the diversity of activities that the Emmaus center can offer to young people a chance to make friends outside of school or have fun learning new things. But it's also a place where they can go when they are sad or in trouble.

While I’ve been blessed to have been able to encounter and experience all of these different ministries throughout Japan I think that the individual students I shared them with will be what I remember the most. So, I thought I’d share some of their stories.

"Besides the center, there I wouldn't have any other place where I could make female friends. All my other friends at school are male and they don't have any female friends either. At school I don't have any reason to go talk to people outside of my classes. But at the center there isn't just a mix of male and female but people from different universities, different majors, and even a lot of people who are working. In the classes at the center none of those things matter, you can just talk and have fun together."

"For the first 2 years of college my life was basically go to school, study, and then go home and play video games all night. I didn't really have friends outside of the people I played video games with, and for my first two years I didn't have that many. After school we would play video games and when we met at school we would talk about games. My life was all about video games until my third year of college when I started to get behind in my classes. I wouldn't get enough sleep so I would miss lectures. That's when I started coming to the student center. Meeting new people and making friends other than the ones I play video games with opened a whole new world to me. It also gave me a new place to talk to other people about the things that were bothering me."

"I grew up in a Christian home and our family belonged to a small church with only a handful of members and very few children my age. I moved to Sendai to for high school and I lived with my older sister. Once I was away from home I got really busy with school and circle actvities and most of my friends from school aren't Christian. So, I didn't really have much energy or motivation to go to church. But, I also didn't have many people my own age that I could share my faith with. My mother heard about the center from the pastor at our church and she told me to go. After I went a few times I started to make friends and I found out there were other young people that were Christian. I went to church in Sendai with some of the friends I met at the center and after that I started to go more often. I never realized that going to church could be so much fun."

"Before I started coming to the student center there were so many things I didn't know about. On Friday nights we always eat things that I've never tasted before in my life. Sometimes I can't eat the curry because it's too spicy but other things like chai and spice cookies are really delicious. Before I came to the center I didn't know anything about the Bible or hymns, I thought the Bible was one really long book. At the center I read the Bible for the first time. I still don't know that much about Christianity but I know that the people at the center are really nice. When I had some trouble with school the staff really helped me out a lot. Now that I'm working most of my other friends from school are busy with work or have moved away from Sendai. But, when I come to the center I can always meet friends there and I can talk about the things that happened to me over the day. If I didn't come to the center I wouldn't have anywhere else to go where I can just be."

February Sycamore Tree

Over the past 2 years, one of the people that I have been fortunate to get to know so many different people from so many different backgrounds. One person made me particularly nervous when I first met him because I was suddenly asked if I would be willing to help him eat dinner. A-san was born with cerebral palsy and relies on the use of a wheelchair for mobility. He moved to Sendai from Tokyo 20 years ago after the completion of Ari no mamasha, a group living facility that allows people like A-san to live independently. Every Friday night at the student/youth center, A-san leads a workshop for the Japan Overseas Christian Services (JOCS) non-profit group which raises money to send doctors and medical aid to countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Ari no mamasha is outside of Sendai city and so it’s difficult for the people who live there to travel into the downtown area; a small handful that do usually travel by bus or taxi. In Sendai city there is one bus that has a lift for wheelchairs and this bus makes one single trip a day from Ari no mamasha to Sendai and one trip back and must be reserved in advance. Taxis are available but also limited and expensive. A-san has often said that his life would be completely impossible without humility and trust. An action like taking a drink of water or using the toilet might require the assistance of a complete stranger. So, after several conversations along this theme over dinners on Friday night we decided to host a workshop about understanding life from A-san’s perspective.

During dinner, we sometimes ask students and those present to help A-san with meals. Like the first time I was asked to help, this does cause some discomfort or nervousness. Most young people have never encountered someone with cerebral palsy before and there have been students in the past who have gotten upset because they felt like they were the only ones that were willing to help every time. Of course this is not the purpose for inviting A-san and others to participate in our activities. But, we do feel that helping him and others like him is one of the small things we can do in our ministry when there are so few public resources available in the community.

Dinner featured spaghetti with tomato sauce. The catch was, no one was allowed to use their arms, each person had to ask their neighbor to help them with their meal. It’s an exercise in patience because you must wait for your partner to roll the noodles onto a fork, place those noodles on a spoon, and then serve this to you. And, because everyone was doing the same exercise, it left no room for anyone to be uncomfortable or feel left out. We were having too much fun talking and watching other people while we waited for our partner. After dinner, we used blindfolds to experience blindness, special headphones to experience deafness, and even took turns pushing and being pushed in a wheelchair.

I’ve learned so much from people like A-san about trust, optimism, and life in general over these past two years and so I really especially enjoyed sharing this time with him and other members of the student center.

January Sycamore Tree

In Sendai there is a Pastor who`s name is Aoki. You may not know it from looking at him, but he was once a homeless man. Looking at a homeless person on the street you may imagine any number of things, that this person lost their job and their home due to the bad economy,they became ill and were no longer able to work, or perhaps they have psychological issues. Rev. Aoki`s story is not too different from many others but he was able to pull himself out of debt and get back on his feet. What is more inspiring is that he managed to become a pastor and organize a homeless ministry in Sendai.

In the Bay Area there are any number of churches and non-profit organizations that run soup kitchens and halfway houses, but when Rev.Aoki started his organization almost 10 years ago there were none. The city provided opportunities for the homeless to receive medical care and limited job resources but there was little effort put into outreach. Now, besides the NPO that Rev. Aoki directs there is also one small Catholic group that works with them to do weekly rounds distributing fruits and hot miso soup and a monthly soup kitchen. Additionally, Rev. Aoki rents space once a week to provide showers and laundry machines and convinced the city to provide temporary janitorial work.

Over the winter holidays I invited several students from the center to join me on the Wednesday night rounds and for one of the monthly soup kitchens. This was a first time experience for all of them. It was raining the night we went on a rounds to check in all the parks and distribute bananas, instant miso soup, and toothbrush/towel sets. We passed through Kotodai Park, which I ride my bicycle through everyday on my way to work, and the parking lot of the Sendai International Center where I sometimes go to read. There was also a Christmas illumination and festival happening nearby so many of the homeless people that normally live in one of the larger parks had found other places to stay for the night. Because of the leadership of the regular volunteers we managed to finish in under 2 hours and distributed goods to about 50 people around the Sendai train station. It only takes about the same amount of time as watching a movie but can make such a big difference.

Homelessness isn`t something that a city is typically proud to show it`s visitors. But, this is one of the experiences I will remember most about the two years I`ve been here in Sendai.