Sometimes communicating with elderly people can be challenging, but communicating with elderly people that don’t speak your language…now that be a little tougher. Well in the end it turned out much better than I thought. In Uda we were invited to spend the morning at a Japanese nursing home were we had the chance to interact and learn from elderly community members at a nursing home. After we introduced ourselves we found out for some of them we were the first people they ever met from different country which was a great opportunity to represent our countries.

We started off by writing calligraphy kanji characters, mostly positive characters like; Love, Dream, Hope ect. It was a great chance to learn calligraphy but also to help the members. Because some of them were in wheelchairs or slightly disabled we helped them write the calligraphy by placing our hands over theirs and writing with them. It was a very powerful moment for the group of us.

I think we originally planned on visiting the home and giving, serving, and impacting the community members but didn’t realize how much they would teach and impact us. When we said our goodbyes and it was very difficult for us, one of the women in a wheelchair probably in her mind 90’s took my hands and started to speak Japanese she then soon begin to cry at that moment language was no longer needed and I felt her embrace and energy and I know what she was saying was from the heart and she cared very much about the words she was saying even though she probably knew I didn’t understand. Luckily when she was speaking there was someone behind me that translated what she said. One of the things she mentioned was “Thank you so much for visiting us and spending you time with us all and I’m happy to have lived this long so I could meet you on this day.” It was a wonderful experience and its great to think that at age 90 people are still able to inspire and impact in this world!

(Brandon Serna – External Relations Manager for Summer ‘11 Road Team)

Last week when we heard we were going golfing for the day we didn’t really know what to expect and had some questions to our selves; when was the last time I golfed? Can I golf? What is Golf? But when we arrived we soon realized it was a Japanese’s style of ground golf and our teammates where mostly elderly people. So we were quite relieved that we had a chance to be good at the game. Then another surprise hit us when we saw how good the Japanese golfers were! We divided into 7 teams and played 18 holes of Japanese ground golf and it was just a blast and fun time with some really friendly people! 2 of us also got hole in ones and won some prizes!

Thanks for the fun time!

(Brandon Serna – External Relations Manager for Summer ‘11 Road Team)

This week in Uda (possible the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen) we had the chance to see some of the cities amazing history. Our mission was to visit 3 temples in one day! One of which was Murou temple, one of the oldest temples in Japan. Some of the buildings were built in the 9th century and are still standing there. The temple buildings are surrounded by huge cedar trees close to a thousand years, an awe inspiring sight and a reminder of the power and beauty of nature. As we went up the roughly 500 stone steps towards the building on the top of the mountain the view became more beautiful with every step we took. Our guide explained the fine details of the statues of Buddha, their purpose and why they were arranged the way they were, it was very interesting. The 16 meter high pagoda, apparently the smallest outdoor pagoda in Japan can move like a snake, so even when a big earthquake occurs it will stay standing, and it has been standing for over a thousand years, and it is made out of wood! At the top some of the monks were having a ceremony, we were so lucky to be able to witness that.

(Frank Florris from The Netherlands)