Beautiful People

I am so blessed to encounter such wonderful people in my life. Through this project, I had an opportunity to meet with Japanese persons with beautiful heart in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Ono works at IOM as an architect to design housings for the Sri Lankan who were displaced by the Tsunami incident. When I met him, he patiently listened to my idea about the elder care and provided me his insight based on his experience working in this country. When I shared my idea that “I strongly believe that we have so much to learn about social value of elder care from Sri Lanka”, he showed his interest and thoughtfully listen to my point view. Without his kind encouragement, I might have withdrawn from my passion to change the ways in which elders should be treated in Sri Lanka. Talking with him taught me how powerful it would be to "genuinely interested and carefully listen to one's story."

He arranged to have a dinner with his friends from JICA who provide services to elders in Sri Lanka. Ms. Kato coordinates various programs to improve the life of elders in Sri Lanka. She had such a wealth of knowledge about the elder care in this country, and generously shared her experience and valuable information with me. Her colleagues, who were volunteers from Japan, came all the way from Japan to provide their skills and knowledge to improve elder care homes. They go around elder care homes and work directly with elders and staff members on site. They had such positive attitude toward their work and elders they serve. Their professionalism and passion for their volunteer effort in developing country made me proud of being Japanese.

Coming to Sri Lanka reminded me how difficult it is to live in unfamiliar countries where language, custom, food, and hygiene condition are different from what we have been used to. It can be especially challenging to live in developing countries. However, these Japanese people have chosen to live in this condition to follow their passion and belief to change the lives of people in Sri Lanka. I cannot stop admiring their generosity.

Their genuineness touched my heart, and made this trip even more worthwhile for me.