Death in Africa, on 29th Nov

Today in the afternoon class, we had a lecture by two old men who lost their children due to a traffic accident when they were on duty 27 years ago.

They told us how sad and painful the experience was. Immediately after they heard the sad news, they were taken to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the passports were issued on the same day for the families,despite the fact that it takes at least three weeks to get normally. Then the dead bodies were burned in the car repair shop, instead of a crematorium.

It must be really painful for them. I can imagine it because our family had the same experience with my uncle who died due to a plane crash in Nairobi. My grandparents went to Kenya immediately after he died and had the dead body burned Indian style because they could find only Indian Buddhist priest there. Not to mention all the family were badly depressed for a long time.

I was thinking about that memory all the time during the speech. My heart was just filled with complicated feelings then. I was very sad to remember that time. But thanks to my uncle's death, my family started to show concern for the international cooperation with Africa, and I'm here as a candidate of JOCV now.

Anyway, it won't be possible that two people die in Africa in one family. But I guess I need to be really careful to stay healthy and not to hurt myself and die, in order not to make my family and friends feel sad during the two years in Malawi.

自主講座：野菜

隊員のみんな、本当にタフだと思います。
今日は、８：４５から授業をし、テストを受けたあと、19時半から自主講座が始まりました。ただでさえタイトなスケジュールの中、自主講座のカリキュラム組んじゃえる人、本当に尊敬する！！
てなわけで、今日は野菜＆村落開発普及員による野菜の色々についての講義を受けました。
今猛烈に眠いので、私的にキャッチした要点を記録ベースで書きます。

✩スゴイぞ豆科✩
豆はすごいです！何がすごいって？
豆の根元にとある菌が住み着きます。その菌は単なる居候ではなく、植物の栄養である窒素をほかから集めてきて、豆本体に送ってくれる優れものである！
だから、貧しい土地に豆を植えると、翌年そこの土質が良くなるんだってさ！

✩生育期間の長さ✩
育つ過程からわかります。

葉（ほうれんそう）
↓
茎（たけのこ）
↓
花（ブロッコリー）
↓
果実（かぼちゃ、トマト）

つまり、葉っぱを食べる野菜は早く収穫できるし、一方でかぼちゃを食べたかったら身がでっかくなるまで待たなきゃならないのですね。
当たり前っちゃ当たり前だけど、野菜を育てる時には意識したほうがいいね！
あたしも任地で少なからず農業とかかわると思うので、忘れないでおこう。

上記のように、素人でもふむふむとわかる内容を教えてくれました(^^)

野菜隊員くんはマラウィに一緒に行くので、任国についてからの1箇月の共同ドミトリー生活では色々と豆知識を給させてもらいたいと思いまする。
また、村落隊員さんは、英語のクラスメートなのです。彼女が得意分野でどんな姿を見せるのかと期待して今回参加したこともあります。ずばり、野菜を語る彼女は輝いていました！やっぱ、好きなことすると人は生き生きするもんだなぁと実感✩彼女を見ていて私はなんだかうれしい気分になりました♪


以上、本日も眠いで、顔を洗って寝ます。
みんな私よりも睡眠時間足りないのに具合悪くならないので、その気力＆体力に尊敬するばかりです。

おやすみなさいZzzz...

Meeting with Sister Y, on 14th

I am very very happy today!♪　 Bacuase I met Sr. Y here in NTC. We have known each other for 4 and a half years since I visited the convent in Chofu , Tokyo in Apr 2007. Now she has been Fukushima since Apr and teaches volunteer work in women's college I guess.

She came to NTC to discuss with NTC's top person. The topic was about how JICA NTC and the college can collaborate. Every year, the university used to invite NTC people for lectures. But this year, they must couldn't due to the disaster of the power plant. So they must have talked about hte plan for next year.

Now let me tell you how we met for the first time. When I was staying in Cameroon for the internship, I met a neighbor, a Canadian sister who spoke Japanese very fluently. She said she used to live in Japan for the mission more than for 13 years and recomended me to visit the convent in Tokyo when I got back to Tokyo. then I met Sr. Y.

Every other months or so, I used to visit her to study how Christian people think and behave, although I'm not Christian. I consulted with her about my everyday life, including my love life, haha, and she advised me on the solution. She is very smart, and her ind is quite flexible despite her age, 60 years old. So I respect her so much!

By a strange coincidence, she was assigned to Fukushima in Apr, and I came here, to NTC. I guess we are quite lucky, and I visited her two weeks ago. At that time she told me she would visit NTC on 14th Nov. I had nver imagined we could meet in NTC when I got a letter from JICA saying my training center was fixed in Nihonmatsu!!

I was soooooo happy to see her again that I was almost crying shen we took photos together in the corridor by the auditorium where I have been suffering from the everyday tough schedule...!!

Surely I will print one of them out and bring it to Malawi.

Miyagi trip on 5th and 6th Nov

I visited one of JOCV's house in Shichigahama which is close to Sendai with other volunteer friends. It was really nice and refreshing to go out from NTC and we were very excited and relievedon the train. It took two hours to get the nearest station, Shiogama.

After arrving at the house, my friends drove us around his place. His area was on the hill, but down there it was badly damaged by the tsunami. As we visited one park, It must bave been a nice seaside park, but it is now ruined completely as photos. I feel very sorry for the people living around that area. And the most impressie thing was the sludge. It smelled so bad like coal even after 7th months from the tsunami disaster.

On Sunday, we visited Matsushima. Not to mention that the scenery was nice despite the rain. I felt a bit relieved that the town is now being revived gradually. We enjoyed oysters and beef toungues! We ate too much of the food, as if we were starvig!!

The funniest thing is the psychic photo!! In one photo, the legs of one friend seemed to disappear... He wasscaredof it in my camera, hahaha! I cannot upload on the blog, though.

本日の学び：マイクロソフトムービーメイカー

今日新しいことを学びました。全く畑違いな新しいことなので、メモ程度に記録しておきます。


毎日英語の授業と、国際協力講座の授業を受ける日々ですが、いろんな特技を持っている人がいて、しばしば課業後に自主講座を開いてくれます。
これまで参加したのは、環境問題について、パン作り、などなど☆彡
本日は、動画の作り方っていうのを小学校の先生の隊員から教えてもらいました。
マイクロソフトムービーメーカーというものを使って、動画や写真、音楽と文字を挿入してビデオをつくります。
色々学んだはずなのに、説明をシンプルにしようかと思ったら1行で終わってしまった・・・笑
大学時代の友人スージーの結婚式で、アサミックスがショートビデオを作っていたけれど、私にもちょっとできそうな予感♫

親友の結婚式（もしどなたか結婚できるのであれば）に作ってみようかしら(^^)

12月8日の出所式まであと3週間・・・。
毎日日めくりカレンダー状態です。

でも、この訓練が終われば、怒涛のようにマラウィへ向かうことになるのだろう・・・
ギリギリまで準備を詰められないで、出発前日にママに八つ当たりしている自分が目に浮かびます。
おやすみなさい。。。

研修所での人間関係について

生活班、マラウィ行く人、英語のクラスのメンバー☆彡

こっちにきてからの団体行動生活でお世話になってる人たちです。
私の周りには、基本的に落ち着いた人が多く、癒やし系です。

だめなところがあったら柔らかく指摘してくれる感じです。
学校、職場、色々なステージが人生であったけど、今回の人間関係、割と恵まれていると思います。

研修が始まってから最初の半分が終わったけれど、あとの半分が終わったらようやく慣れたほとんどのみんなとお別れなのは寂しいなと最近思うようになりました。

睡眠時間少なくてヒーヒーだけど、どうにかせいちゃん、生きてます。