Texas Treats / Let's Start Talking!

Thanks Nana for the package! I just got it today, and I was SO happy to see the contents listed before I even opened it. Mmmmmmmmmm!!!

I had forgotten to give my host family some of the jerky that Mom and Dad sent in their package until tonight at dinner. My host mom asked me how we cook salmon in America. (That's what I had for dinner tonight) I told her I wasn't sure because we do not eat fish very often at my house. I explained that my Dad used to go fishing more often, but now he doesn't. He goes hunting every year though for deer (Shika). They were very excited about that and we talked about it for a long time. My mom asked if it was for hobby, and I said yes. I showed them on the calendar that my Dad goes away for one week and gets one deer, then a month later he goes for another week and gets one deer. (I simplify things a lot when explaining) My host dad was so impressed and started typing away at his electronic Japanese-English dictionary. He pointed at it and I laughed and agreed when it said "envious"! I told them to wait one moment so I could run up to my room. I think I confused them, but when I came back down with "Homemade Jerky from Texas" they were SO excited!! My host dad said that jerky is rare, but his father used to make it also. My host mom was very impressed that my Dad had hunted the deer and my Mom had made the jerky. I had to convince that that you aren't a professional jerky maker, Mom. Haha!

After that I ran back upstairs and grabbed a box of cookies and brownies and brought them back down to share. Nana...my host family LOVES you. They think you are a WONDERFUL cook, and my host mom wants to know how to make brownies! If you could send a recipe to make them from scratch that would be very helpful, and I think one night before I leave I will work on making dinner for them. Complete with American brownies (if possible).

When I got the box, of course all 24 of the people on Pac Rim with me wanted to know what it was and wanted me to open it right away. I told them it was too hard to carry around a box that was open, and I would open it later. I ride the same bus as 2-3 other people, so when we got on the bus to go home I opened it to share with them. It was a great bus ride, and all involved thank you, Nana! You are a very famous person in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, Japan!! We had to remind ourselves that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so while we were hungry and the food was so good, we would have to stop before we ate all of it on one bus ride! Thank you so much, Nana! It's like a little box of home.

Today we didn't have class. Instead we toured a Hitachi factory in Omika -- the same city as Ibaraki Christian University. Then we had lunch with the Hitachiota-Ro (or something like that) Rotary Club. It was very formal and nice. Some of our OC people gave speeches, one of which was a Junior Rotarian when he was in High School. They enjoyed that a lot, and then we sang for them. It seems that everywhere we go we are asked to sing. I'm glad at those times that our numbers of guys and girls is split evenly. They thanked us for coming with gifts of a Japanese silk cloth and a little Japanese toy. I have collected a few things here in Japan like that and some souvenirs/gifts that I will probably ship home from Hong Kong where postage is cheaper again.

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Wednesday night we held our first Let's Start Talking (LST) session. We are meeting in the chapel on the IC campus, and any and all students interested in practicing speaking English are welcome to come! We sing some songs in English, and then we work out of FriendSpeak workbooks reading very short sections from the book of Luke together with the Japanese students. It goes very slowly, but the workbooks are designed to help the reader understand. After we would read over one section I would ask Mio, the girl I was working with, if she understood. Sometimes she said yes, and would only have a few words that she didn't understand, so I would try to explain in other words and reread the section again pausing on those words to make sure the message was clear.

The workbook follows each passage with questions about the reading or about words that were probably new, just to make sure the meaning is getting across clearly. We would spend as much time as she wanted on each section, and I would try to make it clear to her what was going on in the stories. We were able to get through the first 4 lessons in the workbook that night, which got us through the introduction to the book of Luke, Gabriel appearing to Mary telling her she would have Jesus, Joseph and Mary going to Nazareth for the census and having the baby, and Jesus staying behind at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Passover festival. It was fun to watch her slowly understand the words and concepts we were trying to get across, and she was very quick to pick up on it. I told her I hoped she could come back next Wednesday, but she was noncommital. We are hoping that as more people find out that we are doing the lessons more people will come. We had about 8 Japanese students to our 24 American students, so we have a lot of room to grow. There are also long-term LST teachers that are on campus nearly 10 hours a day, 4 days a week. So while our short-term efforts may not be much, we are hoping to plant the seeds for someone else to water so God can grow them after we are long gone.

I love you all SO much, and I can't wait to tell more stories! Every single day is an adventure! Tomorrow we are going to the IC Junior High School to hang out with some 8th graders. We went on Wednesday morning also to a younger class, and the 4 girls at my table gave me a bag FULL of oragami flowers.

More stories later. Test tomorrow!!
Much love!
Amy