On Sunday I went to Sanuki Gakuen, an orphanage, with Nahid. Nahid is a Baha'i who has lived in Japan for 31 years. Her and her family lived in Takamatsu for a long time and now live in Kobe, a city about 2 hrs away, but come back occasionally.
Nahid was 18, the same age as me, when she and a friend decided to move from Iran to Japan to support the Baha'i community here. The very next year, 1979, there was a Revolution in Iran and the heightened persecution of Baha'is under the new regime meant that she was unable to return to her homeland. To this day, like many other Iranian Baha'is around the world, she has been unable to return.
The kids at the orphanage were beautiful- although it was fairly clear that they were love-deprived, by the way they were kept on wanting physical contact with us. I tried to just hug them as much as I could and give them as much love as I could. We were there to do a children's class with the kids like we do with other kids in Takamatsu, basically teaching them how to be a good person and nice to others etc. Steph, a really good friend of mine, wanted to work in an orphange when I left, and this made me think of her a lot.
Here's an excerpt from an old blog draft which I didn't end up publishing:
Yesterday I went to the local primary school to help out with the year 5's English classes. I was mainly there to demonstrate "proper" pronunciation, and I also did a veeeery simple self-introduction. There were 3 classes, and each one seemed to be more enthusiastic than the previous one. When I walked into the last classroom, I was mobbed with eager English students, and when the class started, almost half the class was leaning forward in their seats, eager to hear what I said. [end of excerpt]
Today I went to the primary school to help them again. The teachers there are amazing, and its such a great opportunity for me to sample Japanese school life. The kids are also lovely- the last class (so enthusiastic!) I did heads, shoulders, knees and toes with and it was the funnest time I've ever done it. The kids yelled each body part at the top of their lungs- everyone was so happy. Last week we taught them "My name is... Whats your name?" and this week was about likes and dislikes, and "How are you? I'm ..." We practised the likes and dislikes with different fruit (Do you like banana? Yes.) etc.
I've been emailing Genn and Sigourney, two former classmates of mine who are partway through a year-long exchange in Japan at the moment, quite a bit lately. We were talking about homesickness, which led to discussing happiness, and Genn kindly sent me this quote about happiness which I really liked:
"It is always your heart that decides whether you are happy or not"
"幸せはいつも自分の心が決める"
Apparently this quote was on Genn's family's calendar. I like this quote because it can be interpreted in so many ways. I like to take it in that happiness is an attitude, a state of mind; rather than a concrete destination, which to get to, requires certain things (eg boyfriend, own your own house etc)
We also had a youth group on Saturday. Recently, we've had quite a few new faces join the group, all of whom are in Year 5. I've been really impressed by the attitudes of these year 5's, they all seem really eager to help their community. These youth groups which are run by the Baha'is are a bit different from the general meaning of the term, and from other Baha'i activities. There is very little talk about religion, the word God only occasionally comes up in the workbooks (see below). They are more intended as a guiding hand for this difficult period, and to utilise the energy and enthusiasm young people have to make a difference to our world.
I especially like how these groups view young people in such a positive light. Sometimes I feel that the general image of young people is a bit negative (alcohol, drugs, image-focused etc), and that view certainly isn't very motivating. I guess everyone has the potential to do good and bad things.
"...It is during this period (youth) that the mind is most questing and that the spiritual values that will guide the person's future behaviour are adopted."
-Universal House of Justice
One of the main purposes of these youth groups is service projects; to as a group do things to contribute to our community. On Saturday we brainstormed "What is service?", "Why do service?", and "What kind of service do you want to do?". We then together read a story from a workbook specially designed for these groups, called "Walking the Straight Path". This particular story was about a king who meets an old man planting trees, despite the fact that due to his age, he wouldn't be able to taste the trees' fruit. The story highlights the importance of helping the environment for the sake of future generations. Each story in this particular book as a different "moral" though.
Because these stories are designed for 11-14 year olds all over the world, including areas where not everyone has access to education, the level of language is easy to understand. I was happy though, because it was good for my Japanese!
Sonia
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