Kana, Peter, Tom and Will in Japan

By Tom Pastorius, Executive Vice President - North America

I have been working on opening the Japan office of Projects Abroad for about
eight months now. So getting to spend a week in Japan was the culmination
of lots of hard work that I did during strange hours in the New York office
over the spring and fall. It was also a dream-come-true to visit the New
York Bar in the Park Hyatt Tokyo - made famous by one of my favorite movies,
Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.

For me, the most interesting part of Japan was seeing a country that is
unambiguously developed yet still culturally very different from the west.
Japan has a clear Eastern culture, as different from my home country as
Mongolia, India and Nepal. Yet, unlike those places, Japan is the second
biggest economy in the world. It’s so developed that my cell phone couldn’t
even connect to their network because it wasn’t 3G. In the same vein,
everyone has fiber optic broadband internet at home. These are technologies
that are just now hitting the US market; meanwhile they are so standard in
Japan that they don’t even bother with supporting previous versions anymore.

Having studied “Lost in Translation” quite closely before leaving, I
expected to feel very culture-shocked in Japan. I expected to find very few
English speakers and wildly different social mores. I was surprised to
find neither. While the Japanese tend to believe - as Americans do - that
shouting in their native language somehow makes the meaning of their words
clearer, when pushed a substantial number of educated people can eek out a
few words in English. In the same way, bowing is an important part of
formal business introductions but the people that I met were so
understanding of my Western ignorance that that barely expected me to bow at
all.

On reflection, it’s put a bad taste in my mouth that “Lost in Translation”
overdramatized the strangeness of Japanese culture. While there are
certainly ways in which they act differently from Westerners, there was
never a time when I felt that their behavior was inexplicable or illogical.
More importantly, I am disappointed that the movie did not do more to
emphasize the admirable aspects of Japanese culture, from which the US could
benefit by copying.

The Japanese are hands-down the most polite people I’ve ever seen. They put
the British - the previous champions of politeness in my mind - to absolute
shame. One example is when Peter underpaid the bill in restaurant. Our
poor waiter returned to the table a few second later not to berate Peter for
trying to pull a fast one, but to apologize for causing a fuss and to thank
Peter “for his kindness” when he coughed up the correct amount.

As a New Yorker, my mind was blown one morning when I boarded a rush hour
“cram train” for central Tokyo with all my bulky luggage in hand. In New
York, anyone who tries to do this will get the evil-eye from the entire car.
In Tokyo, several people made room for me and even helped me find the right
train. It was wonderful.

Many thanks to Kana, our Director for Japan, for knocking herself out to
show us “gaijin” a good time. You may have done too good of a job as I’m
already looking forward to my next trip!

November sees the first Projects Abroad Information Evening being held in Scotland. This is your chance to come along and speak to ex-volunteers and our Projects Abroad staff members about volunteering opportunities abroad.

Our ex-volunteers love having the opportunity to talk about their experiences overseas and hopefully it will give you plenty of information on how we operate, the projects and destinations available and how to get involved.

The event is being held on Thursday 6th November, between 6-8pm at Stewart’s Melville College in Edinburgh.

We will be running many more Information Evenings around the country in the New Year, so keep your eyes peeled!

The full details are as followed:

Wallace Dunlop Hall, Stewart’s Melville College,
Queensferry Road, Edinburgh, EH4 3EZ
6th November
6 - 8pm

You can also RSVP HERE. We look forward to seeing you there!

Historic Route 66

By Scott McQuarrie, Programme Advisor

“It changed my life like it changed everyone else’s”, read the endorsement on the back of the book. The endorsement was by Bob Dylan and the book was ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac. Since I’ll listen to pretty much anything Dylan has to say, I picked up the book and began reading. The book is essentially about a set of road trips across 1950’s underground America at the height of the Beat generation. The major appeal of the book is its themes of friendship, travel, possibility and music. With this in mind and in view of the fact that one of the main aspects of Projects Abroad is cultural exchange, I thought a short piece about my recent US road adventure would be relevant.

I looked at a map of America, then drew a line through 14 States – New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California. The objective seemed quite simple - I had to drive from New York to San Francisco in 15 days. It was only when I bought a bigger, more detailed map, that the enormity of the task hit me. However I wasn’t alone, my friend David from Edinburgh was with me. I nicknamed him Sat Dav for the trip on the basis he was in charge of directions and had vetoed getting a GPS system! After a few meetings to decide our specific route we were set - New York to Chicago, then old Route 66.

A real benefit of being part of the Projects Abroad community is you have the chance to meet up with friends in different countries. This trip was no exception! First stop after touching down in New York was the Projects Abroad office to see Tom Pastorius, Vice President. One thing I have always maintained from my volunteering days is you have a far better experience if you have a ‘native’ to hang with. It worked for me in Ghana, why not everywhere else? Once we got Tom to stop laughing at us for trying to travel distances like NYC to Chicago in half a day (it is roughly the same distance as the length of the UK apparently, who knew?), we re-arranged our route on his advice and hit the road.

Over the next 15 days we travelled roughly 3,500 miles and like any good trip I learned things about the country and the people. It would take far too long for me to write about each place I visited, so here are my top tips to help survive on the road in the US:
* ALWAYS weigh up the pro’s and cons of renting a SUV
* TRY to get off the interstate roads - the smaller highways may not be as quick but they are much more fun
* ALWAYS try the deep dish pizza in Chicago
* DON’T visit the mini Stonehenge in Rolla and think of Spinal Tap
* ALWAYS take a crash helmet to bar’s in Tulsa when watching the visa presidential debates on TV - the crowds can get quite rowdy
* ALWAYS order the apple pie and milkshake at Ted’s diner in Albuquerque
* NEVER turn on to the wrong side of the road in Santa Fa when a police car is facing you
* YOU MUST visit Zion and Yosemite National Park - simply stunning
* STOP in the middle of the New Mexico desert - like every Western movie you have ever seen
* THINK of Mars as you drive through the red rocks of Monument Valley in Arizona - this State has the most breathtaking natural beauty I have ever seen
* NEVER bet in Vegas. The House always wins!
* STAY in San Francisco as long as you can
* REMEMBER a motorway is a freeway, petrol is gas and a car boot is the trunk - easy, right?
* ALWAYS take out insurance - don’t worry if you don’t though, you’ll see a few adverts on TV for it
* ALWAYS stop to chat - America is one of the most unique and friendliest countries I have visited, especially the families and workers on old route 66

and last but not least….

• NEVER go out with Will Harper, US Deputy Director, the night before you set off on a road trip. His dancing, rapping skills and Dave Chapelle impersonations meant a late night for yours truly

To finish off I’d like to leave you with a funny quote from an Adam Sandler film I saw whilst in a small motel in a place called Bishop. The film was Mr Deeds and the lines are delivered at a funeral. I thought it was a fitting end to our Beat style trip…

“Now Brother Preston is soaring with eagles high above, because he lived a life of love.
Yes he’s flying way up high, because he was a supercool guy.
He’s gone away, too soon it seems, leaving behind his unfinished dreams.
Yes we remember Preston Blake, a man with faith no man could shake.
A strength no man could break.
A character no man could fake.
For goodness sake, let’s eat some cake.”

A big thank you to all in the US office for their hospitality and advice.

USA!USA!

Claartje and kids

By Claartje van Wayenburg, Programme Advisor

I’ve never felt more welcome than here in South Africa. I’ve only been here for two months and feels like I’ve lived here my whole life! Everybody who I have met gives me the feeling that I’m part of their big, happy family. Living in a host family gives me the real African experience, it has been so wonderful. I sometimes wish I could stay here forever! My family is so warm and friendly and takes care of me just like their own daughter.

As a Dutch woman here in Cape Town, working for Projects Abroad has a lot of advantages. I’m able to hop on a train or mini-bus and go to the beach, the city or the mountains, so there is always much for me to do even though I am far away from home. One special aspect is that there is a large population in Cape Town of people who speak Afrikaans, a language quite similar to Dutch, so I’m able to understand most of what they are saying and chat with the locals! Many Dutch volunteers that come to Cape Town find that being able to understand and speak a bit of Afrikaans is really important, especially when working in local communities where it is spoken more widely then English.

Claartje hard at work

I am assisting with Marketing and Recruitment of local South Africans, so my job is establishing contacts with many Universities and High Schools in the Western Cape, doing presentations and answering questions over the internet and phone about Projects Abroad and what we are all about! It’s wonderful to be able to tell South Africans about all the different possibilities that Projects Abroad has to offer around the world. They are already becoming very enthusiastic about our projects and I think we will see more South African volunteers around the world soon!