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You never see a
vacation like this advertised on the Holiday programs.
Four young Japanese
people who have quite possibly had the direction of
the lives change while on vacation.
Very hard work but
so rewarding was there over all opinion.
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If you would like to see
the photo more clearly please just click on it.
It's hair cut time for
young Ou you may remember him from my first story
about the orphans at the flying club. In fact this
young man is the reason I started helping out the
Orphanage as I am doing. He was considered to have
about another 3 weeks left with us last August have a
look at him here then have a look at him a year ago in
this story
http://www.jadeisus.com/ebay/UP1.htm
I am sure that you
can see the difference. A much fitter healthier young
man no longer considered to be any where near his last
days with us.
This is down to the
medicines that your contributions have helped to
provide, along with the loving care provided by Fr
Giovanni and his helpers. Together we are
helping re-new life with new hope for a future. |
Before I went on my latest buying
trip to China I made a visit to the Camillian center where
Fr, Giovanni spends his life caring for Thai
people suffering with
HIV/AIDS. On this occasion I found that a group of young
Japanese people were there, in the main helping with the
terminally ill adult patents. Reflecting on this while I
was away, it struck me that this should be the subject of
my next story. So on 18th September 2004 I
made another visit to the center to take a few photos and
a well-hashed, most unprofessional interview with them
before they return home to Japan on the 20th.
There were two young men and two
young ladies in the group, all Japanese catholics. Which
in itself is something of a rarity, there being about 0.4%
catholics in Japan as a whole. They have all spent the
last three weeks of their summer holiday helping with the
care of the poor souls who tragically are in the last
stages of their lives due to this scourge in our modern
society.
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You don't need any special
qualifications too be a real help, what you do need
is something that I know I don't have and that is
real guts and fortitude. To get to know them and
then watch them die. |
My first interview was with
Fiumiko Kawaguchi from Tokyo. She is a student of music
and education and speaks near perfect English. Fiumiko, an
extremely charming young lady, told me that at first she
found the work very hard and was no doubt wondering just
what she had signed up for, but very soon was overwhelmed
by the charm of the Thai patients, both the adults and
children that she was caring for. She found out about the
center from her parish priest Fr, Nakashimo. She has found
her vacation if you can call it that a life-changing
experience, so was now sad to be on her way home in a few
days.
My second interview was with
Masahito Magome from Nagasaki, who will graduate as a
fully fledged priest in six more years. He told me he had
decided to become a priest certainly in part because his
father had been in the seminary as a young man before
meeting his mother which changed his mind about that way
of life.
I next interviewed Tatsuya Nohama,
also from Nagasaki, the second of the two young men. He is
a broad chested, very strong looking young man who has
chosen a life in the priest-hood, on leave from his
seminary. As of now he has three more years of study
before become fully ordained. He tells me that his
ambition, on completing his studies, would be jumping at
the chance of being assigned the same sort of mission as
Fr Giovanni has. And in some part of the world where he
can be of help to those who need it most.
My last interview was with the
other extremely charming young lady, Sachi Yoshimura, from
Fukuoka, not far from Nagasaki I was informed. She is a
student of psychology. Again she heard about the center
through her local church. She told me that she has had a
life-changing experience while here in Thailand and is
also extremely sad to have to return home.
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The adults that end up in this
bright cheerful ward that is in the same grounds as
the orphanage are the real lucky ones they know they
are near death but they get care and respect something
that is very sadly lacking back in the village at
home. |
Only a few weeks ago I watched a
documentary about the extent of knowledge in Japan of HIV/AIDs
and according to that young people there have very little
knowledge about it at all. In this the authorities were
giving free blood tests in some of the Tokyo discotheques
in an effort to expand young people’s knowledge and
promote awareness of the necessity too protect against
this diseases through the practice of safe, or at least
safer, sex. These excellent young people today will, for
sure, spread the knowledge of this when returning home.
They also said that they were very much surprised by the
amount of medicine and the very strict regime of treatment
that all at the center receive.
I had hoped to be able to make
these interviews the day before, as my very good friend,
Philip, had presented me on my return from China, a large
plastic bag full of anti-viral HIV drugs which he had
found among the positions of his friend in Bangkok who had
recently died. Fr, Giovanni was delighted to receive
them telling me that their value in the west would be
somewhere in the region of $2000.00USD and was likely to
provide treatment for one of the adult patents for about 4
months. However that was not to be because the young
Japanese were on a very well deserved day out from the
center seeing some of the local tourist spots, their first
day off since they had arrived. |
