Eggplant juice?!

Last week when I left class on Wednesday, on of the beginner students let me know: "Next week...juice party. Please bring fruit or vegetable."


She claimed absolutely anything was okay, except for bananas, which aren't juicy enough for her machine, so I went out and bought an eggplant from the convenience store early Wednesday morning. :P It turned out to be very fun, and a very Japanese kind of party.


A.k.a the kind of party where we all sit in a circle and observe someone make food and toss out comments along the way.


But she had this machine where you just stuff fruit or vegetables into a plastic tube and they get squished into juice. If the base of the juice is apple and carrot, you can put pretty much anything in and it tastes great. They were a little shocked and surprised at my eggplant, though. Hee hee. So, they put that in at the very beginning just to make sure it was alright. Probably the first and only time I'll be sitting in a group of people passing around a tupperware of freshly squeezed eggplant juice.


We each tried a small spoonful, deemed it good for drinking and started adding other fruits and veggies. Meanwhile the Japanese ladies started playing with the remnants of eggplant, the little kind of dried out shredded bits, and, with a little salt, managed to make something fairly decent.

January 2008 Newsletter

Happy 2008!

I am going to try something new. My hope in moving newsletters from email to a blog is that I will update more frequently but with smaller stories and experiences. I'll send email reminders about blog updates every once in awhile. The other change that is happening with this blog is that this is my official communication as an ELCA Missionary. My newsletters before were written as a combination Official Newsletter and Mass Email to Friends all in one. This blog is written under the assumption that my readers are interested in hearing about church and God related things. There will be other entries too...I will do my best to share my experience here, so it will also include many cultural entries and other stories. Anyway, welcome to my new blog! I have a lot of older entries that I have moved from another blog and I also included all my old email newsletters here. Welcome to all who join the story now and welcome to those who have been with me much longer! Come and walk with me awhile...

This past fall and Christmas time reached new levels of busyness, though it's been a good kind of busy. In mid-September, Tokyo was invaded by nine new missionaries--five new J3s, two new VYM, and one long-term ELCA couple. I have felt something like a proud aunt watching them from a distance...you know, we really do pick up Japanese pretty quickly. It felt so slow when it was me.

Teaching English this term was much more natural, much less of an experiment. I might be learning how to read Japanese people much better...or at least during one class I explained to them that, when I ask them if they have any questions and they sit without making eye contact and say nothing, I am never sure if it means:
1) They still do not understand the English but don't know what to ask and will wait for me to ask them if they have a question.
2) Really they understand the English perfectly but feel like they must come up with a question because I am asking for one, so I should just move the class on.
3) They *have* a question, but no one else seems to be asking one, so they can't ask theirs either.
My students laughed with me at this and told me I understand Japanese students very well. Which I find slightly amusing.

Christmas this year was a good one. Though it was hard. Many people asked me this year if it was my first Christmas away from home, and when I said 'no', they would say, 'Oh, okay.' But really, the second Christmas away from home is not so different from the first. And the song 'I'll be Home For Christmas' remains on my banned songs list.

That being said, I really love my congregation. We had kid's activities on Christmas Eve and I got to watch Yasui Sensei (the pastor) try to teach origami to four year olds. For once, Japanese preschoolers lived up (er...down) to their American counterparts, and the adults ended up doing a lot of the folding.
Pic: Kids racing around trying to snatch a strip of toilet paper from the backs of their friends.

Kid's activities were followed by a candlelight service with harpsichord. After the service, we hit the streets with candles and carol books! Singing on the streets is definitely not normal Tokyo behavior, and it felt so lovely to be standing on the corners singing 'Joy to the World' in Japanese. One church member made it her personal mission to wish Merry Christmas to everyone we passed. I was so proud of her. Other church members were laughing at her, but she explained that it was the one day she felt free to tell the world around about the joy that she had. She got two people to say 'Merry Christmas' back, and as soon as they were passed she threw her arms up in the air with joy and then would hold up a count. 'Got one! Got two!' It felt so easy to feel God smiling that Christmas night.

This season at Hongo has been one of deepening relationships. Most of my classes have gotten smaller, but more dear at the same time. I find myself really loving them.

My Wednesday Advanced class is perhaps the most fun. It is made up of nine wonderful people. A cram school English teacher with a better hold on idioms than most Americans who speaks up to a mile a minute. A young doctor who has blossomed into a strong, opinionated student. An older woman who goes salsa dancing with Cubans from time to time and often says 'Adios' on her way out the door. A college professor in forestry who vanishes for several weeks at a time and comes back with tales of figuring out how old trees in given areas are. A soft spoken man who has lived abroad in Canada who, when asked what he's confident about, mentions things like having a good family someday. Three lab partner college students who research molecular biology and are able to hold conversations with the aforementioned doctor about lymph nodes which, although English conversations, are completely incomprehensible to me. A shy woman who comes and goes early but knows Japanese sign language and enough about American gestures to teach us why you could get in big trouble speaking Japanese sign language in America.

If I ask this class to introduce themselves, we will talk for forty five minutes. Our end of class Bible studies have taken to going twenty to forty minutes overtime because we get so into our discussions.

My reflection for these past few months has been about time in the middle. I received an encouraging email that had nothing to do with mission work except in my head. It was really about writing. But this was a quote in it:

"A dry-stone wall is a lovely thing when you see it bordering a field in the middle of nowhere but becomes more impressive when you realize that it was built without mortar, that the builder needed to choose each interlocking stone and fit it in. Writing is like building a wall. It's a continual search for the word that will fit in the text, in your mind, on the page. Plot and character and metaphor and style, all these become secondary to the words. The wall-builder erects her wall one rock at a time until she reaches the far end of the field. If she doesn't build it it won't be there. So she looks down at her pile of rocks, picks the one that looks like it will best suit her purpose, and puts it in."

So it is for ministry as well. There is a time when things are starting fresh and new that they seem really adventurous and exciting. Really, they never stop being that way, but the wonder fades to our sinful eyes eventually. G.K. Chesterton says that the amount of time it takes to complete a miracle does not change whether it is a miracle or not. A 3000 year miracle and a 1 second miracle are all God doing the impossible. Here in Japan, we are building a wall that is revival of the church here. We dream of a time when people will look back at the days of "1% Christian" and say, "Look what God has done for the Japanese since then!".

For now, though, the work is often setting down one stone at a time. One prayer for the wall. One word about Christ for the wall. One friendship for the wall. Luckily, we are not building the wall alone. But sometimes we are not starting walls or finishing walls, but just laying down one stone at a time. Each stone is really needed, though.

Recently, it has felt like the time of Middle is coming to an end. Ironically, it hasn't felt like the transition is from middle to ending, but rather from middle to beginning. Time will tell.

Nagasaki

Pic: The most famous peace park statue. Half of the statue is in meditation, pointing up to God to appeal for peace.

The other half is ready to move forward in action, reaching out to men.

Last weekend the J3s packed up and traveled down to Nagasaki for our annual retreat. Nagasaki is a city best described in poetry. The history is so rich the air seems heavier with it. Long before World War Two, Nagasaki was a major port city.

It was the site that began the persecution of Christians in Japan with the crucifixion of 26 martyrs in February, 1597, around fifty years after Christianity first entered the country.

The youngest was six years old. Given the chance to recant and be taken off the cross, this child said, "I would rather be in heaven tomorrow where there is no suffering than remain one more day in a world where I cannot worship God." I am in awe of him.


Pic: Memorial to the 26 martyrs. Note the smaller figures who are children. The two arms reaching up behind them are a church.


Nagasaki remained open after much of Japan was completely closed to the western world. Many cities in Japan have a characteristic food, and Nagasaki is no different. Except that it's multi-cultural history shows itself. Nagasaki's food is actually Chinese, a noodle dish called Champon.

The church was harshly persecuted throughout Japan following the 16th Century. When it was legalized again in 1873, Nagasaki was one of the sites where Christians reappeared out of the woodwork, having hidden their faith for more than 200 years.

We went through China Town and the 26 Martyrs Museum and the Peace Park all in one day. At the end, the only way I could think to describe Nagasaki was: it is a city that has been washed over and over again with God's tears.

pic: Old edict forbidding Christianity displayed in the 26 Martyrs Museum

No, I was not eaten by cockroaches

The cockroach wars were brief and (mostly) harmless. I felt a little vindicated that every single one of my friends in Tokyo (or at least all the ones I talked to) also had cockroach sightings that week. Apparently the cooling down outside drives them inside. I scrubbed my kitchen down, got all my flour / sugar / etc. in air-tight containers, and proceeded to lay about ten little cockroach poison thingies all over my kitchen.

Two days later I was on the way to church and realized that there was a cockroach sitting in my hallway. But it was just...sitting. It made no effort to run even though I was pretty close to it. I wondered if it was dead and left it there. When I returned, it had gone belly up, six legs angling towards the sky. This made me actually feel a little bit of pity, but two very useful things happened because I actually saw a dead one: I realized that my initial report of "two inches long" was...a stretch. Though they are definitely more than an inch long. ;) It was also very useful to know that the cockroach poison was effective, and that I didn't need to panic or start smashing my apartment apart or anything like that when I saw one.

Other happenings of the past few weeks...

Our new people came! We now have nine new missionaries here in Tokyo studying Japanese. So, I am no longer new. I am now "sempai", so to speak. It's been fun to watch them, remember what it was like to be new, and how much it sucked to be at the level of Japanese where one still regularly confuses the word for 'grandmother' with the word for 'buckwheat noodles'. It makes me feel rather important and accomplished to be able to take them into bento shops and explain to the cashiers that, the reason they sound so funny is that they only started studying Japanese this week, and be able to do it all confidentially since they don't understand what I'm saying. Not that I'm usually that mean...;)

It is strange to have it be autumn again, also because it is the first time the seasons have changed into something familiar. Not that Japanese seasons are so outrageously different from America, but there were usually new fruits, new smells, new customs, etc. It's odd to be walking down the street and realize that the air itself feels like an old friend, whispering memories of my first few months in the country.

In other news, I twisted my ankle last Friday. Typing emails on my cell phone while hurrying down stairs in Tokyo station is now a forbidden activity. Thankfully, God was merciful and it only seems to be a minor sprain. In the meantime, things have to go ever so slightly slower than normal, which is probably a good thing.

Last night, I bought green tea scented toilet paper. Just wanted to share that with someone. ;)

That's a first...

I had my first Christianity Today class of the term. It was really nice! I had a lot of people there (nine) and they were quick to join in with thoughts and comments from the Bible passage we were studying. I'm taking my students through the Old Testament this term, and today was creation. I was relieved that they didn't focus on the different perspectives Christians have on evolution or anything like that...the discussions we got into (about human authority and responsibility and God creating the world good) were far more productive. But one thing happened that was really, really interesting.

A man I hadn't met before came to the center just before my class, and asked if he could join coffee hour. I explained that Coffee Hour came after Christianity Today, but that he was welcome to either wait or join us for Christianity Today. He instantly walked into the room and said, "I need to read Corinthians, do you have a Bible?" I handed him a Bible and helped him find the verse he was looking for about the body being the temple for God. Once we had found it, I asked him why he was looking for it, and he said it reminded him of something in Zen. Class was starting, so we dropped the conversation.

I had students introduce themselves at the beginning of class, and the man said, "I'm actually not sure I'm allowed to be here, because I'm a Zen priest."

...I have a Zen priest (or monk...we weren't sure about the English) in my Christianity Today class.

He was an interesting character. Somewhat soft spoken, but with a pleasant sense of humor. He knew a lot about the Bible. He joked at the end of class that he was a heretic for coming to my class.

I've never met any student at Hongo who had a strong religion aside from our few Christian students. Much of Japan is self-proclaimed "no religion" or "interested in many religions" It will be very interesting to see what kind of conversations his presence brings about, assuming that he comes back again.

The days of peace are at an end...

There is a cockroach in my apartment. *buries head in couch and hides* I live alone...*whimper* It was on the wall and I sat and looked at it and contemplated how to get rid of a two inch long insect without dying myself, and just when I had decided that was pretty much impossible the darn thing *flew* and now I don't even know where it is.

I have been dreading this moment ever since I saw a cockroach on the stairs going up to my apartment level.

Do cockroaches bite, or are they just the scariest looking things in the entire world? What happens if one tries to vacuum them?

*whimper* I sleep on the floor.

How does one get rid of a cockroach without:
a) touching it
b) smushing it all over the wall or floor
c) making it fly in one's general direction
d) inviting more cockroaches in
e) breaking any international anti-war type treaties
f) blowing up one's apartment
g) having a nervous breakdown
h) not knowing exactly where it is--but needing to be certain it's out
?

ただいま！

Christine and I arrived back in Tokyo yesterday evening. India was absolutely wonderful.

We arrived at about two in the morning. Our best guess for a hotel that might accept us without a reservation was wrong, but the taxi driver kindly delivered us on the front step of a hotel that would. We payed entirely too much in terms of Indian money for only three hours of sleep, but since that was only $40, I suppose I am not entitled to complaint.

The streets in Kolkata (Calcutta was changed to Kolkata in recent years, so that's where I'm talking about when I say "Kolkata") are worth describing in full. Most of the sidewalks are covered with people sleeping, bathing, using the wall as a toilet, eating, etc. So, you pretty much walk on the streets, along with everyone else. Being a white person in that part of Kolkata, everyone knew exactly where we were going and would shout "hello!" and, if they were a rickshaw driver "Mother House?!". Rickshaw drivers and bicycle riders use bells and motorcycles and taxis and autorickshaws and any other kinds of cars use horns to let you know they are there. If you aren't sure someone knows about you after blaring the horn, it is also permissible to lean out the window and shout. Needless to say, we got back into downtown Tokyo and could only remark, "How quiet it is! And how clean!" But I loved the reality of Kolkata. I loved how vibrant and active the streets were.

It turns out we had perfect timing in terms of volunteering. Almost all the volunteers come on Thursday, because it is the day off for volunteering. We started on Friday with pretty much everyone else. We had lots of different houses to choose from...some for children, one for the dying, some for battered women, others for mentally handicapped...Christine and I decided we did not want to choose, so we asked them to send us wherever the need was greatest. We ended up at Prem Dan, a home for the sick and mentally handicapped, which I am convinced was the best place we possibly could have ended up.

Mornings were spent handwashing a pile of laundry about four feet high. We scrubbed sheets and clothing in large tubs of cool, soapy water, then ran them through two sinks to rinse the soap out, finally wrung as much water out of them as we could and then hauled them up to the roof to dry. These were truly joyful times. We usually had about fifteen volunteers working all together, and the group was very multicultural. I immediately found myself in the center of it, being as how at least two thirds of the volunteers seemed to be from Japan or Spain. At one point, I found myself sitting at a tub with a Japanese girl and a Spanish girl all at the same time, and my poor brain nearly exploded, but it was also really cool to be able to help people start relationships across a language barrier, and my Spanish actually came back again after a couple days of explaining (in very careful, slow, articulate Spanish) that I had been living in Japan for a year, and so Japanese came out whenever I tried to speak Spanish. What was really funny is that it's the most basis words in Spanish that I can't remember. It took me days and days to be able to say "si" instead of "hai", and I kept forgetting words like "what", "then", and "tomorrow", which really confused the poor Spaniards.

Laundry was followed by a tea break (I love chai so much!!!), and then we would go in to serve lunch to the patients.

My first day, this was the most stressful part. The nurses speak only Bengali. The patients speak only Bengali or only Bengali and Hindi, with the exception of maybe one girl who knows a couple simple phrases. This meant that I would do something like start carrying food somewhere, and the nurse would just say, "No!". I would freeze, trying to figure out my error, and eventually someone would grab me by the hand and pull me somewhere different. I tried to take all of this as a much needed lesson in humility, but was very drained by the end of the volunteer time.

The next day I decided to avoid the food and actively seek out patients in need of love. My first day, this meant a younger looking girl who was curled up, very firmly asleep and feverish. I tried to help her sit up to eat, but she kept sinking back to the bed. So, I prayed, sang to her, and kept pressing the spoon to her lips. Eventually, one of the nurses came over, spoke to her harshly in Bengali, and then she started eating. We managed to get several bites of food into her and about a third of her cup of water. The next day I looked all over for her and could not find her. I asked Cara, who had been with us the day before, to let me know if she saw her anywhere, but began mentally preparing for her death, or at least her move to one of the more "dying" type houses. About halfway through lunch, Cara came and said, "There she is." To my great surprise, she was sitting in the "mess hall" with the other patients, a nearly clean plate in front of her. I came over to her and greeted her and touched her, and her skin was cool to the touch, no more trace of a fever. It was a wonderful surprise!

The rest of our volunteer days, I spent a lot of time sitting with a girl named Sonali. Sonali had twig like arms and legs and barely responded at all when I came and took her hand. She tended to spit up any food we could get past the barricade of her lips. For the first time in my life, I would have done anything for a needle so we could have started an i.v. and gotten some nutrients into her. Everyday we made some effort to feed her, but it didn't go well until they started bringing us something like watery oatmeal. Even then she would manage only three bites and then need to lay down and rest again. I fell deeply, deeply in love with Sonali and always spent an extended period of time sitting with her, holding her hand, singing to her and praying. By the end of my time there, she was still really weak, but her eyes opened a bit more often and she seemed to move around a bit more. I'd like to think she's getting better. But it's weird that I'll never know for sure.

So, that was pretty much life in India...at least the cliff notes version. I don't even know if I've managed to process everything for myself...there's still so much to think about, and many more happenings and conversations. For now, I am back home. I had the day to show Christine a little of Tokyo, tomorrow I'll start work registering people and passing out pamphlets at Hongo, and Christine goes back to Seattle on Thursday.