Our Adventures: Oshima

A few weeks ago we were privileged to be a part of a little exchange program here on base. 25 kids and a few adults were chosen to be flown down here from mainland for a cultural exchange. The few days were meant to be a vacation for the kids, a chance to get away from all the devastation they've been living in since March 11th. They were all from the little island of Oshima, which was hit hard with the tsunami. About half of their island was completely covered with the wave. Praise God that the kids were still in school when the wave came and that the school was on higher ground. I think only one little girl is unaccounted for still. The Marines worked closely to provide relief for this island immediately after, and so the friendship developed.

We found out last minute about hosting them, right before we went on lockdown for the last typhoon actually. I had decided not to go to the commissary before the typhoon in case the power went out and we lost the food in the fridge. So there we were, after 36 hours of torrential rains and howling winds, with the big "American" meals I wanted to make them still sitting at the store. When we picked them up Saturday evening, we used our "greeting words" and gave hugs and smiles, using an interpreter to assure them that we were nice people and would give them whatever they wanted. :) We headed back to our place for supagetti, garlic pan, fried zucchini cakes and incredibly rich chocolate peanut butter brownies. It was kind of funny watching them politely choke down my sweets. I sent them back to the barracks with more brownies anyway. A few of the kids stayed overnight, I think with families that had wives who were Japanese, but I'm sure most of the kids were grateful to go back at night to the barracks and have sleepovers with all of their friends. They spoke no English and in practical terms I still speak no Japanese, which made our few days together quite quiet. Silence usually makes things seem "not fun", so I felt bad the whole time for not having become fluent in the last 4 months.

Sunday we picked them up and brought them home to eat omelettes before wisking them off to church for a good half hour before taking them to a scheduled buffet lunch. Our pastor asked them if they had ever been to church before and they said no, and it just happened to be bilingual Sunday, so we can pray a little seed was planted there. The extravagant buffet after church was another chance to see their eating habits. Their last course consisted of a few leaves of lettuce and some veggies, putting us to shame once again as Jose let Addie start her meal with ice cream "for being such a good kid", haha. We took them to our aquarium (which has the 2nd largest tank in the world), bowling with pizza, pool party with hamburgers and hot dogs, and they ended their trip Tuesday with a little tour of our TV and radio station studios. They warmed up more to Addie as the days went on. It was cute watching them hold her hand and hold her up to the windows at the aquarium. The language barrier really was getting me down, but as the bus was getting ready to leave and the kids were all lined up, there were tears in the Japanese kids' eyes and tears in ours too. Addison actually sobbed the whole rest of the day that they were gone, and now her bedtime story every night involves talking about going to see Ami and Sae in Oshima. It was great to be part of the exchange and I hope the girls benefited too. What struck me most was the importance of language and how much we take it for granted. Yes, we could smile at each other and act warmly and gesture, but there was still a void. It made me conscious of every word that comes out of my mouth to another English speaker, and whether the words are helpful or necessary, as well as how quickly I can find out the information I need through common language. Have you ever pre-planned every single thing you thought you might say in a day? I did it - twice, and man, that sure got me thinking about how many of my words were really necessary! I pray that God can use my words for good whenever something leaves my mouth. In my feelings of inadequacy at not being able to reach the entire Japanese population with my words, I was reminded of how many people in the world speak MY language, people who still need to hear God's words of love and grace. I'll guess I'll start there, and in the meantime, our Japanese neighbors won't be short on smiles and large gestures from their American friend.