Winter ho!

I belong to a Japanese NPO, which means that everyone speaks Japanese and is very busy, which means that a lot of my time is spent listening to conversations about very important things that sometimes sound to me like this:

"Volunteering may change from what you`re used to, hamina shamina shahimina hamina hamima hamina but we hope to have your ongoing cooperation during this change."

Or news articles that look like this:

"In Iwate prefecture today, the prefectural KANJI KANJI KANJI! cooperative KANJI distributed a number of heaters that should be MORE KANJI to temporary housing residents."

It`s a bit frustrating. It`s like all the input here operates like an enormous broken radio, where you`re trying to listen to a station and hear five minutes perfectly and then the radio wigs out and you get a bunch of static.

I don`t want to bother my leaders, because they`re already busy, and don`t need to spend their time explaining to me. I want to keep up as best I can without hindering anybody else`s work. Occasionally, I do corner someone and demand that they tell me, in relatively simple Japanese, exactly what is going on with housing insurance, or the Kamaishi volunteer center, for example. But even if I do this, often the answer isn`t very satisfying.

Me: Dear leader, there are foreigners who might want to come and participate in December, what do I tell them?

Answer: We don`t know what is going on, it`s up to the volunteer center. If there`s a need, we will still dispatch volunteers.

Me: ...OK, but I wonder what I`m supposed to tell them...

So when I actually stumble into some real live information, and connect a few measly dots, I am very happy because with that information comes a plan on how to act.

The dots I have connected are these:

One, that Rikuzentakata volunteer center, according to its blog, is continuing operation through next year. Read this yesterday.

Two, that HANDS was founded and is run by a bunch of fanatical maniacs (bless them) who will continue to serve the Iwate coast as long as it is needed.

Three, that the things the Rikuzentakata volunteer center ask for are things definitely doable for a foreign volunteer.

Four, that even if for some reason HANDS no longer dispatches volunteers or can`t handle foreign volunteers during a certain period of time, there is an NPO based in Toono called Toono Magokoro Net that is also actively recruiting foreigners. Which I am going to contact like, tonight.

This means, in short: winter ho! I don`t know exactly how this going to work out, whether it`ll be Kamaishi and Rikuzentakata, or just Rikuzentakata, through HANDS or through Makogoro net, but there will be ongoing opportunities for foreign volunteers to participate this winter.

So why is it important for foreigners to volunteer? I think there are many reasons, not the least of which is: the foreign population of Japan is an underutilized source of manpower. I understand how in the direct aftermath of the disaster, the first priority should be getting in trained professionals, and then the next priority is getting in the most useful volunteers--native speakers or fluent speakers--but the third priority should have been people. Just people, including the however many? 2 million? foreigners who are living in this country.

Every foreign volunteer who participates with us is another "in" to reach other members of the foreign community, plus their Japanese friends, plus their friends and relatives back home. Part of recovery means fostering connections between the coast and the inland, between far away prefectures and Iwate prefecture, and between Japan and other countries.

And on a personal note, I want Japanese to know we care, that we are connected to their country, and that it`s our country too. It`s the place we live and pay taxes and go to the movies and recycle our cans. Or it`s the place we used to live. Or a favorite travel destination. I know that shouldn`t be the goal, for foreigners to make themselves feel better, but at least it might be a little reassuring to folks on the coast that these people haven`t forgotten them. Not Japanese, not the international community.

And if foreigners want to communicate caring, or allegiance to a country that they chose, for whatever reason, that`s a really good source of motivation and another reason why the foreign community should be tapped.

That`s why I`m happy there should be a place for us a little longer, at least through the winter. So...have at me! Winter volunteer season starts soon!