Operation Backpacks for Japan: Kids helping Kids!

My good friend Rose was sharing a link to this wonderful "operation" on facebook.com, and I knew that I wanted to get involved.

And tell as many people as I possibly could!

Don't worry. I'm not just realizing that there is an ongoing catastrophe in Japan. I've been following it from the very beginning. Waking up that Thursday morning, checking the news online, and feeling hopeless and frantic to make sure that my friends in Taiwan and Hawaii were ok. Luckily, Taiwan wasn't hit by the tsunami, and Hawaii didn't suffer too much damage.

I think it pretty much goes without saying that I love Asia. I think about my friends and experience there pretty much everyday. Mostly centered around Taiwan, but it my love has extended to the surrounding countries as well (or connecting Taiwan to them by way of water?). Anyhow, I've been devastated watching the aftermath of what has been occurring, and feeling helpless. I want to donate, but to whom? I don't want my money being used to pay the staff of a non-profit. This brings it all back to the link that Rose shared...

The Girl Scout troop and Scout troop on a US military base just outside of Tokyo have found a unique way to help out their friends. School in Japan begins in April, and many children lost school bags, supplies, and stuffed animals in the tsunami. Camp Zama Girls and Boys Scouts are holding a backpack drive called OPERATION BACKPACKS FOR JAPAN. How rad is that?

Here's what they have to say about their drive:

"Our mission is to provide comfort and a message of love to the kids of Japan who have lost everything in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.  We will distribute the packs after transportation and mail delivery becomes available in the affected areas.  Members of our community are in Sendai, Japan, directly helping with relief efforts.  They will personally help distribute the backpacks for our Scouts.   Thanks to the 35th CSSB and the Joint Support Force Japan -- Forward Command Element, we have now started delivering backpacks!"

Click here for their website. 

It may seem silly, but here's the thing: I remember my students being obsessed with their school supplies, and to lose all of that would be kinda of devastating. It may not seem like a big deal, but it would be to a kid who spends 12 hours a day in school.

I stamp this project with the mark of AWESOMENESS! I for one, will be donating. How 'bout you?

What the?!

So I used to think that Taiwan was in a fairly safe part of the world (rather naively) until recently. It seems like Asia keeps on getting hit with the natural disasters! Last week the Philipines were getting slammed with typhoons killing hundreds, if not thousands; Samoa was flattened by a tsunami caused by an earthquake, the aftershocks of which were felt clear over in Singapore and Malaysia; and last but not least, we had a 6.4 earthquake last night.

And I have a knack for accidentally/not experiencing natural phenomena. First it was the eclipse, and now the earthquake. Yeah, I felt nothin'. Granted I was on a train headed back from Taipei, but still! Not much has been damaged as far as I know, except that the crack in our wall has gotten a lot larger.

Is it wrong that I like experiencing these things? Is it immature that I think earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis are cool? It's not like I'm glad/happy that countries, towns, and homes (not to mention lives) are destroyed by these disasters, but it's still amazing to me the power that is in them.

After the last typhoon that hit Taiwan it hit me that typhoons are really no laughing matter. This one was even supposed to be a mild one, but because of the angle that it hit Taiwan, it became the worst typhoon they've had in 50 years. Towns up in the mountains are still trying to recover, and Alishan, the only place I really want to go to has been shut down because of mud slides.

I've been feeling guilty about thinking typhoons are cool, and decided to ask one of my students and his sister what they thought. As I was riding with them to yet another barbecue (more on that in a later post) I asked them how they felt about typhoons. I was expecting them to say that they were terrible and that they hated them (which seems to be the general consensus), but I was pleasantly surprised that they liked them for the same reasons I did. Basically it's like a snow day for them. And for the Taiwanese, a snow day would be a big deal!

Anyhow....we are supposed to have 2 typhoons this week! And even though this may be immature, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for school to be canceled!