Hello, all :-)
Today, I would like to tell you to my volunteer activity. I belong to a volunteer activity group. We study a little the present situation of refugees who lives in Japan or plan Christmas party for them to remove their concern a little. And we are going to join Tokyo International festival tomorrow, and exhibit painting by some refugees. So, yesterday, I met a refugee who came from Iran to get his painting for the exhibition with some Japanese staves. Before I met him, I was taught a few Persian by Joe. So, I used the one, salaam when I first met him. سلا=Salaam means hello.Then, he smiled and said salaam. I was glad to hear the word. After that, he explained the image of his paintings. Many question marks were drawn on first painting. He explained many question marks means his feeling for twenty years since he came Japan. He has thought why he can’t be free. I was sad to hear that. Also, he said that he don’t want money but want to choose his way. I am thinking about what I can do for them even a small things.
Sorry for gloomy contents, but I want to let it be known that there are such people in the world.
I will write pleasant story next time:-)
16 years ago
4 comments:
Thank you for the update, Ayumi! It's great that you're volunteering helping refugees. I didn't know about refugees in Japan, especially from Iran. Did he speak in Japanese or English? Refugees have hard lives, so I bet it made him feel good to know that there are others who care about people in his circumstances.
Hi!
I think your activity is so nice. I'm also interested in refgee so please tell me about them someday!
Ay-Love-Umi,
It's great that you are continuing to post. I also think it's awesome that you are doing volunteer work. I think that it is very important for people to help people.
Hello Ayumi, I was very happy to see your post and to know that you are doing volunteer work with refugees living in Japan. Besides Iran, what other countries do the refugees come from?
In the U.S., we have refugees from various countries. When I began teaching in the 1970s, we had numerous refugees from Southeast Asia (especially Vietnam, but also Laos and Cambodia).
Are there JSL (Japanese as a Second Language) programs set up for these refugees?
If learning English is difficult, I think learning Japanese would be even more difficult.
I'll bet that man was very pleased to hear you say some words in his native language.
Hugs from sunny Maryland,
Nina
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