News from Egypt.
We recently received news from Kanoya born Natsuko Sakamoto, who is currently working as a kindergarten teacher in Egypt as a JICA participant. Ms Sakamoto was temporarily evacuated to Japan after the situation in the Middle-East started to deteriorate and ended up working in Fukushima Prefecture’s Nihonmatsu City as a volunteer at an evacuation centre for those affected by the recent earthquake/ tsunami. She was later reassigned back to Egypt in May this year as a result of the situation in Egypt improving.
“My temporary evacuation to Japan coincided with the recent natural disaster. I am grateful for the valuable experience that I gained while I was there and love and treasure all the people that I met in Fukushima. Through this I was able to experience first hand the extremes of life and death; you never what is going to happen tomorrow so now I want to live everyday to the fullest.
I left Japan again on the 9th of May and am now back residing in Egypt. I am not sure whether returning to a country where public safety is deteriorating was a good decision or not, but I am glad to be back. It has come around quickly and now I only have 4 months left on my contract. A lot has happened in a short amount of time but I always feel relieved when I see the children’s faces.
Shortly after returning, I went to recharge my phone and the clerk asked me where I was from, “Japan”, I answered. Usually in Egypt people tell me that they love Japan and talk about how great it is, however this clerk was worried about the recent natural disaster.
He encouraged me by saying, “Japan is such a strong country, it will recover soon”.
This conversation really made me realize that the news about the earthquake in Japan is spreading around the world. More than anything it told me that the reason why people everywhere are currently worrying about Japan is due to our contributions to the international community up until this point.
After temporarily returning to Japan I have now become prouder to be a Japanese national. I will continue to send my love and thoughts to the people of Japan from Egypt.”
Natsuko Sakamoto (2009, Group 2: Early Childhood Education, Egypt)