We’ve been here in Okinawa a full year now, and the days are flying by. Last weekend was our town’s annual festival, the Day of Good Harvest (Dia de Buena Cosecha). Last year this time, having just arrived in Okinawa, we watched the festival in wonder -the dances of Bolivia, the karate competitions, the Japanese performances –it was hard to believe we’d landed in such a unique corner of the globe. This year, surrounded by friends, we felt a part of it, proud of it. I danced the Tinku, a traditional dance from the highlands of Potosi, with a group of guys and girls from Oki in front of 4,000 people. And Tom and I, with the help of my counterpart and the women in my mom’s club, put up a booth to showcase the projects we’re doing with plastics and organic trash. The new hanging worm bin we built was a big hit, and lots of people expressed interest in getting one set up in their yards so they can compost their organic trash. Super cool.
So, a year behind us, another year to go. It’s going by so fast, and there is still so much work for us to do here. I don’t think a lifetime would be enough. But we have a year, and we’ll do what we can. We keep saying that the changes we make here will be small gains, and they will come out of relationships, and we may never even know about them. And that’s okay.
And so I think what we have before us is a year to enjoy friendships, to do our best at our projects, and to embrace the joys and frustrations and surprises that come each and every day. I think it’ll be a good year. Actually, I’m sure it will.
beautiful field of wheat, ready to be harvested
Awesome giant dog (lion?) that charges the crowd and freaks out the kids
our cool new okinawa coozies we got at the fest
yay! mango season is on its way again!
the hanging worm bin we built for the trash fair booth
no Oki fest is complete without some karate
doing the tinku
japanese kids parading
traditional japanese dance
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