Asian Rural Institute in High Gear

 by Bob and Joyce Ray, Global Ministries Short-term Volunteers

The weather has changed. The Hokkaido Express (like the Montreal Express) seemed to blow in, and everyone is bundled up. Enet from Malawi has been crocheting colorful hats for all her African sisters. Of course, we are enjoying the cooler temperature.

It’s been three weeks since the ARI class of 2013 returned from their Rural Community Study Tour. There are 14 women, 17 men and one male Training Coordinator. They come from Brazil, Ecuador, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon, Malawi, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Nepal, Japan and Sri Lanka. Through working together in the kitchen, cleaning eggs (Joyce), caring for pigs (Bob), harvesting rice and working on planning committees together, we can call each other family. To some, we are Auntie and Uncle. For Joyce, that’s a promotion. The first day she tried to hoe and make planting beds, the young participants told her to “Please take a rest, Madam!”

We are no longer eating cucumbers three times a day, and the tomatoes are about gone. We’ve moved on to squash, pumpkin and soybeans now. Eating in season is very ARI. It makes sense, and of course that’s what people used to do, but even when we resolve to eat what’s in season back home in NH, we can’t resist lettuce and salad veggies in the winter. At that time, the ARI community eats root crops or vegetables preserved through canning or freezing, rice, eggs, pork and fish produced on the farm.

ARI’s 40^th Anniversary Celebration has now come and gone. We even welcomed a typhoon as a guest! Despite the wind and rain, it was an amazing time with over 50 graduates returning, some for a week or longer. Jerome from Bangladesh represented the very first ARI Class of 1973! We were thrilled to renew friendships with Hoshi and Manar from the Class of 2010.

All these graduates have been either working for non-government organizations that help women, children and disadvantaged or indigenous people, establishing their own NGOs, preaching and caring for congregations, or creating demonstration farms to train others in organic farming, food preservation and sanitation. Our event was a true international symposium with seminars, panels and breakout sessions. The grads shared their experiences and generated ideas of how ARI can further support future graduates. You can imagine the powerful impact their presence made on this current class about to graduate in December.

About ten AFARI (American Friends of ARI) members from the U.S. and Canada attended the celebration. One night we prepared the meal - pasta and soybeans tossed with basil pesto, roasted vegetables, pumpkin curry soup, rice, chocolate chip cookies, and rhubarb cobbler. All ingredients except pasta, wheat flour, and chocolate chips were grown at ARI. We cooked for 150 people. On the main celebration day, the ARI kitchen served 300 people.

Community Rice Harvest Day was a first for us. Most ARI paddies are harvested mechanically, but rural South Asian participants usually harvest by hand. After songs and a prayer, we sallied forth in a line and cut bunches of rice stalks with a sickle. Others constructed a bamboo drying rack, bundled the stalks with twine and hung them upside down on the bamboo pole. Joyce harvested in an experimental non-tillage paddy, meaning the rice was allowed to grow naturally with no weeding. Therefore, weeds had to be extracted before bundling - a nice sit-down task! Walking on the banks of the paddies to participate in the usual group photo, Joyce stepped in a hole, twisted her ankle and fell. After some rather painful stretching massage by an Indian guest and acupuncture by a Thai participant, her ankle healed quickly.

  

There is such a spirit of caring here. If anyone becomes sick, someone is there to help. We sing and pray (in many languages or silently) before each meal and community event and at weekday Morning Gatherings which are led by community members in turn. There is a strong awareness of God’s grace throughout each day and many opportunities to share our faith. On Monday evenings, a prayer group prays for community concerns. On Wednesdays a gospel choir, practices and attracts local Japanese community members. A Lectio Divinia group meets for Bible study on Thursdays. One can choose to worship at several churches on Sunday morning. Enet’s strong voice praised God one Sunday at the Nishinasuno United Church of Christ. 

Asian Rural Institute Orientation

by Bob and Joyce Ray, Global Ministries Short-term Volunteers

We have been at ARI almost two weeks now. The buildings are new, sturdy and lovely to look at due to tremendous global support after the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011. The same ARI spirit of acceptance and love remains! Our re-introduction has been more relaxed because the participants and three staff members are away on a Western Japan Rural Study Tour. They are visiting organic farmers to learn additional farming techniques, so only remaining staff and volunteers have been running the farm. The participants are arriving Sunday night, and we are planning a welcome home party for them. We are eager to meet these dedicated people from South Asian, South East Asian and African countries!

 

There is so much work for a few people while the participants are away – feeding chickens, pigs and fish and cleaning their areas, harvesting vegetables (think cucumbers!), preparing meals, preparing materials for ARI’s upcoming 40^th anniversary and screening materials for the 2014 applicants. We have been blessed with Japanese young people from universities and student fellowships coming to volunteer for a week. One group invited us to a barbecue where we sang together and watched a fire dance! Now there are long term young volunteers from Germany, America, Malaysia, Korea and Japan. We’re in the name learning process, but working and planning together and listening to individual Morning Gathering presentations helps us become familiar quickly.

Due to regulations, we are not allowed to work in livestock areas until we have been in the country for two weeks. It’s been breakfast and supper kitchen duty for us. With from 16- 30 people to prepare meals for, the kitchen is a more relaxed place than it will be when 60-80 is the norm. The third week in September, we are expecting to be cooking for 150! Each meal we serve rice, soup, main course and a side dish or more. The produce, eggs and pork all come from our farm. At ARI we constantly think about our connection to the land and the food it produces for our bodies to use. We eat only what is in season, but it is all delicious, and the cooks are so creative. One day we had soybean falafel with fantastic cucumber yogurt sauce! Another night we enjoyed a traditional Malay cake with a rice base and a yogurt blueberry top layer. Tonight we are having a pork and fish barbecue, so I prepared good old American potato salad. I learned how to make mayonnaise for the first time!

 

During the weekdays, we both help in the office. Joyce is learning the process for managing the incoming travel documents of graduates returning for the 40^th anniversary in just two weeks. Profiles have to be written about their activities since graduation. Bob and Joyce are creating booklets with pages on each 2014 applicant. Staff will start the screening process this week.

 

The new couple’s room in the just completed men’s dorm is beautiful. It was lovingly prepared for us by JeenHae, complete with flowers and a tea set. There is a private shower and toilet area for our own use. Our balcony has the required clothes pole so laundry can hang even if it rains. If you want to volunteer, you’ll have a great space to call your own!

And today we had a 9 sec shake of the building due to a 6.5 earthquake off Tokyo.