Sorry everyone for taking so long to write a letter. Things move so fast here that it is hard to realize that we have been here over 5 months. We have started on the rainy season now. It is supposed to last for most of June, although a member told me today that it really goes through July and when the rainy season ends, it will be very hot. The rainy season is called Tsu-yu. Hopefully you are seeing its Kanji here: 梅雨 If we are lucky, it has posted on the blog just fine. If you do not have the language pack on your computer, then the kanji will show up as a blank square. I'm still not very conversant in speaking the language, but I am learning a lot of kanji. It helps with our navigation.
From our 8th floor windows, the rain looks really terrible. It looks like it is coming down in sheets and is also coming from all directions. It would be easy to stay indoors until the rain stops (July? yikes!) but when you actually venture out and don't have far to go, then it is quite handleable.
What that means is this morning when I looked at the rain, I wondered how wet I would get in the three minute walk from our front door to the back door of the church. I wondered if I could talk Keith into driving the car from our almost covered parking space to the church where he could let me off by the door while he parked. This would make the trip to church about ten minutes instead of the three it takes to walk there. However, I decided to try the walk. (Also Keith did not think the car idea was a very good one.) If I got too wet, then I could come home (another three minutes), change clothes, find the dorky rain coat I swore I would never wear and try again. As I walked I realized that the rain seemed to be coming from only one direction, so I could hold my umbrella at that angle. The puddles in the road weren't deep enough to slosh into my shoes and I arrived at church just fine and without having to find the dreaded black raincoat.
There were not very many of us at relief society.
The rain had almost stopped for the walk home, but it has picked up again now and has emptied the streets. Those brave ones (missionaries are in this category) who ride their bicycles in the rain are really amazing. The young missionaries have these complete rain suits that protect them. The sisters wear them as well as the elders. It is still surprising to have a dripping wet, pant suited bicycle helmeted person arrive at the church and inside all of that wetness is a delicate feminine sister missionary.
Last week-end Keith and I drove to Oita (pronounced Oh-i-tah). Actually we never pronounce it correctly. Whenever we say the name of the city, the person we are talking to says, "Oh, you mean Oita." There's something about how long we hold the O syllable and how short we then say the 'i' syllable that we haven't mastered yet.
Driving to OIta takes about three hours. It is across the Kyushu mountains to the other side of the island. We actually took four hours because we went hiking with the young women in preparation for Girls' Camp. !!! We have been asked to help with Girls' camp. Hopefully the picture of our little group has already been posted. You can see Keith and I in our scout shirts (The uniforms were very well received. It turns out that the Japanese people really like uniforms and they loved all of the insignia and badges that we had on our shirts. The accompanying dad (and member of the high council) is also in his scout shirt. He was a leader in a scout troop in Fukuoka several years ago. At the moment, there are no boy scout troops associated with the church here in Japan.
Only a small amount of girls came on the hike. Turns out that teen-age girls here are just as allergic to bugs and dirt and hiking as girls are in the states:) Nearly every girl has a sport at which they are very skilled, but to just wander out doors in the woods with insects and possible sunburn and any other unnamed horror--nope.
We caravanned up to the hiking spot in a group of three vehicles; a van in front of us and a van behind us. We have a reputation for getting lost, so they weren't taking any chances. We drove for two hours through the most beautiful mountain scenery and small villages, hardly anybody else around. We hardly had any traffic even. Suddenly the road was lined with cars. What can possibly be an event this big? I thought, when we turned into the parking lot and were at our destination. Hundreds of cars were there. People hiking all over the mountains. Trails full of people in the distance. Not what I expected. However, our Young Women leaders chose the hardest trail so that there were the least amount of people to hike with. We hiked with them for a short distance and then turned back when it got too steep. We were supposed to wait at the end of the trail--a ten minute car ride but about a 90 minute hike--to ferry the leaders back to their vans in order to drive the girls home. We found the end of the trail just fine--a beautiful manicured park with a paved sidewalk and a path up into the mountains, past an old abandoned camp. (Really, it looked a lot like Camp Grizzly when it has just been through a hard winter.)
We waited. 90 minutes came and went. We became concerned. We had to leave in a few minutes to drive the remaining 2 hours to Oita for the ribbon cutting for their Outreach center. We had cameras and things that were given to us as 'too heavy' for the actual hike. Our cell phone rang. One of the leaders explained that they were actually quite a ways away from the end of the trail and that we could give the things we had collected to a YW leader from Oita who was also waiting somewhere there. With the Oita leader's phone number, we were able to connect, deliver the items we had and continue on our way. Hurray for cell phones. We found out the next day that the hike actually took more like five (5) hours because two of the girls saw a short-cut and, of course, got lost. We assured the leaders that getting lost is part of hiking with young people and not to worry. In fact, Keith pointed to our gray hairs and said that we both got them from worrying about lost young people on hikes. (My hairdresser would be surprised to know that is the cause, since she helped me for years to not have any.)
Oita's ribbon cutting was delightful. They are a small ward and have only a few Young Single Adults, but they have already grown in number and have seen several investigators come to their activities. They have a Family Home Evening and an activity on Saturday every week. We stayed over night at a business hotel--excellent and clean and with our own bathroom facilities. We weren't sure what to expect--would we have beds or tatami mats and futons on the floor, would we have our own bathroom facilities or would we be sharing with others on the hall? We were pleasantly surprised. The room was very small, but complete with beds and even shutters that would completely block the light from outside if you needed to sleep at an odd hour. Our only trial--we couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights. We were resigned to using flashlights, when our mission president called. They had remembered that it was my birthday and they called to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. They explained that you put the key holder into the a square receptacle on the main light switch plate and then all of the electricity works.
Yes, I am now 63. The Oita group found out it was my birthday and sang "Happy Birthday" to me as a surprise closing song to the ribbon cutting. They even had a cake with a candle. Then when we got back here to Kumamoto, our district of elders and sisters very quietly 'heart-attacked' our front door and window and later in the day, brought a cake and more candles (only ten candles, lest you think we were promoting a fire hazard), sang "Happy Birthday" again and had me blow out the candles. I felt well birthdayed by this time. Our own YSA group had a another cake and a Happy Birthday for us Monday evening. By this time it wasn't quite clear to everyone if we were celebrating my birthday or our 39th wedding anniversary which is two days after my birthday, but who cares. It was great fun and I felt really special.
We're almost to the windy roads. Our handy-dandy Japanese GPS unit does not like traffic, so it chooses the best way to go to miss the traffic. We have driven some interesting roads here in Kumamoto as a result. It constantly changes the way we get across town to the other chapel, so I'm not sure we could get there on our own. It chose a beautiful and quiet road to and from Oita. No traffic for most of the way. VERY windy, narrow, steep-drop-off mountain roads to travel on. Tiny little villages perched on the mountain side. As we traveled this almost dream-like road, we were very thankful that we have lived for over 30 years in Northern Idaho where windy, narrow, steep drop-off roads are normal. We felt that once again some small area of our life was actually a preparation for serving here. We enjoyed the drive and were a little sad when we joined the main road again. ("The Navi took you on the {some name of a highway}," Sister Oyama asked me on Monday? "I guess so," I replied. "That really is beautiful, but what a drive!")
We have to go now because our son, Bill, is coming here to see us and we have to meet his train. Just a quick thank-you to all of the great YW leaders we have camped with over the years. Kumamoto stake is very intrigued by all of the fun things we have done-secret sisters, camp necklaces, T-shirts, devotionals, etc. Thank you all for your great training.
Love, Kandie/Mom, Grandma, etc
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