SI MONTHLY NEWS JANUARY 2007 Travel reports
From SI Exco News
Wonderful and useful volunteer-work-experience in San Francisco as a SERVAS TRAVELER from A Japanese SERVAS TRAVELER
I stayed at Sacramento, in the USA. from December 13, 2006 to January 10, 2007.
Although the main purpose of my traveling was to visit my wife, who is studying there, doing nothing at the college dormitory didn’t seem interesting enough for me. I didn’t have any special plans to do except making one or two short trips during this time. After retiring from a 38 year teaching job last March, I decided to have some new experiences by visiting several Servas Members and taking part in some volunteer work to help the people in need.
When, in preparation for the trip, I started looking for hosts San Francisco area, it was very difficult to find a host who would accept me due to the busiest holiday preparation period. I was fortunate enough, however, to be informed that Ms. Mikuriya is the person whom I should make contact with in the first place.
This is how I came to know Mary Jane Mikuriya. She not only accepted me as a member but also let me and my wife stay in her house later after my first stay.
During my stay with Mary Jane in her house I was lucky enough to participate in one of their Servas monthly meetings and also to experience various kinds of volunteer work in San Francisco through her assistance. If we were not a member of Servas, we could not have got such a wonderful experience. I am glad that I enjoyed my traveling and made a small contribution to the community in US that cares for the people in need.
In spite of the busy time of the celebrations of Christmas and the New Year, Mary Jane helped me greatly in finding volunteer works. As a result my wife and I could work for four different sections of three volunteer groups. During this period of stay in San Francisco of about two weeks we met many interesting and caring people, some of whom we met through volunteer work.
Mary Jane also arranged for other houses we could stay which enabled us to stay as long as two weeks and continue to work in the same area.
I would like to mention a little about those volunteer works we had experienced:
The first volunteer-job was to work as an assistant of St. Gregory Church’s Food Pantry. Our job is to hand out food to the homeless or the people who need food, directly. Food was carried into the church by the Food Bank Trucks which have a lot of food-donations from the food companies and agricultural producers. I don’t know well, but probably the reason that the day was just before the Christmas, huge amount of food was delivered. It was well organized and arranged nicely. According to the organizer of this Pantry, this church has a long history about this activity. About 400 persons made the line and received distribution on that day. Usually, the number of the people is about 300, I heard.
The second volunteer working was wrapping Christmas presents for children who would not get Christmas presents from others.
The third work was “Curbside Donations”. I couldn’t imagine what it meant till I had such an experience. Who created such a good donation style? Any one who wants to give money, toys, food, clothes, and etc. to the people who need food or other things can park along the curb in front of the donation-office. Parking cars during doing donations was permitted exceptionally. We, volunteers are waiting for the contributors, and when they come, we run up to the car. We receive their donations and passed custody proof to them.
The 4th volunteer activity was to work in San Francisco Food Bank, which distributes food to the church or the welfare facilities which help the homeless or the people who need food. The volunteer’s job was to wash and pack vegetables carried in from a farm or food companies by trucks, or stick the food-name-tags of the canned food which have a little bit damaged appearance. Most of the canned food got damaged by the process of mass-production just for a moment. There were huge amounts of food near or just before the time limit. Most of all jobs there were carried out by volunteer's hands from the beginning to the last with only a few directors.
It was a great pleasure for me to have traveled, stayed at members’ house and get socialized with people working for Peace. Although I have been a member of Servas more than 20 years, this was my first experience to participate volunteer activity in a foreign country. Both my wife and I were lucky enough to have ample time to spare this time. Otherwise volunteer work during my SERVAS travel would have been very difficult.
I would like to thank once again for Mary Jane Mikuriya for her generosity of letting us stay in her house for long time, for arranging matters for our convenience and for a lot of good advice. We talked a lot over dinners Mary Jane cooked for us and the conclusion of our talking is that the way to maintain world peace starts with helping people who need help. The help may be letting travelers stay in your house or working as volunteer. They eventually all contribute to world peace.
Yamaguchi Tomio, Japan
Meeting of SERVAS Day hosts in Salvador/Brazil in October 2006
I prolonged a business trip to Brazil over the weekend and took advantage of this to meet two SERVAS day hosts in Salvador de Bahia/Brazil. To stay for the usual full two nights with SERVAS hosts did not work out for these dates despite some attempts. I had contacted SERVAS hosts José Borges Dantas (host number 7) and Silvana de Vasconcelos Teixeira (host number 17) separately. However, since they were both available on the same evening and knew each other, we finally decided to meet all together on Friday evening (13 October) and José also brought another SERVAS traveller from Italy with him.
Silvana and José showed us the beautiful old town of Salvador and explained a lot about the customs and habits in the Brazilian State of Bahia. Afterwards, they had the great idea to go to a local theatre with a very good performance of local dances and music. We concluded the evening with a drink where we shared our different SERVAS experiences. It was obviously too short to get to know each other very well, but I very much appreciated to have been able to meet local SERVAS hosts during my short stay, as this gives a very different view of the country to when you only read about it or listen to official tourist guides. I hope I will be able to come back and to also visit other parts of Brazil with more time.
Thanks again to the national Belgium SERVAS coordinator Rita for the, as usual, efficient and quick help with all preparations.
Nils Weller, Belgium/Germany
About the Servas Cuba
I was really surprised when our Hungarian secretary gave me the host list of Servas Cuba, asking me to handle it secretly, because he knew it was not legally allowed at the moment in Cuba. (I knew our Hungarian Servas history, it was a long struggle to legalise during the socialist time..) The second surprise was how many members they have in Cuba. Then I surprised they have internet, because in Cuba it is difficult to get permission and expensive to have a connection. I was even more surprised when i got answers from everyone I contacted!!! I have traveled in the last 3 years with Servas, this activity is really rare. And I got positive answers from everyone, even though it is illegal to have a foreign guest for Cuban citizens.
I met all of them. I had an excellent time with these people. All of them are very active in the cultural scene (life), I got valuable information about their country, about their people. And most of all I got hospitality and I could have a glance at their everyday life, how they are struggling in that country, how they hope for a peaceful free life. They were very enthusiast, intelligent, helpful, sociable, open to know more about the rest of the world. Unfortunately they get little chance to visit other countries. But if they do I recommend you to meet them, they are great people. You will spend a pleasant time with them, and you will find real friends among them.
LIMA, OUR FIRST SERVAS EXPERIENCE
October 2006
When we arrive at Lima airport (coming from Iquitos) we are looking for Felipe, when at once we see Richard and Jessica, travellers with whom we were on the way from Celendin –Chachapoyas and we start looking at the pictures they had with them and forgot about the time and about Felipe…After a phone call we meet and some minutes later a taxi is bringing us to our first Servas host Fresia, a close friend of Felipe. Fresia is a very courageous and dynamic woman of 82 years old. Also Fernando, another friend of Fresia is coming along to meet us and to have a talk.. We are telling about our adventures in the north and our plans for the south.
But unfortunately we are very tired; we are almost falling asleep on Fresia’s sofa. We say goodbye to Felipe and Fernando and we go to bed. These people are so kind that we feel in some way a little bit guilty, but really travelling is very tiring….
The next morning we have not to wake up early in the morning, Fresia surprises us with a delicious breakfast: papaya juice, fresh sandwiches, jam, coffee, tea. Fresia advises us to visit the old centre of Lima, the monastery of San Francisco and the change of the guard.
In the centre of Lima there is a lot of activity, the procession of "El Señor de los milagros" is coming to the Plaza de Armas. We miss the change of the guard due to change of the timetable for the procession. We visit the monastry with interesting catacombs, we do some shopping and we go back to Fresia after visiting the tourist information office.
When other friends of Lima are calling we are already in bed, but Fresia is taking notice of the message.
The next day we visit the very interesting 'Museo de la Nacion', a must for everyone who is in Lima. After spending some time in an internet café we go back to say goodbye to Fresia. She helps us to find a taxi to go to our friends in Monterico, another part of Lima.
Lima offers a lot: we visit the very expensive ‘Museo de Oro, we enjoy the show with folklore dances ‘Brisas de Titecaca’, we go to a bull fighting in Plaza de Acho but we don’t enjoy this cruel event, we drink Pisco Sour, the national drink of Peru and a lot more…
Before leaving Lima we make a stop at Fresia’s place to thank her with a bouquet of flowers.
Our first Servas experience has been wonderful.
Veronique and Filip, Belgium
I hope the international Servas will help them in allpossible ways to exist and support this growing group of Servas people in Cuba, who are looking for friendship, knowledge about different cultures and the life abroad. I hope at the next Servas international meeting they will discuss about their problems and we can find solution for them.
Gabor Csonka Hungary
Israel and Turkey - part 5
In the December issue the 12 travellers from India visited the Mount of Olives along with parts of the old and new city. They now see more of Jerusalem.
As in every issue space precludes being able to include the whole of this descriptive report. Those wishing to read the full report should contact the editor - see email address on p1.
5th June 2006 Free day in Jerusalem. SERVAS meeting in the evening.
We went to see Museum so walked through the valley for 20 minutes to reach the Museum. The guided tour in English had started so we ran for the tour to the Jewish Ethnography. The Guide was explaining about the synagogue of different countries- Germany, Poland, Hungary, Cochin. I told her that the Jews were not expelled from India. She agreed to it and said, ‘yes, but when they came to Israel, they brought the carvings of Synagogue with them. It was covered with black colour and it took so much of time to remove it. Then at 12 noon we had tour of Archaeology. It had articles from Paleolithic age to Neolithic age. There were instruments for agriculture, pottery, hunting etc. The way in which the guide explained was very good with questions and fun in between.
Mr. Amitai came exactly at 4.00 p.m. from the University. He is a professor of Hebrew language. He inquired with his wife whether he should show us some sights or come home Nurit told him to come home so that we can all go together and have a round. We went home had tomato Juice and pita. We got ready and left for SERVAS Meeting. We saw the higher point and from there Jerusalem. Then we went to Ramchaal Rakhat. We saw barracks there. There was a point built with big stones as if the stones were hanging from the point. It was beautiful Scenery.
We walked down to the house where we had the meeting. Only 4 hosts were present Rami, the host from Kibbutz talked about her experiences at Uttaranchal in India and her experiences in Israel. She had seen many wars during her life time and cannot imagine life without wars as in India. She was very much impressed by use of nature in India rather than abuse of Nature. In the Meeting, I appreciated their hospitality. Nurit and Amitai also expressed their views that it is commendable that you appreciated our hospitality.
We had a round of Jerusalem at night. “On the walls of the hotels there are holes of the gun, these hotels were vacant before we took away this part of Jordan because there was continuous fight. It was Britishers and French people who divided our land saying that this part is Jordan and this part is Israel They would not think of life without war. Rami lost her son in the war and she was happy when she visited Himchal Pradesh, the land without any war”. Amitai and Nurit explained to us the situation in Israel.
To be continued next month
Dr Geeta Mehta, India
Day Hosts in Malaysia
My name is Naweed & I am a SERVAS host from Lahore, Pakistan. I visited Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia & met two SERVAS members there who were "DAY HOSTS". Before meeting personally, I had been in touch with them through emails & phone calls. The two members are "Dr.Kamal Arifin Shah" & "Harbans Kaur".
I must say that what "SERVAS" needs is the members like both of them. They were courteous, friendly, hospitable, knowledgeable, helpful, welcoming and very fine persons indeed. It was a very pleasant experience meeting these two decent members in "Kuala Lumpur" and I consider it my duty to provide feedback of my experience, for the benefit of other members.
Namweed, Lahore, Pakistan
Peace activities in the USA.
The US Servas Board wants to put Peace back into US Servas activities. The board has expressed its desire to partnership with like-minded nonprofit organizations. This means that we are looking for NGOs that have similar or compatible missions statements and could provide day host experiences/volunteer opportunities. We are looking to be equal partners, that is, if we are to have an article in our US Servas Newsletter about the partnership, we would expect our partner organization to also have an article about Servas in its newsletter. Because we are at the beginning stages of this outreach effort, we have identified two lists of NGOs - one list is the UN Department of Public Information list of NGO members and the other list is developed jointly by the USA Department of State and the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange. We have piloted this concept of NGOs being Day Hosts 4 years ago and found it to be a powerful extension of Servas opportunities. The Faithful Fools is a NGO in San Francisio that helps the poor and homeless and provides education and training for those who are want to become community ministers or community advocates. The Board of the Faithful Fools and the Servas Board agreed to be partners and the Faithful Fools are listed in our host list. A National Secretary attended a Buddhist meditation at the home of the Faithful Fools before meeting with its administers - Rev. Kay Jorgensen a Unitarian Minister and Sister Carmen Barsody, a Dominican. Two German Servas bicyclists went on a two day street retreat and lived with the homeless for two days. Like all who participate in a 1-day, 2-day, 3-day or 1 week retreat, they were debriefed and shared what they learned about the homeless, how they felt, what they learned about themselves and how this experience changed their perspectives in how they see the poor.
In December, the National Peace Secretary of Japan, Tomio Yamaguchi and his wife Taiko came to San Francisco and volunteered in 3 different organizations helping the poor. See article on page 5.
Mary Jane Mikuriya, USA
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