ALT Spotlight: Lisa Nguyen Shaun Smith interviews Lisa about her year in Niigata for his last ALT Spotlight ever!
Jaclyn Spears Editor in Chief Layout & Design Writer
Leigh-Ann de Wee Editor Writer Writers Adele-Elise Prevost James Kenyon Jhana Williams Sabina Lees Shaun Smith Photographers Jonathan Wheatcroft Front cover Pages 1 & 2 Thanks to the authors/interviewees for providing photos!
Comfort vs. Style Sabina Lees reflects on the (sometimes confusing) world of Japanese fashion. Japan’s Weird Museums Jaclyn Spears shares some of her favourite museums in Japan – if you can call them that. What’s Not in the Notes Adele Prevost‟s thoughts on the real role of ALTs and what “internationalization” really means. Saying Goodbye to the Last Unicorn Leigh-Ann De Wee interviews former JET and longtime Niigata resident Natasha Anders who is returning home after 9 years – as a successful author, no less! ALTs in PNG 2013 James Kenyon gives insight into what the money raised by this year‟s musical accomplished in PNG. May Your Next Chapter Make You Happier!
Jhana Williams shares some wisdom.
Greetings from the Editor Hi everyone, and thanks so much for checking out the 3rd and final issue of the 2012-2013 JET year. I’ve had a great time putting this magazine together, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it this year. I’d like to thank Leigh-Ann de Wee, who has joined me on this issue as an editor, for all her help in putting this last issue together. I’d also like to thank Shaun Smith for all his work putting together the ALT Spotlight pieces for all six issues of Niigata Noise. He is moving on from the JET Program this year, and we wish him all the best in the future. Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this issue; the articles in this issue are among my favourites. Niigata Noise is looking forward to making some big changes for the 2013-2014 year. We hope that the changes will make it simpler for people to contribute articles and that it will expand our readership and visibility within the community. Please look forward to the coming year! If you would like to help out (especially if you would like to contribute), please shoot an email to niigatanoise@gmail.com. Thanks so much, Jaclyn Spears Niigata AJET – Publications Coordinator
Greetings from AJET Hello everyone! As the 2012-2013 JET year comes to a close, I can’t help but feel like it has come and gone so quickly. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I was meeting many of you for the first time in your first couple of weeks here. Now as the next year begins, we are all forced to say a fond farewell to all the JETs who are leaving. We will miss all of you terribly, but we will always treasure the memories we made during our time together in Japan. Best of luck to you in everything you endeveor to accomplish in the future. To the JETs staying in Japan, I hope over the next year we are able to achieve even more then we did this year. The new AJET Officers are very passionate about their positions, and I am positive that this will translate into an even more active AJET chapter in Niigata. Thanks to everyone that made the last year an amazing one! There is no way that it would have been as fantastic without all of your hard work and energy. I am really looking forward to continuing to serve all of you as AJET President over the next year. Let’s make it a great one! Megan Kelly AJET President (2012-2013, 2013-2014)
lead quiet expat lives. Others never miss an event. In this installment of Spotlight, Lisa Nguyen describes how she was able to strike a balance here -- from knitting scarves on quiet nights to disappearing off to Tokyo for rock concerts and somehow making it back for Monday classes. During her adventures, she saw new and old Japan, the mountains and ocean. She saw the extremes and everything in between. These experiences left a lasting impression—an impression that took on literal form when Lisa decided to memorialize her Japan Year in ink. It's fitting, too, the flower tattoo she chose: like the cherry blossom that falls at the peak of its beauty, Lisa leaves Japan at the end of a dynamic year -- and all too soon.
I had never lived abroad before and moving to a country where I did not have command of the language was daunting. JET was appealing because they took care of the paperwork and found you a placement. All I had to do was show up with a positive and open-minded attitude. It took a lot of the stress out of the process of moving across the globe. My greatest discovery was that living abroad was not as daunting as I once thought. Although I had experience traveling, I worried that it would be difficult to create a feeling of home living in a foreign country. But in under a year I connected with wonderful people and found a community abroad that has carved a space for itself in the home of my heart. The world opened up as a place that welcomed wanderers and explorers alike and now my feet are eager to roam without hesitation. This will come as no surprise to most people who know me, but it is a little Indian restaurant by Niigata station. The people who own the restaurant are warm and friendly, and the food is absolutely delicious. Culinary culture in Japan is fascinating; everything from your first enkai to kyushoku can be quite the gastronomic adventure. I think that my favorite experience has been sampling Japanese fare at festivals throughout the year in different areas of Niigata. It seems like even the smallest cities and towns have their claim to fame (usually something to eat) and feasting in Japan is a foodie`s dream. As a person with a small stomach, the sample-size portions of festival fare are perfect for me to try all the goodies.
There’s just too many so I will do a Top 5. 5. Going to see (and smell) the wisteria flowers at the Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi. (The wisteria flavored ice cream is scrumptious!)4. Visiting the wild Japanese macaques at Jigokudani in Nagano. (They’re all sweet until you lovingly look them in the eyes)3. Having a private lunch with traditional geisha's in Furumachi. (So beautiful, that is all.) 2. Watching a live sumo tournament with over 30 other ALT`s in Nagaoka. (The Yokozuna is boss.) 1. Shinkansening to Tokyo way too many times to watch some of my favorite bands play in some of the coolest venues. (I know, such a hipster right?) Oh and stopping into cat cafe's in Shibuya for some much needed cat love.
I am planning a big trip this summer to end my year in Japan with a big ole bang. My boyfriend and I will have the most epic double date with my best friend and her boyfriend as we visit some of Japan’s most famous sites. Although I have crossed off some big Japan experiences (see the answer above) off the list, this trip will ensure the bucket list will be as short as possible. We will start by climbing to the summit of Mount Fuji just in time to catch what I hope will be a breathtaking sunrise. Then we are off to Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Yokohama to experience our own "Eat, Pray, and Love" adventure.
Leaving home and all of the people I love was one of the hardest and most emotionally challenging things I have ever done. But adventure comes at the cost of comfort and so I followed my wander-lusting heart all the way to Japan. Although technology helped to keep me connected to people back home, it was when I made the conscious decision to limit connection to home and focus on creating a life here that I began to truly enjoy my experiences. I invested time into building new friendships and taking every opportunity to try new things. By accepting my ability to live independently I found the strength to cope with homesickness and build a new life apart from my family and friends. Also, trips to the foreign food store for peanut butter, salsa, and beef jerky were life savers too.
Have you ever heard me sing at karaoke? No? Consider yourself lucky. Every semester when my schools have exams, I visit a deaf school in Niigata. Most of these kids are only partially deaf or use hearing aides. I was visiting just before Christmas and the kindergarten teacher asked me to sing some Christmas carols. I strongly hesitated and said I wasn't comfortable singing. She took my protests as merely modesty and pushed me to sing for the class. I didn't want to seem uncooperative so I begrudgingly agreed to sing for them. It was only a small group of the sweetest looking little angels. They were excited to see me and so I felt a little less nervous to sing. I started off with "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and almost immediately, a look of confusion came across this little girl’s face, she turned her ear towards me and began adjusting her hearing aid. She did this for about 15 seconds and when I hit the "All of the other reindeer..." she just nonchalantly pulled out her hearing aid and set it on the table and gave me the biggest maniacal smile. I laughed myself into tears because she was too cute to be offended but that is a testament to how awful I am at singing. A child chose to be deaf rather than listen to me sing. FAIL!
I will be arriving back in Canada just in time for the new school season to start up in September. I plan to teach for a year and then next summer, my boyfriend and I are road-tripping down the west coast, eventually ending up in Washington to go to Sasquatch Music Festival. My travel plans in the next five years include Australia, New Zealand, inter-railing through the UK, yoga teacher-training in India, wildlife conservation projects in South Africa, climbing the Inca trail in Peru, and revisiting South East Asia. I am so excited for what’s next!
As it comes time for me to say goodbye to Japan, I‟ve been looking back on my experiences over the past year. I‟ve seen some beautiful places, watched the seasons come and go, shoveled A LOT of snow from my driveway, but I think (and those who know me will agree) I spent most of my time shopping. Before I arrived in Japan I thought Japanese fashion would be like what I‟d seen in Gwen Steffani‟s music videos. Naively, I expected girls wearing super high heels, lots of puffy skirts, crazy hair styles and some serious eye makeup. I should have known from the name „Harajuku girls‟ that these girls only exist in Tokyo. The reality, in Niigata at least, seemed to be that there are two categories; people who like to look super dressed up all the time, even just to go to the supermarket; and people who like a more laid-back look. There‟s a choice between comfort and fashion. And if you‟re going to go for fashion, you‟ve got to „go big or go home‟. For
example;
it
was
January, it was Niigata, and there was a ton of snow on the ground. I was at the train station shivering in four layers plus heat-tech waiting for a train which –unknown to me at the time- was cancelled. A girl in her early twenties emerged from the stairway onto the platform wearing the shortest of short-shorts, and 6 inch platform shoes. Maybe she was being savvy and using the platforms as stilts to protect her feet from the snow! But high heels and ice don‟t mix. I held my breath as she tottered along the platform and I wondered how she had managed to even make it to the train station in her heels. That was dedication.
It‟s a common sight. Now it seems normal to me, but on first glance, it appeared to me that many girls in Japan like to dress like frosted cupcakes. Lots of pink and blue frills and lace, topped off with bows. The more bows the better! I personally don‟t like this style. I‟ve never been really girly, even when I was young. I always preferred comfort. I really like how some women in Japan wear loose t-shirts and shirts with maxi skirts and somehow manage to make the whole outfit look very „put together‟. It‟s a really laid-back look which is so easy to wear, especially in summer. I‟ve learned from experience that covering up in Japan (above the waist anyway) is very important. September is JHS sports day practice in my town and, as you probably know, practice for sports day is serious business! On the first day of practice I walked out of the teachers‟ locker room wearing a loose t-shirt, completely covering everything, except for one shoulder. The school secretary ran towards me exclaiming “You must be cold!” The temperature was above 30 degrees so I assured her I was not cold. I hadn‟t quite grasped the nuances of Japanese culture at this time so I didn‟t know that this was a veiled request for me to cover up. An English teacher noticed me at the same time and explained that I was pretty under-dressed, and she lent me a t-shirt for the day. So, as you can tell, I had to make a few adjustments to the way I dressed when I first arrived here. I never wore anything showing my shoulders again! And I think when I return to the UK I‟ll still have some serious reservations about showing my shoulders. I was unaware just how revealing some of my clothes from the UK were. I decided to buy more conservative clothing. I bought loose fitting maxi skirts, khakis and shirts, and now that the unbearable summer heat is here I am so glad I have them! I prefer this way of dressing and this is a style I will continue to wear when I return home.
On one hand, Japan is a country with amazingly refined culture: sado, shodo, and kado (tea ceremony, calligraphy, and flower arrangement) are exemplary of the sedate, minimalist, and beautiful traditional arts of Japan. On the other hand, Japan can be a wonderfully strange place. Think maid cafes, AKB48, and squid-ink ice cream. One of my favourite things in Japan is the odd museums – though the term “museum” only loosely describes these places.
The most “normal” museum on the list, Shinyokohama Ra(u)men Museum’ is a great example of one of Japan’s many “food theme parks.” Basically, they’re like a giant food court that offers only one kind of food – but does it really well. While most food theme parks are quite modern affairs, the SRM is a little bit different. The interior is decorated to look like Showa (1950s-ish) era Tokyo, complete with a painted-ceiling sky and a maze of cramped little ramen shops. You feel like you’ve been taken back in time when you enter this place. They even have some authentic antique memorabilia displayed here and there, which helps to justify the “museum” part of their name. As for the ramen, you can choose from several different famous shops, many offering “mini” bowls so you can try more than one. We opted for Sapporo’s famous miso ramen, Sumire, whose little shop was located across the street from what appeared to be a burlesque club. Cute. 2-14-21 Shinyokohama, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture 222-0033
300yen
If you understand the Japanese name, you can probably guess what this place is all about. Tucked away in a sleepy hot spring region of Gunma, Chinpokan is an erotica museum that is a fascinating – and somewhat surreal – place to visit. While Japan is conservative to the point of feeling repressive to many foreigners (especially in the country), it also has a surprisingly rich and varied sexual culture that goes beyond the magazines found at 711 – you just might have to look a bit harder to find it. This museum is filled with erotica, ranging from crumbling old woodblock prints and ancient carvings, to acrylic models of scantily-clad anime girls. Sometimes cute, sometimes sexy, often funny and sometimes straight-up disturbing, the exhibits are an interesting look into an aspect of Japanese culture that is usually hidden from view. Gunma-ken, Kitagunma,Yoshioka Machi, Uenoda-Meotoiwa 2109
TEL: 0279ー54ー5956
1,000yen
The name of this museum kind of seems like they made it by pulling random words from a hat. What do teddy bears have to do with the environment? Why is it called a village? Even after visiting this museum, I still don’t know the answers. It has only the most tenuous connection to the environment: a couple of bizarre teddy dioramas, and the museum cafe that offers some tasty-looking, veggie-heavy dishes. Most of the museum is just a collection of teddy bears (some old, some new) in a variety of perplexing and funny displays. (My favourite was a teddy dressed as Michael Jackson in the “Thriller” video.) At first entirely amusing, this museum becomes increasingly unsettling as the countless beady eyes stare at you lifelessly from the every direction, twinkly music-box music playing in loop as you wander through the mazelike building. Gifu Prefecture, Takayama, Nishinoisshikimachi, 3chome, 829-4
TEL: 0577-37-2525
600yen (Adults)
November of 2011, I was rehearsing Christmas carols with the chorus club at my base school and worrying that I wouldn‟t live to see 30. I was in the grip of a cancer scare that ended up being completely benign, but my memories of the time have the acuity of panic to them. Standing around the grand piano with the wind outside and faded prints of dead composers looking down at me, I remember thinking to myself, If I only have a few short months or years ahead of me, isn’t there something else I’d rather be doing with my life? The answer, much to my surprise, was no. Teaching English has never been a life goal, and for me joining the JET Programme was more about exchange than education. Of course, there‟s a lot to be said for the flicker of understanding in students‟ eyes, for watching conversational competency grow and blossom over months and years. But what I realized during that stormy afternoon is that teaching isn‟t just about helping kids get better at English. Teaching might be the most potent, most meaningful way to engage in internationalization. From the tumultuous center of my secret crisis I looked out on the smiling, laughing, open faces of my students, and I realized that we were making a connection, here around the piano, that would change every one of our lives. In small, important ways, all of us were being enriched by the joy of this experience. Looking back, all my brightest memories of teaching in Japan turn out to be made up of moments like these, moments where, although a teacher, I was not actively teaching: singing with the chorus club, baking cookies with students in the Home Ec room, cheering them on during Sports Day, chatting in the halls. Teaching may have been my job, but it wasn‟t my mandate. I was here to be me, and to let students take a look through my window on the world.
The Japanese word sensei translates roughly as „born before‟, and I think that this touches an important point: Teachers, by virtue of their more extensive life experience, have the responsibility of acting as role models for those who haven‟t had quite as much time on the planet yet. For the majority of my Japanese colleagues, this responsibility seems to amount to inculcating appropriate values and behavior in their students – important work, certainly, since respect of oneself, others, and the planet are crucial aspects of a functional society – but I think there‟s more to the job of the ALT than moral rectitude. We are, at our best, exemplars of adventurousness and optimism, ambassadors not only of our respective countries but of the very idea of internationalization. It can be frighteningly easy, no matter where you live, to forget that there is a „rest of the world‟ out there, as real and tangible and complex as the place you call home. We come to Japan to remind students of this – and even more importantly, to share with them the exhilarating secret that the rest of the world’ can be within arms’ reach if you so choose. Life-and-death moments – whether real or perceived – have a way of drawing everything into focus, branding moments in time indelibly into your synapses. As I joined my voice to those of the students on Silent Night, I felt a human connection that overcame age, nationality, and the rest. This, I believe, is how internationalization happens. And giving children the chance to experience it is why teaching in Japan has ended up meaning so much to me. I still don‟t expect or intend to spend the rest of my life as a teacher. But now, the JET Programme‟s twin purposes – English language education and grassroots internationalization – seem much more like one aim than two. The famous cellist Pablo Casals once said, “The most important thing in music is what is not in the notes”. Deep in my heart, I feel that the same applies here. Teaching, like music, is a wonderful thing, which connects people by creating experiences that bring our shared humanity to the fore. And just like music is infinitely more than a series of notes, I believe that the most important thing in teaching is what is not in the curriculum.
How long have you been in Japan? Nine years. So you’ve been with JET for nine years?
Oh no! No! No! Nine years in total. Five years in JET, and four years at the Nagaoka BOE. Your
Japanese
is
probably
It‟s that time of year again, when you have to say goodbye to some
really good, isn’t it?
good friends. And this summer I‟ll be saying goodbye to the first
[Laugh] No it‟s not. It‟s really bad.
person I befriended in Niigata. I don‟t think I‟ll ever forget the first
Japanese isn‟t an easy language
day I met Natasha - and I doubt that she would either. I hope that
to acquire. It‟s something that
she‟ll keep that story to herself; it was not my finest hour.
you have to study. And I haven‟t been good at studying it.
Then again I doubt that she‟d be talking about my little episode when she‟s been so busy being awesome and famous. When Natasha told
How do you survive without
me that she published her book, „The Unwanted Wife‟ (known as
being able to speak Japanese?
“TUW” amongst her fans), I think I demanded to read her book then
Gestures, girl! I can use gestures.
and there. But she was too embarrassed to let me read it in her
And
company - only later did I discover why…
Japanese to get me around, now.
I
know
enough
basic
But initially it was really bizarre The story goes a little like this: All Theresa wants is for her sexy
when I would go to a shop, and
husband, Alessandro, to love her. All he wants is a son, and if she
I‟d
couldn‟t give him what he wanted what was her purpose? What
[flailing
Alessandro doesn‟t know is that she‟s just about had enough and
chicken].
wants a divorce. Not only will he be losing his wife but his child as well. And this makes him realize that maybe he did love her after all. If you‟re a fan of saucy, dramatic romances then “The Unwanted Wife” is a definite must-read. Being the first member of her fan club, I thought it would only be appropriate that I interview her before she heads back home. She was kind enough to sit down for a quick interview while taking a break from packing. We sat in her living room which was bursting with boxes, the result of living nine years in Japan. And as always Sir Oliver, her kawaii budgie, also had a lot to say.
make
chicken
arms
about
gestures like
a
Why did you come to Japan? Well, it was a free flight. Literally, that‟s the only reason. So you had no dreams of coming to Japan one day? No. I always had dreams of traveling and this opportunity presented itself to me and I was like…why not? So… yeah, I usually tell my teachers that I was always interested in Japan. How did you find out about the JET program? Well, I was working at my humdrum office job. And one of my friends that knew I was interested in traveling sent me the ad. She sent me a faxed copy of the ad for JET. And then insisted that I filled it in. And insisted that I posted it. Basically, it‟s because of her that I‟m here. It’s obvious that Japanese food is very different from South African food. What is your favourite Japanese food? Can‟t really say that I have one. So you don’t like Japanese food? I eat it! But I don‟t have a favourite. I like …erm… all those Japanese purist are going to think that I‟m a total *****. I like tempura and soba. Why now? Why did you decide to leave Japan after nine years? Well, I have family commitments plus I have a three book deal that has changed my priorities. You’ve just made a major publishing deal with Montlake (romance subsidiary of Amazon). How did that happen? Well, I published my first book on Kindle. It was a self-published book. And it did really, really well. And it received a lot of attention from agents and publishers alike. An agent approached me and I started working with her. And she‟s the one who started getting these deals for me. What is your book about? It‟s about the birds and the bees. [Giggle] It‟s a romance novel. I like reading romance, which I was ashamed to say for many years. Then I thought people you need to stop shaming me. I enjoy my romances. There! I‟m out and I‟m proud. [Fist raised in the air]
I like reading romance. And I‟ve always liked writing. So naturally I would write what I enjoy reading. And that‟s why wrote this romance. Did you always want to be a writer? I always enjoyed writing. And I initially wanted to be a journalist but then realized that‟s not the kind of writing that I like. I like writing fiction. What do you think about the JET program? I think it‟s a good program. I think it‟s a good learning experience for people who want to travel and who want to learn more about Japan. I don‟t have any complaints. JET treated me really well. It will always be a good memory for me, my five years on JET. There were some
What are you going to miss
difficult times but it was never directly related to JET itself. My work
most about Japan?
experience at certain schools could be a bit difficult.
People. I made a lot of good
What was your high and what was your low on JET?
friends here. Obviously a lot of
My low was constantly having to move. In five years, I moved three
my foreign friends, the people I
times because there were budget cuts. And there were only ten
met on JET have left, over the
[Prefectural] JETs at that time. They moved us around… a lot,
course of the years. In fact, I
especially me. So I moved from Kamo, to Niistu, to Sanjo. It was
think that I‟m the last one of my
difficult. That was a big low.
year, still here. I might miss teaching. I wouldn‟t have stayed
My highs. There were many highs. I can‟t pick one. I mean, there were
in this country for nine years if I
good teaching days, there were good travel experiences. I made a lot
didn‟t enjoy my job. I might
of friends. I did the musical. I went to Papua New Guinea. There were
miss our version of teaching. I‟ll
a lot of highs as a result of JET.
miss the kids. Some of them. [Laugh]. I‟ll miss a lot of my colleagues. There is a lot of stuff that I will miss. And probably now when things are so chaotic with moving and packing, I cant think about it. But when I‟m at home there will be random moments I will think: I really miss this and I really miss that. There‟s a lot of stuff here... You can‟t stay in a country for nine years and not enjoy it. It‟s just right now. I can‟t visualize or think of those reasons because
I‟m stressed out. Last question: any advice for What will you miss the least about Japan?
current JETS?
Kyushoku, I won‟t miss kyushoku. (Laugh) I won‟t miss the snow.
Gambatte ne! [Chuckle]
Definitely not. I absolutely hate the snow. The first time I saw snow, I saw it in Japan. And like that first week I was like: it’s so pretty. And the week after that I was like: When is it going to stop? And it never
“The
stopped, not for four months. I could do without snow. [I also won‟t
currently available on Amazon
miss] the summers here. I don‟t like humid weather. It‟s got a lot to do
Kindle, and is slated to have a
with weather. I won‟t miss the weather and I won‟t miss the food.
printed release within the next year.
What’s the first thing you want to do once you get home? Eat fish and chips. Proper fish and chips. [Laughs]
Unwanted
Wife”
is
To get to Dona village, first you get on a bus to Tokyo. Then it's a train to Narita Airport and a seven hour flight to Papua New Guinea's capital city, Port Moresby. You'll be hit by the heat and humidity as you walk across the runway and rush straight on to a connecting flight to the quickly developing city of Lae on the opposite coast. Another bus ride past jungle, construction sites, missionary camps with barbed wire fences and open markets gets you to the port. It's been a long ride but hey don't worry, you're halfway there already! The boat trip follows the coast in a banana boat open to the elements and is spread over two days, spotting dolphins and counting the flying fish zipping out of the water as you pass. You'll see small villages on the beaches and kids that run out into the water to wave as you turn into the mouth of the Waria River and head back inland. Not long now, you'll pass people on canoes carved out of tree trunks and on rafts, taking their produce down to be sold on the coast where they'll let the raft float out to sea and walk for days to get back home when they're done.
You'll pull into a small inlet, slowing onto a mud bank by a small bridge a foot wide, head up onto a path that winds past coconut trees and banana plants. Then, with the heat of the boat, all your first bug bites and the exhaustion of traveling behind you, finally walking into the village square where the team working on the school funded by Niigata ALTs says “Hey! Great to see you, let's get started.” Papua New Guinea makes a hell of a first impression, and as a couple of the team discovered this year, a strong second one too. PNG, and specifically the Waria Valley region of Morobe Province on the north east coast is where the Niigata ALT community (that's you!) is focusing its fundraising efforts to build new schools and support education. Every year
“Hey! Great to see you. Let's get started."
for the last decade and a half, we've worked with our partners to find a community that really needs a school. In 2013 that community was Dona village, of the Jia tribe. Jia is also the name of their language, one of the 800 plus native to the country. The tribe is split into four clans that members are born into (unless you're a lucky Niigata ALT and get invited to join when you visit). The clans and ownership of all the land is passed down on the mother's side of the family. The four clans are the Bego – charged with keeping the livestock, the Wapo – who handle the cultivation and gardens, the Sakiya – fishing and boats and the Yewa – who organize entertainment and serve the food at festivals. The first thing you say after your name when you meet is which tribe you're from, and being from the same clan is a sure fire way to score hugs and cheers. Dona turned out to be one of the most prosperous settlements in the whole valley. Picture a long thin village that snakes from the river into the jungle, a main dirt path with homes made from bush materials on either side. They're fairly robust buildings, but with untreated log frames and palm roofs that will last between three and five years before the entire structure must be pulled down and rebuilt. Inside you'll see the ground floors aren't much used and a high water mark that shows how extreme the floods can be when they hit. Last year the villagers spent a week traveling around the village by canoe after a particularly strong rainy season. There are a small group of more permanent buildings built by the Eco Homes team – another project run by Culture Link, our partner organization in PNG. They are made with plained wood planks that fit together making real walls and floors, they're painted and designed to last. It's a similar design to the Niigata funded schools and a sign of what the local craftsmen can do when they have the funding for milling equipment, tools and transport. Traveling further along the river, we saw a few other examples of permanent buildings - the single college, a medical outpost and then there're the churches.
Of all the buildings we've seen in Waria Valley, the churches were always the biggest, most lavish and well funded. One in particular, in another village a short trip from Dona, towered over everything else around it, freshly redecorated and with well a well kept ornamental garden around it. As a non-believer, it can be a little frustrating to see the amount of money that's spent on religious buildings when the area is so desperate for medical facilities and education. But Christianity is a big part of the community, bringing the people together twice a day for sermons – one of which we were lucky enough to be invited too. There were prayers, a bible reading and worship songs played on guitar just like you'd find in a western evangelical church. The priest was involved in every aspect of village life, even picking up tools to work bareback in the sun all day on the school building project. In Waria, it was Lutheran missionaries who first arrived and converted the populace. They still have an outpost in the area not too far from Dona and two German missionaries visited as recently as last year. Religion is inescapably a piece of the area's modern cultural identity.
Coming back for a second visit meant we could see firsthand how quickly PNG is developing. In 2012, our guide was excited to have a mobile phone, taking pictures and wandering back and forth all day searching for an elusive bar of reception (he could have been searching for a long time, the local signal tower was on a small island claimed by two different tribes that like to take turns invading it and pulling all the other's stuff down, tower and all). This time we saw adverts for mobile phone providers the second we stepped off the plane, and more than once we were pulled aside even in Dona to see someone's new mobile. Communication will be key in connecting the tribes to the mini economic and social revolution taking place in the cities. The youth of Waria is keen to catch up – we visited the technology college, the only place in the province for higher education. They're asking big questions: How can Papua New Guinea become a developed nation? What does it take to become a powerhouse of industry like China or at the forefront of technology like Japan? And my favorite: “How do I get your job?!” The students there were internet savvy and aware of the larger world around them, coming up to us to exchange Facebook details for accounts they'd set up on visits to Lae. Then there's the school project in Dona. Work had already started when we arrived, a base frame on stilts to keep it out of the floods. The floor boards were being nailed in and walls pulled up, it looked fantastic! So hey, of course it had to all go wrong.
The
biggest
difference
between
the
traditional and modern style buildings is the milled wood – planks made from the really big jungle trees. A lot of money goes into renting a portable saw mill, specially designed to be useable on almost any terrain, whether that's steep hillsides or shifting sands on beaches. A sad blip in PNG's emergence into the global market is how that sawmill was invented and first produced in the country, but they didn't copyright the design. An Australian firm took the idea and now PNG has to lease it back from them at inflated rates. Running and repairing them isn't cheap either so when one breaks down in the middle of a project, you know you've got a big problem. We trekked along one of the government roads – a dirt track cut through the jungle – to where the milling had been taking place. The team in Dona had chosen six trees, enough wood to complete the entire project. One of the giant trunks lay half milled where it had been felled, the mill sitting silent beside it. It would take weeks for a replacement part to travel there but rather than being down, the villagers were all upbeat and eager to talk about the progress that had already been made. The roof was nearly ready to go on! Did we want to go and bang a few nails in? It'll get done when it gets done, Papua New Guinea island time... Hey! Let's carry the last of the planks back and have a coconut. The school was far from finished when we left, but we had the opening ceremony anyway.
And it was great.
I am sure that you can list many amazing things that have made your JET experience a lovely journey. Though it's always difficult to face changes in our lives, I am confident that the path you choose from here on will guarantee you the time of your life! The question that many may ask is "what really allows us to have the time of our lives?" Clearly, I am not at liberty to answer this question for everyone, but I can make a wild guess. I gather that we feel quite accomplished as humans when we believe that we are honoring our purpose. Whether this sees you studying, traveling, moving on to another job, spending precious time with family, understanding yourself more, or simply taking some time to just relax until a few things unfold; I pray that you will be deeply fulfilled. The key is that YOU own this next chapter! Take a bold step and write YOUR story on every page. Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Eat Pray Love wrote the following:
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.
I too subscribe to this thought that we are responsible for our happiness on this journey called life. I think we have the duty of organizing our thoughts. Once we are cognizant of this fact and go about acting accordingly, there are no limits to the joy that we can feel inside, and share with others. It is obvious then that your next chapter will be as beautiful as you desire. I know that your desires may seem big right now, and that your dreams may be very overwhelming at this time. That's a good thing! That kind of thought fuels us to take the less traveled path, to keep focused, and to inspire many. I trust then that you may understand that the only limits that really do exist are the ones that you have created or have allowed others to create for you. The world is ours‌ think about it. Many of the things that we find as common in today's world were non-existent 300 years ago. They were manifested from a mere thought, an idea! So think big, go hard, be overwhelmed, and create something beautiful! Finally, I trust that you will find true peace of mind in your next chapter. Always remembering that true happiness abides where there is contentment. I trust that your thoughts will be so radically positive, that your words and actions will reflect your thought life. I trust that you will experience that wellness that can only be achieved when there is mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual balance. I trust that you will guard your hearts and your minds against everything that seeks to shift your balance, and I believe that you will bless and inspire many as they read your next chapter. Only the very best my dears,
Jhana. xo