Building Bridges

**this entry would have been more appropriately posted about three weeks ago. gomene.


we did it! It started out as a small English lesson, a way to practice informal writing and to communicate with a native English speaker of similar age, and it turned into a much larger international exchange. On Tuesday July 4th, seven students from the Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (MS113) in Brooklyn New York, came to Hayaso Junior High School in Hidakagawa-cho and met their Pen-Pals face to face. But perhaps I should begin at the beginning...

Pen Pal projects are nothing new, though they are becoming rarer with the advent of the internet. I many times wonder myself, especially now being so far from home, how people managed to keep in touch before the internet. I cannot even imagine, yet it was not so long ago. And speaking of the internet, there are websites now that arrange pen-pals between countries, often internationally, though I have heard more failures through this type of arrangement than successes. Luckily, Sara is a Social Studies teacher with students of a similar age as my students at Hayaso Junior High School, so the connection was obvious. I am also fortunate in that I have a lot of freedom at my Junior High School over what I teach and how I teach it. This year among other lessons, we made New Years cards and sent school supply donations to children in India, learned about Martin Luther King Junior and his I Have a Dream Speech, watched School of Rock and listened to translated a Cat Stevens song. When I proposed the pen-pal project with the students from RELS, Sakamoto Sensei was thrilled with idea. And so it began.

Hayaso Junior High School is only 2 students big (23 when we began writing), the equivalent to less than one of my sister's classes. So, although many of her students wanted to participate, only one class could. Lists of students were made and my kids drew names out of a hat, regardless of gender, and the pairings were made. The first letters took a couple of lessons to complete. We learned the format of a letter, how to address an envelope and some informal ways to sign off (love, from, peace, best, hugs...). My students all brought in special letter sets (have I mentioned how crazy Japanese kids are over stationary) to write their final drafts on, and we took photos to include.

We wrote about four letters and postcards back and fourth throughout the year, including some Valentines Day cards and candy. Both Hayaso and RELS made video letters as well, hand delivered and received when Sara came to visit in November. We explained school uniforms and bento lunch boxes, they did a fashion show and performed a dance for us, declaring that "this is how we dance in America". Both sides of the Pacific got a good laugh out of each other.

My good friend Corri is an English Teacher at a school not far from Hayaso, a school much larger than Hayasao. When Sara came in November for Thanksgiving, the two decided to extend the project into another school in Japan and into more classrooms in New York. About ninety more students began to write letters.

Slowly with the progression of the project (we wrote, or received a letter about every month), Sara got the urge to take it to a higher level and bring the students face to face. The plan was a grand one to say the least. I admittedly took it with a grain of salt at the beginning. Not only would it be difficult to pull off because of the funding, but there was also all the logistics of the trip to work out, not to mention insurance, chaperones, differences in school year calendars, getting it OK'd by my Board of Education (who recently cut out an exchange with Australia from the budget after the merging of towns last year), etc. I knew what an amazing experience it would be for students in both countries, but I did not get my hopes up. My sister, more persistent than I however, explored her options and finally found a travel company that specializes in student tours to Japan. Ping pong, as they say in Japan. A perfect program for our situation. A tour of a few Japanese cities, and on the way the New York students could train it down to the no-on-the-guidebook-town of Hidakagawa-cho. The next step then became how the funding would work.

I don't know all the specifics of the fundraising campaigns that then began in New York. After an informational meeting with parents and students, about thirty kids expressed their interest in going. Community donors were sought out, small bake sales took place and my sister began to contact larger organizations and celebrity figures to help the kids get to Japan. In the end, it was the private donors, small community organizations and hard work of the students that made the trip possible. Though there were some breaks in terms of publications in New York that carried stories about the grand idea. And in the end, seven students, all girls, raised enough money and maintained the interest to make the trip to Japan.

Meanwhile, I was pitching the idea to my students and principles and school officials with skepticism, admittedly, over whether it would actually happen. Some event of this magnitude would surely take some planning and official-telling, so all seemed somewhat unsteady about the visit and to what extent the city would have to be involved. Fortunately the principles at my school were very flexible with the changes in schedule and degrees of certainty surrounding the visit and were eager to make things happen.

All things came together in the first week in July. My sister, two parents and seven students would most certainly come to Japan and would separate from the rest of their tour group (they were grouped with a few other school groups from the U.S.) to train it down to Gobo to meet up with Hayaso and Shoyo Junior High Schools. Corri and notified our schools about the date of the visit, July 4th (!), and lessons were prepared (as well as test schedules worked around) for the visitors.

In the end, the penpal face-to-face meeting went wonderfully. It was a very quick trip, approximately six hours total, but we made it work. First Sara and the MS113 kids arrived safely in Gobo and myself, my JTE and Emi greeted them. We traveled into the mountains to Hayaso Junior High School where all the students and teachers were eagerly awaiting with ready-made name tags. We all sat together upstairs in a meeting spot and a few introductions and welcomes were made by the principle (who very bravely used some English), Sara and a third year student, Hiroki. Then the NY students introduced themselves in Japanese. It was superb and I was impressed with their effort. In groups the students mingled with each other and then double dutch ensued. My sister had mentioned that the girls had brought out their jump rope in Osaka the night before and jumped in the street, so we asked them to put on a bit of a show, which they did, and received a boisterous response. A few of the Hayaso students and the P.E. teacher tried their hand at it as well. That I think was the ice breaker and from then on, as we decorated bamboo and ate a small lunch together, the mood in the school was energetic and happy.

The two hour visit at Hayaso, went quickly, and afer gifts were exchanged on both sides and a few photos, it was in the taxis to go to Shoyo Junior High School. It was a group goodbye, and some of the kids ran after the cars as we drove out of the yard...I wanted to cry.

At Shoyo we wandered around to the different club activities that Shoyo (a much larger school than Hayaso) offers: tennis, swimming, volleyball, brass band, Kendo, baseball, table tennis. We all joined in before gathering with some eager English speaking students to chat. Some of the Shoyo students choreographed a dance to show to the RELS students and in return, the RELS students did a double dutch performance. It was interesting and good to allow the NY kids glimpse two different schools and participate in their activities.

I think the the experience was a bit overwhelming for everyone involved, though highly enjoyable and amazing. Nobody at times knew what to make of each other. When you agree to write to a student in another country, I imagine that you never think that you will meet them in person. But such was the case. The jet lag, nervousness and enormity and weight of the experience lingered as the students met their penpals and observed schools in Japan, but we were all thankful to have made it happen and to be a part of this project, that perhaps, hopefully will continue. We will have to wait and see.

The day grew later and the time came to race back to the train station so that the NY group could head to Kyoto (a train they barely made...my fault) so we all said our goodbyes and the obligatory "see you later." Yet, overhearing Kaiya's last word to her penpal as they parted ways after getting to chat one-on-one for only a short time, gave me faith in the connection that Sara, Corri and I and all the others had worked to make: "I'll email you when I get home, " she said.