今回のブログは、私が現在所属している奨学金団体「ロータリー米山記念奨学会」の活動を紹介します。ロータリー記念奨学会の奨学生になって、毎月、「ロータリー例会」に1度だけ出席する必要があり、それ以外にも様々なイベントがあります。私は先週末の日曜日に江ノ島クリーニングキャンぺーンへ参加し、また今週の金曜日に初めて「ロータリー例会」を参加しました。
江ノ島クリーニングキャンペーンとは毎年一度、江ノ島の環境保護をするために、ロータリーの会員たちが浜のゴミを集め、ゴミを分別して捨てるイベントです。また、この活動は、ロータリー会員同士の挨拶パーティーも兼ねています。
当日、私と神奈川工科大学に所属する別のロータリーの奨学生2人とは午前7時に本厚木駅で合流して、電車で江ノ島へ向かい、そこで他のロータリーの奨学生と集合し、九時半に会場に到着しました。
この日はとても暑く、日差しも強いので、私は日焼け止めを塗って行きました。
私達奨学生はクリーニング活動を始める前に、挨拶パーティーの準備をしました。食べ物と飲み物、机や椅子を車から運び終わった後に、他のロータリー会員と一緒に江ノ島のクリーニング活動をしました。
その後に開催された挨拶パーティーでは、奨学生の全員は給仕係となり、お客様に食事を持っていきました。このパーティを通して、私は様々なロータリー会員と話すことができ、いろいろな面白い話を聞くことができました。ロータリー会員とお客様は、たくさん私に話しかけてきてくれたため、とても楽しい時間を過ごすことができました。
また先週の金曜日には私は初めて「ロータリー例会」に出席しました。その日は、私は午後5時に研究室を出発し、藤沢駅近くの会議室に行きました。例会では、6年前に起きた福島の東日本大震災の支援活動についての話をしました。そして、私も日本語で自己紹介をしました。
In this blog I will be discussing about my recent activities at Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation. Before doing that I would like to give a big thanks to Yuya Mochizuki, a fellow Shirai-lab member. He helped me correct a lot of my Japanese sentences and made them more beautiful. Even now I am studying his corrections in an effort to improve my Japanese. Also thanks all other students in the lab: Higashida Marika, Watanabe Sho, Asano Takaya for their proof readings.
As a Rotary Yoneyama scholar it is my duty to attend monthly meetings one per month as well as participating in other mandatory activities the club has.
Last Sunday on July 16th, 2017, me and the other Rotary Yoneyama scholars gathered around Enoshima station to participate in the Enoshima Cleaning Campaign. It is a yearly event where current and past Rotary Yoneyama scholars as well as students who are interested in the club get together and pick up the garbage at Enoshima beach. I was very excited about this event since it has to do with environment protection so naturally I had a lot of fun.
The event started at 9 AM in the morning where scholarship recipients gathered at Enoshima station and walked towards the event location which is at a beach house right beside the ocean. We started setting up the event by taking food, drinks, as well as furniture from a car belonging to another Rotary staff. The sun was pretty intense that day but thankfully I bought my sun screen with me so all is well.
I was able to meet many different past Rotary scholars and together we performed a quick sweep around the beach area. My Rotary contact person, Takagi-sensei was also present at the beach. We talked about my recent activities and researches. Soon afterwards current scholars began cooking and serving lunch to well over 15 tables of guests. It was busy and work was demanding but the end result was well worth it as the atmosphere was joyful and full of laughter.
Near the end of the activity the current scholars participated in a post-event discussion, a common Japanese practice to discuss what could be improved upon for next time. Afterwards we resorted garbage into their respective bags and hauled the bags into a nearby dumpster.
My second Rotary event this month happened just two days ago on Friday July 21st when I participated in my first progress report. Instead of reporting my research progress however, I was asked to do a brief introduction. The Rotary staff also talked about the Great East Japan Earthquake that happened six years ago back in March 11 2011 and the Nuclear Reactor accident that happened afterwards. Other topics include growth of Rotary Yoneyama world wide and the growth of female members within the club. All in all I was very touched by the amount of activities Rotary Yoneyama Memorial Foundation is involved in and am hoping to get more active within the club myself.