2010年2月20日土曜日

Spring Festival in China


Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations (Chinatowns), such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).

In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Australia Post, Canada Post, and the US Postal Service issue New Year's themed stamps.


Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

2010年2月8日月曜日

Swift January

Long time no writing, I am MaSA.

This January has passed madly.

I had WS of Rwandan, International Math WS, Post-Internship presentation of Gecbo, APEID, Visiting lecture, Nishihuji trip, TOEIC test, Meeting with Rwandan and so forth. In fact, almost all of them are my private business… And I gonna visit Kenya for my field research in the end of this month.

Nowadays, I reaffirmed the importance of “Connection and Relationship among people” through these events. At the same instance, I asked myself that how much I can leave a deep impression of mine for people whom I meet, it is so-called charisma or human attractive force?? This question is getting more important for me because I started job hunting a bit.

Anyway, Rwandans I met after so long remenber me clearly. They called me Masanba which was my Rwanda name. We passed so joyful time to talk in Kinyarwanda and to talk about Rwanda, then the time reminds me of the original intention which I had when I came back to Japan from Rwanda.

I also met other Rwandan in HIP who came to Sapporo for the training and just came to Hiroshima for 3 days. He bothered to call me so as to meet, then we met there only some minites. I really like him, I named him Denjiro after the name of the famous scientist in Japan. He could make some experimental materials by himself to use local materials around, wich rocked me in Rwanda. He was a science teacher with good creativeness, and now is working for Ministry of Education in Rwanda.

Recently, I emailed to my Kenyan friend who worked with me in secondary school in Rwanda, and informed about my visiting Kenya. He is tremendously kind, he told that he can arrange taxi from Airport in order to avoid rip-off taxi price, and he told me also he can arrange the accommodation for me in reasonable price,,,, oh is it too kind?? However I can trust him because of the time that we spent together in Rwanda. When I see him again, I am looking forward to talking more deeply about Education than we talked in Rwanda.

Moreover, thanks to the willing cooperation by many people to my research in Kenya, for example SMASE expert whom I met in the 3rd country training, JICA concerned whom I met in Hiroshima and so on, I think I can conduct my research smoothly. I am really appriciate to them.

They all are given by the “Connection and Relationship among people”

Through IDEC, Internship and other events so on, now we have friends all over the wold, which is splendid beyond any description.

お久しぶりです。松山です。
新年明けから怒涛の如く過ぎ去った睦月。
ルワンダ人のWS、国際数学WSGecbo帰国報告、APEID、出前講座、西藤小、TOEIC、ルワンダ人との再会、などなど、ほとんど私事ですが…。そしてもうすぐケニアに現地調査に行きます。
 ここへきて、いろいろな人との交流の中で、特にこの世界だけではないでしょうが、人との繋がりがすごく大事なことを再認識します。
 そして同時に、自分がいかに相手の印象に残るような人間力を持つかということも問われます。これは最近就職活動を始めたせいもあって、自分の弱さを省みることにもなります。
 さて、久々に会ったルワンダ人は、ハッキリ私のことを覚えていてくれました。久々の現地語でのあいさつや会話、ルワンダの話など、会話は尽きず、本当に楽しい時間を過ごさせてもらいました。そして、初心を取り戻した気がします。
 他のルワンダ人は、札幌に研修で来ていて、そこから広島に来ている2,3日間の研修期間に、わざわざ連絡してきてくれて、ほんの十数分ですが、国際プラザで再会を果たしました。すごく好きな人です。「でんじろう」(某でんじろうから借用)と呼んでいて、自分で実験器具とかをその辺の材料で作り出してしまう創造力に富んだ理科教師でしたが、今は教育省で違う仕事をしているようです。
 最近はケニアに調査に行くことで、ルワンダで一緒に教えていたケニア人教師に連絡を取ってみたら、ものすごく親切にしてくれました。空港でTAXIにぼられないように、迎えに行ってやるとか、宿は用意してあげるから心配するなとか、とにかく優しすぎて、少しびびってますが、1年以上一緒に色々な活動をした仲なので、ま怖がる必要もないんですがね…。今度会ったら、昔よりももっと深くて意味のある話ができそうです。
 更にケニアの調査では、JOCV時代に参加したSMASSEの研修で知り合った日本人専門家や、広島のJOCAで知り合った方など、色々な人に快く協力してもらえることになりました。

 すべては過去からつながる「繋がり」によるもの。IDECJICAインターン、その前のことも色々通して、世界中に仲間がいる。なんかすごく素敵なことだなと思います。

APEID集合写真
APEID 馬場先生講義
HIPで再会した「でんじろう」

M2 MaSA