Volunteer Day and Girlscouts

So Saturday I was guilted into going to another manual labor volunteer day. It`s not the volunteer work I`m against, or the people I`d be working with. It`s the manual labor itself. But between feeling like I should go (I`ve only been once in the year I`ve been here), other ALTs telling me I should go, and one of the people I trust most telling me that if it`s only once a month I should suffer a little, if I had nothing better to do that day, I went.

It was…work. It wasn`t fun, but it wasn`t not fun either. The task this time was to clear a certain lot. I forgot to get a picture of it, but one of the slim trees we (or more accurately, others) cut down had six clear rings in it, and that was all. Meaning that it had started growing right after the tsunami and earthquake six years ago.

Odaka, the area we were volunteering in, is habitable, and has been for about a year. But there are still parts that need to be cleaned up, and there are still a few signs here and there of the tsunami.

Then, Sunday, I quick went by the craft fair on my way to Girl Scouts in the next town over. Everyone at the craft fair is so nice, and they`re always giving me things like food. Probably I should add them in my list of people to make Christmas cookies for this year.

For Girlscouts, it was also a volunteer day. We cleaned the train station. By cleaned, it was mostly wiping down handles, doors, windows, counters and sweeping. It took all of a half hour or so, since it`s a small train station.

After that, we went a couple blocks away to a little museum. I didn`t understand most of what they were explaining about the history of the town, but there were a couple of signs in English here and there, which was nice. And even better, I got to talk to some of the girls while we walked around. One of the sixth graders even tried to read one of the English signs, but picked the one that had “Archaeological” in the title, and gave up after that. XD

There were three parts to the museum. The museum part, a part where they had a room set up like a traditional room in an old Japanese house, and then a part where they had an old school room set up. The Girl Scouts seemed surprised every time I recognized something. But really, it`s not as if America and Japan, even ancient America and Japan used different spinning wheels, or washboards.

And that was my weekend. ^_^ A little busy, but overall a good way to spend a weekend.