by 1998 GSE team leader Hiroshi Nomura
Prologue
The GSE program for the 1997-1998 year was between R.I. D-6150 in northeasternArkansas and our R.I. D-2660 in Osaka, and I am very thankful to have beenappointed the team leader for this GSE.When Shigeo Matsuoka, chairman of the GSE Committee talked to me in Septemberof last year, and when the former chairman Mr. Kashimura talked to me aboutit as well, I couldn't help but accept their request for me to be the teamleader. But in my heart I felt I had taken on an overwhelming task, andI was worried about it right up to the day before our departure for America.I prepared as best as I could to fulfill my duties and to uphold the honorof Rotary Clubs in our district. During our stay in Arkansas (May 3 to 31),we were on the receiving end of the very adequate and carefully consideredplans of R.I. D 6150, and we were able to visit 9 cities in the region and19 Rotary Clubs (2 of these clubs held dinner parties and one club helda joint meeting with another club). As a result of their fine planning,I am confident that we were able to fulfill the 3 main goals of the trip.
The three main goals of the Rotary's GSE program are:
1) that the team members, who are distinguished in their fields of expertise,have the opportunity to participate in a study program put together by theRotary Clubs in a foreign country and that they be given the opportunityto study the people and a variety of institutions in that country,
2) that people of goodwill from both countries will be able to meet ina friendly atmosphere, and be able to talk and live together, gaining anunderstanding of each other's problems and aspirations, and thus increaseinternational understanding by developing and nurturing lasting personalrelationships with one another,
3) and that the host Rotary Clubs put together an educational programfor the study team members and entertain them warmly, enabling them to participatein a concrete, international and meaningful international Rotarian serviceproject.
Through this exchange, in a very practical way we were shown by thoseinvolved in the R.I. D-6150 GSE program the meaning of this year's internationalRotarian theme, "Show Rotary Cares," as well as the meaning ofRotary's everlasting theme of "Service Above Self." There werea number of difficulties involved with this GSE visit to Arkansas, but Iam so thankful for the wonderful experiences I was able to have experiencesthat would be hard for non-Rotarians to have and which meant so much tomy life as a Rotarian and to my life in general.
Leaving for D-6150 in Little Rock, Arkansas
We gathered at 1:00 pm on May 3, 1998 at the Osaka International Airport(Itami).Chairman Matsuoka, Vice-chairman Nakazono, and many others came to see usoff, and we left for Tokyo International Airport (Narita) on a All NipponAirways flight NH078 at 14:20. There we boarded American Airlines flightAA060 at 5:45 pm and took off on a direct flight to Dallas. About 14 hourslater, we landed at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport around 2:45 pm the sameday, and went through immigration. This is the largest airport in the world.There, we boarded an American Eagle flight to Little Rock, and arrived withoutincident at our final destination about 1 hour and 55 minutes later.
The team members were very lively. A large number of people met us atthe airport, including R.I. D-6150 GSE chairman and Mrs. Ken Stacks, thecoordinator Larry Averill, team leader Bob Alvey of the Arkansas GSE teamthat visited Japan in March/April and his wife, and many others from Club99. We received a wonderful welcome from everyone, and it was good to seeBob in America after being with him in Japan several weeks earlier. Fromthere, the team members were packed into different cars, and taken to ourfirst place of lodging, the Double Tree Hotel. This beautiful, white hotelsits facing the Arkansas River, and I was surprised to see so many African-Americanstaff at the hotel. The service was very nice, but I had a lot of troublewith the southern accent and dialect. (In other parts of the United States,they say, "Thank you, sir.", but in Arkansas, they say, "Thankyou, man.") We spent our first two days, May 3 and 4, at this hotel,and on the second day, we had a meeting to discuss our schedule. Ken gaveme a mobile phone to use while we were there to make communication go moresmoothly, which showed how much thought they were putting into making ourvisit go well. And so our Japanese team's visit had begun. This day wasthe beginning of a schedule which would take us to 9 cities (Pulaski, HeberSprings, Fairfield Bay, Searcy, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Oceola, Blythevilleand Little Rock), and which would have us give our presentation to the RotaryClubs in each of these cities and at the R.I. D-6150 district conferenceas well. The clubs we visited were:
Jacksonville RC
Maumelle RC
Cleburne County RC
Fairfield RC
Bald Knob RC
Searcy RC
Jonesboro RC
Paragould RC
Jonesboro University RC
West Memphis & Marion RC
Blytheville RC
RC Little Rock (Club 99)
Sherwood RC
West Little Rock RC
North Little Rock RC
Little Rock Metro RC
Osceola RC
South Little Rock RC & RC Maumelle (dinner party)
In addition, we attended the district conference on May 15 and 16. Therewas a presentation planned for our GSE team on May 15, and we were ableto get through it without any problems. The next day, May 16, the D-6150team members who visited Japan gave their reports on their experiences,and I was thrilled to be able to meet everyone again.
Despite the fact that America is such a vast country, and even thoughthe clubs in the D 6150 are anywhere from 10 to more than 110 miles apart,talk of our presentation spread far and wide. I don't know where peopleheard about our presentation, but everywhere we went, people would comeup to us and say, "I hear you all put on a really wonderful presentation.I'm very much looking forward to seeing it." Hearing such things reallygot us excited! It was a bit disconcerting to realize just how developedAmerica is in regard to communication. At the same time, I came to admireAmerica. Americans very frankly and straightforwardly express their opinionswith a desire to get their point across. But I have to say that the earlymorning club meetings (we had three meetings that started exactly at 7:00and one that started at 7:30) were very difficult for us to give our presentationat (everyone ate their breakfast as the meeting progressed).
Visiting Rotary Clubs
At all the Rotary Club meetings, the president served as the emcee. Next,the friendship committee chairman prayed and thanked God for the day andthe introduction of the guests, and everyone closed with "Amen."Next, everyone stood, placed their right hand over their heart, and in aloud voice said the pledge of allegiance. Even we did this along with everyone.And of course, no one got up to leave in the middle of the meeting. Also,there were always some people who had brought some guests along, and everyonelistened very intently with their eyes fixed on us as we gave our 30-minutelong presentation in our poor English. There was absolutely no talking duringthe presentation, and no one nodded off.
We showed a video, which lasted about 20 minutes, and then we each introducedourselves for about 5 minutes. Sometimes there was a Q & A time afterthe presentation. And, as expected, as soon as we asked for questions, severalpeople raised their hands immediately, and the meetings were quite lively.We hung a map of Japan on the wall at the front and pointed out where Osakais located. And when we asked if anyone had been to Japan, there were always4 or 5 people who raised their hands. There are about 400 members in theLittle Rock Rotary Club (Club 99), and more than 20 people raised theirhands there. This was one of the surprises we experienced. However, mostof those who raised their hands said that they had been to Japan in thearmy, and so they knew very little about the geography of Japan since theywere in Japan for such a short time and didn't go far from their base. But,to be sure, they have very friendly feelings toward Japan. And of course,some of the members are doing business with Japanese firms. After the presentationwas over, without fail, many people came up and said things like, "Itwas a nice presentation," or "I enjoyed it very much," whileextending their hand for a handshake. After our very first presentation,I was so happy and felt so good inside. As we gave our presentation moreand more, I became less and less nervous, and by the middle of our tripI was able to relax and enjoy the time more.
In Japan, most members wear dark suits and ties since our meetings arefairly formal, but at every club we visited, more than half of the peoplewere dressed casually. I thought that the number of people wearing Rotaryemblems was quite low. From what I heard, most of the clubs do not havea definite Rotary office, and the club secretary serves for one year. Mostof the clubs put out a very simple club bulletin, with many clubs just copyingthem up on the copy machine, so office expenses are quite low.
At all the clubs we visited, there were always 7 or 8 women in attendance.The Searcy, Bald Knob and Paragould RC's have female presidents, and atthe Little Rock RC, more than 20 of the 400 members are women. These womenmembers were very actively participating in the GSE visits.
School Visitation
Before leaving Japan, due to a lack of information about Arkansas, Ididn't really have any expectations regarding schools and hospitals in Arkansas,but what really impressed me was the fact that computer education was apart of the school curriculum from lower elementary through high school(in public schools), and the schools are teaching computer classes wholeheartedly.There were computers for every student, and there was always a computerteacher in the classroom, so the children were able to have a very enjoyablelesson. I visited a number of schools, and I was asked about Japan's computereducation by the principals, teachers and Rotarians. Unfortunately, allI could say was that Japanese public schools are lagging far behind in thisregard. Each of the schools I visited was more or less different, but theyall had very clear educational goals which they were carrying out. Whatimpressed me in particular was how the elementary and junior high schoolteachers worked so hard to help their students get a grasp of their geographylessons. They studied Asia, the Middle East, Egypt and Canada, and in eachclassroom the teachers in charge decorated the classrooms, with help fromthe students, with items and pictures of the nation's clothing, food, animals,etc. I was struck by how they made it so enjoyable and natural for the studentsto learn. We took origami paper with us to the kindergartens andelementary schools, and showed the children how to make things out of paper.This was quite popular with the children, and they were very interestedand watched intently as we taught them how to fold paper cranes.
Hospital Visitation
Before leaving for Arkansas, as far as I knew, Arkansas was known asan agricultural state, and honestly speaking, I didn't have very high expectationsfor the hospital visitation and medical treatment study. The Rotary Clubsin D-6150 worked hard to see to it that we were able to visit as many hospitalsas possible when we visited their cities. The facilities were spotlesslyclean inside, well-equipped, and, like the schools, were making use of thelatest computer technologies. Compared to Japan, I think the number of medicalspecialists is much higher in America. The rooms in the maternity wardswere very beautifully decorated, giving the women a feeling of peace likethey would have at home. After hearing an explanation about how the womencan give birth in their rooms, I was surprised to see how quickly thoserooms could be converted into a delivery room by raising the beds with thetouch of a switch. Of course, the rooms and the hallway were carpeted. Iwas moved by the fact that medical care was much more than just a word;the patients do indeed receive medical care there. At the nursinghomes too, the nurses give very loving care, and even though it is a naturalthing to have such a goal, I was deeply impressed when I saw a paper hangingon the wall which read, "Our goal is to eliminate all accidents."People can rest easy knowing that, even in small city hospitals, there areheliports provided for use in an emergency. In Little Rock, I was able tovisit the Children's Hospital. In America, there are only four special children'shospitals, and one of them is in Little Rock. One special characteristicof this hospital is the fact that they always have two helicoptors on standby.Operations and the many incubators for premature babies are all controlledby computer, enabling the doctors and nurses to give constant care to thechildren. Medical treatment in Japan lags far behind that in America, andI heard that many foreign doctors are not able to work in America becausethe standards are so high. I'm a complete layman when it comes to medicaltreatment, and I had thought that Japanese medicine was very advanced, butafter going to America, I realized, unfortunately, that Japanese medicinestill has a long way to go.
Host families
During this trip, I received wonderful care from 7 host families. First,I stayed with Dave and June Marshall, in Heber Springs from May 5 through7. Dave is a retired Lockheed military plane designer who moved to HeberSprings after retiring. Arkansas is working hard to attract retirees fromall over the United States. Arkansas has lots of open space, abundant forestsand a multitude of wildlife. While I was eating breakfast with Dave onemorning, I could see many animals around the small woods behind his house.
From May 8 to 10, I stayed with Paul and Teresa Daniels in Searcy. Theyhave a huge yard, and there are so many pine trees in their residentialarea that it makes it seem like an area where Japanese people might builda second home in the mountains, even though they live near the center ofSearcy. In addition to this home, they have a second home about 100 milesaway in Mountain View, and the two of them often go there on weekends. Theyhave one female dachshund at their home in Searcy, and in the small pondat their cabin they raise catfish and other fish. I asked if they ate thecatfish, and with a big laugh he said, "No! I'd eat my dog before Iate these fish. These are my pets!" An American joke.
From May 11 to 14, I stayed with Van and Ruth Hawkins in Jonesboro. Ruthis a Rotarian, and she works as vice-president of Institutional Advancementat Arkansas State University. Her husband, Van, doesn't seem to have muchinterest in joining Rotary. Both of them love Japan, and their 16-year-oldson, Cute is learning karate. Van is an admirer of Musashi Miyamoto, a famousJapanese samurai and he has a large picture of Miyamoto in his office.
I stayed with Dewayne and Marian Smith in West Memphis on May 17 and18. Marian is a Rotarian, and she is a vice-principal at a high school.When I talked to Dewayne about the Rotary, he said that he thought the Rotarywas wonderful, but he didn't have any interest in joining. I only stayedwith them for two days, but they were very considerate of me, and I wasvery grateful for the magnificent breakfast they prepared for me.
From May 19 to 20, I stayed in Oceola with Jim and Laura Gilham. Jimworks as a plant manager at a German plastics company. I heard that Oceolais an Indian word. Many of the places we visited in Arkansas do not haveEnglish names because of the fact that many Indians used to live in thesouthern part of the United States. While I was in Oceola, it was very hot,and with the Mississippi River flowing nearby the flatlands, there werevery hot and humid and reminded me of Japan in the middle of the summer.Incidentally, the temperatures were near 90°F everyday. Jim has been inRotary for about 5 years, but he has a good understanding of Rotary andhis wife is also quite active in volunteer work. While I was teaching their12-year-old daughter how to fold origami, both Jim and Laura joined us,and they eagerly learned how to do it too. This was a significant time ofcultural exchange.
I went to Blytheville and stayed with Jeff Gardner on May 21 and 22.Jeff is a lawyer, and when I met him, at first I thought he might be a difficultperson to get to know. Their son is a career diplomat, and on May 23 hewas flying out of Washington, D.C. for Madras, India. I didn't have muchchance to be with Jeff's wife, but she is a college professor, and it seemedto me that Jeff and his wife lead rather free lives. Their house faces agolf course, so they can go onto the course grounds anytime they want fromtheir back yard, which is something absolutely unheard of here in Japan.They had squirrels playing on the ground under the trees in their yard,woodpeckers eating bugs from their trees, etc., and it is true that whereever you go in America, there is lots of natural beauty all around. He toldme to make myself at home and do whatever I wanted as if I were in my ownhome, and he really meant it. I really felt that I was able to use the washingmachine, refrigerator, kitchen, bath, toilet, living room and bedroom asI pleased. If we are so concerned not to do anything out of line like weare when we are visiting someone in Japan, we won't be able to do anything,so I think the sooner we can get accustomed to the American way, the soonerwe will be able to have a truly comfortable homestay. I visited Jeff's almamater, Blytheville High School, and I learned that they are diligently teachingand studying Japanese there. Daiwa Steel Company, Ltd., whose headquartersis in Himeji, has a joint venture company in Blytheville, and some of theJapanese living in this area work as volunteer teacher assistants in theJapanese classes. As a result, in this small town, there is a very goodfeeling toward Japanese people. I was moved by this. After visiting theschool, Jeff took me to his office, and we were able to spend a very meaningfultime together.
From May 23 to 26, I stayed at the home of Larry and Sue Averill in LittleRock. Larry is a professor in the University of Arkansas at Little RockLaw School. Larry worked as the coordinator of this GSE program and wasinvolved in all the planning for the program, and thanks to him, we wereable to experience great activities. There is no way that I can write thewords necessary to express to him the deep gratitude I have for all he didfor us. If it hadn't been for Larry, we might not have had such a successfultime. He was constantly paying attention to our schedules, coordinatingeverything so well with the committee chairman, Ken Stacks, and helpingus to communicate with all the other people associated with the GSE program.We have been asked to advise them on their future GSE programs, and we havepromised to work together in the future. He is the 1998-1999 R.I. D 6150GSE committee chairman. Also, his wife, Sue, shared with me her true feelingsabout the racial problems in America, and as a Japanese, I was able to sharemy thinking on the issue, resulting in a great learning experience for me.
I stayed with Jim and Mary Sawyer in Little Rock from May 27 to 31. Theirfamily name, Sawyer, is very difficult for me to pronounce. Jim was a dentist,but he retired more than 7 years ago, and has served as Rotary governorin the past. Right now he is working with a friend as a developer, and hesaid he really enjoys this work. Although he is now 78 years old, he isstill young at heart, and he is very gentle and considerate. I am so thankfulfor how he constantly looked after me, and I admire the American Rotariansfor how well they matched me up with my host families. I am sure that wewere placed in our homestay situations after much careful considerationwas given to our profiles. This is something we Japanese Rotarians mustlearn from and cooperate in. I felt the need for us to educate Rotariansthroughout our Osaka region in this regard. All of the people living inthe Sawyer's neighborhood, Chenal Parkway Village, are retirees, and thehouses are all 2 bedroom duplex homes. The homes aren't big, but they arevery easy to live in. They can eat their meals with other retirees if theygo to the restaurant in a separate building. Of course, they also enjoymaking their own meals at home, but if they do eat out, all they have todo is sign for the dinner and then pay for everything once a month. I thinkthis is a very good system, allowing you to make new friends and meet witholder friends regularly. I think a similar system should be created in Japanon the prefectural and municipal level.
My Impressions of the District Conference
The R.I. D-6150 district conference was held on May 15 and 16 at theHoliday Inn in West Memphis. About 200 peope attended, and compared to ourR.I. D-2660 here in Japan, the number of people is rather small. There weresome who came from more than 60 miles away to spend one night. The atmospherewas very enjoyable. Many people there seemed to know each other except forus, the representative of R.I. President, Mr. & Mrs. Everett Wood andthe foreign exchange students. Our presentation started at lunch time, ataround 12:00 noon, and after a message from the team leader, the individualpresentations by the team members lasted for about 30 minutes. Followingthis, we presented R.I. D-6150 governor, Gregg Mahler, and GSE committeechairman Ken Stacks with Japanese happi coats. Both of these men are big,and I was a bit worried about the size, but they looked fine. We also gotthem to wear Japanese hachimaki (festival headbands), and everyone cheeredloudly. I was moved to see them dressed up like this clear to the end ofthe program on the first day. What impressed me most about the conferencewas that not a single person left the place early. The Japanese Rotariansdo not have this kind of understanding of the Rotary spirit. It was wonderfulto see. The conference fee was very inexpensive, a mere $25. When I wasasked by Americans about our district conference in Japan, I told them thatwe have about 2,000 people attend, but from the afternoon more than halfof the people go home, and by the end only one third of the people are remaining.When they heard this, they were really shocked. R.I. President's representativeWood and R.I. Director Carl Rosenbaum talked very openly and asked manyquestions about the Japanese Rotary Club, and we all had a pleasant timetalking about Rotary. According to Mr. Rosenbaum, people are working tohelp reestablish Rotary in China. He has a deep interest in the Japaneseeconomy, and he is saddened and worried about the present state of our economy.This, too, is because he is a Rotarian.
Registration began at 8:30 in the morning on May 16, and the day's eventsbegan with the leadership breakfast at 9:00 am. Everyone stayed for thebanquet at 7:00 pm, and no one went home until well after 9:00 pm. The conferenceended after an enjoyable and humorous 13 hours.
The People We Met in Arkansas and My Impressions of Northeast Arkansas
Arkansas is on the same latitude as Japan. The northeast part is similarto the Kinki region, and Little Rock is just like Osaka City hot and humidin the summer and sometimes having snow in the winter. The people livingthere are very warm-hearted and kind, and I felt that they were ve+滷`,people of O(P. Also, they have the same seasons as we have in Osaka, andI thought that it would be a very easy place for us Japanese to live andwork. But there is so much greenery in Arkansas compared to Osaka, withwide open spaces and few mountains. Like the rest of America, they talkabout land area in terms of acres, and it was hard at first for me to geta grasp of the concept of an acre. They told me that anyone can buy landto build a home for about 150,000 to 200,000 yen per acre ($1200 to $1500per acre). We drove as far away as 70 miles or so in our travels throughoutthe northeastern part of Arkansas, and on both sides of the interstate highwayswe could see rice, wheat, corn and bean fields. Arkansas is the second largestproducer of rice in the United States, and I heard for the first time thatArkansas exports rice and soybeans to Japan.
Lastly, I would like to mention something which left a deep impressionon me, namely my visit to Heifer Project International. This organization,which was founded in Arkansas in 1937 in order to offer food assistanceto developing nations, started by providing pregnant heifers free of chargeto developing nations. Now, they are sending heifers, horses, sheep, camels,water buffaloes and other animals to developing nations, including China.I was told that they even supplied Hokkaido with 200 heifers in 1947 afterthe end of the war. Also, General Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock,and the home in which he was born is still being preserved in the centeror Little Rock.
About 50 miles west of Little Rock, there is a famous tourist area, HotSprings. Hot Springs is a typical old town, and the thermal springs whichare bubbling up here and there draw tourists from all over the United Statesand from foreign countries as well. In order to lure more tourists fromabroad, a brand new international conference center is being built rightnext to the Hilton Hotel, and I was able to visit the site just before thebuilding was to be completed.
On May 29, I visited the State Capitol Building. The building is builtin the same shape as the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., and it isbeautiful inside as well. The interior contains a lot of marble, and theyeven had a very typical American souvenir shop in the building. Around 11:00in the morning, we met with governor Mike Huckabee, and each of the teammembers received a magnificent certificate from the governor and had theirpicture taken with him. I presented the governor with a happi coat, whichI had brought along for the occassion, and he allowed us to have our picturetaken with him while he was wearing it, making a wonderful memory for usall. Governor Huckabee is a very friendly man, and I am so thankful to himfor the heartfelt welcome he gave to us.
Summary
As I said earlier, as team leader, I learned many, many things duringthis recent GSE trip to Arkansas. The many Rotarians and those associatedwith them that I met during this trip were different than the people I hadmet and talked to during previous trips to the United States. I was ableto fully experience and feel the reality of how people of different nationalitiescan, through the large Rotary organization, come together with the sameideals and principles to work together. I am so grateful to everyone inR.I. D-6150 who worked so hard to put together such a wonderful programfor us. Also, I was very happy to see how the team members, Yuji Shomura,Hikaru Sakagami, Reiko Satoh, and Keisuke Kaneshige aggressively faced thechallenge of giving the GSE presentation at the Rotary Club meetings, howthey had such a positive attitude toward their vocational study and recreationactivities, how they acted and how they earned such high praise for fulfillingtheir mission as an international goodwill ambassador. The presentationvideo, in particular, was highly praised and enjoyed by the Arkansan Rotarians.
Through this opportunity, I was able to experience and discover a partof America which I had never known before the American South and the essenceof the southern people. I am deeply grateful for those who made this opportunitypossible: governor Masaomi Kondo of R.I. D-2660, GSE committee chairman ShigeoMatsuoka, governor Gregg Mahler and all the members of R.I. D-6150, GSEcommittee chairman Ken Stacks, coordinator Larry Averill, and all the otherRotarians who were a part of our program. I also want to take this opportunityto again express my thanks to all the loving host families who opened uptheir homes to us. Long live Rotary International and the GSE program! Thankyou very much.
