Japan

I've been meaning to write a blog thanking the Japanese government for saving American Peace Corp worker Joseph Chow from starving in Tanzania. It seems like the Japanese need a positive story after the events of the last few days.

When Joseph finally got to Tanzania in January of 2008 he was nervous, and we were scared. He was originally sent to Kenya, and had finished his training and been assigned to a site in western Kenya in November 2007. However, political unrest caused the Peace Corp to close down the program. Unlike most of the other volunteers from Kenya, Joseph was "lucky" enough to get another Peace Corp posting - in Ndanda Tanzania.

When Joseph arrived in Ndanda, school was not in session, and there was not much for him to do. Unfortunately, his pay check did not follow him to Tanzania. He ran out of money the first month he was in Tanzania. We had to wire him some money (yes, one can still wire money!). When Joseph went to pick up the wire transfer at the Western Union Office in Ndanda, the clerk at first refused to give it to him because his id read "Joseph Lawrence Chow", not "Joseph Chow". We had to call Western Union in the US, who contacted the Western Union in Ndanda to get the money released.

Luckily, there was a JICO worker living in the next building from his, her name is Erina. Erina was so happy to have someone else in the village that she could speak with. She had been there for about 6 months, and was teaching chemistry at the school.

Joseph and Erina had dinner many nights, cleaned out labs, and tried to figure out how to teach together. I am sure Joseph did alot of ranting and raving, and Erina was a good listener. How she saved Joseph was that she fed him when he ran out of money. The first mistake Joseph made was lending money to a villager - he soon learned not to do that again. I think he said he had no money for about a week that time. Then in May he planned a two day AIDS awareness day at his school, with many other schools coming to the site. Joseph applied for, and got a US government grant, but the money had not arrived by the time the payments had to be made. Joseph emptied out his bank account to make the payments for the event - leaving him with not a penny to his name for two weeks. Anyway, these are only the times that he told us about running out of money. I am sure there were others! Thank goodness for Erina who would feed Joseph and loan him some of her hard earned money (the Japanese pay there young workers about twice what the PCV's get).

When I was in Tokyo a month ago I met Erina for breakfast, we had a nice talk, and she showed me her pictures of Ndanda. It is so important for us to stay in contact with his friends - it is a connection.

I wrote Erina today to make sure she was okay. She is in Tokyo and pretty safe - happy to be busy with work. Her parents city bore the brunt of a level 6 earthquake today.