JOCV 50th year anniversary

Name: Hitoshi Yoshida
Batch: FY1977-1 (Oct 1977 - Nov 1982)
Technical Field: Public Water Supply
Host Organization: Water Department
Hometown in Japan: Yamagata

A Piece of Memory: "My Warm Heart Project"

Today, too, children gathered at the sound of the motorcycle. Most of them are children of houseboys who live in the neighborhood of my dormitory. The dormitory is a two-story flat (collective housing) in Area 11 within the city of Lilongwe, and the first floor is open to children. The children are between five and seven years old.

"Now, is everyone here? Let's start the music and reading/writing sandwich class as usual!" I check each student's beautiful twinkling eyes.

"What? What happened to Zakeyu?" One of the children said, "His father's job changed, and he went to a faraway place." I said, "Oh, that's regrettable. He used to practice reading and writing so hard."

The father of a houseboy children must find another new job to support his family once he completes his job.

The children have a great sense of rhythm in music and can usually express themselves physically. To show the children that music is not only about rhythm but also about scales, we do vocal exercises to "do-mi-so," "do-fa-la," "shi-re-so," and "do-re-mi-fa...do" along with the pianicas I brought from Japan. We try to do those scale exercises with various sounds. Sometimes, I would ask the children to sing, and I would also ask them to listen to a Japanese song that I sang.

The second half hour was for reading and writing. They would put up a "sunoko (slatted board)" on the wall and sing the alphabet written in large letters with a magic marker on the back of a drawing placed on the board with the verses they did during the music class. The drawing is made from the backs of drawings left over from the workplace, and the paper used by the children is also cut from the drawings.

While many of the children would be holding a pencil for the first time, they are all interested in writing the alphabet. For those children who cannot write, I would take the child's hand from behind and try to write with them.

"There, you see? You can write. It's okay. It's okay." By repeating this every day, the child will gradually gain confidence. The smile on the child's face when he or she can write is a source of inspiration for me, so I would continue to try that every day.

Sometimes, I would also hold a "nsima eating party" with the children, and of course I would sit in a circle with them and have a great time, biting ndiwo (greens, beans, and other side dishes) and eating nsima with them.

I wonder if 40-odd years from now, these children will have their own families and living happily. I wonder if I will still be working, blissfully watching my grandchildren's faces.

I was 24 years old when I was transferred to the Water Department (Malawi Water Supply Department) in 1977 and would be there for five years and one month, promoting rural public water supply projects throughout Malawi. The time I spent with the children was a very important Warm Heart Project for me. This was 23 years before the Warm Heart Project was established in the Malawi Society of Japan.

The Water Department had 24 rural public water supply projects throughout the country under the auspices of the African Development Fund (ADF) at the time. I was mainly responsible for the northern part of Malawi, but I traveled to water treatment plants all over the country. The projects ranged from water source surveys, longitudinal surveying of pipelines, designing of water purification facilities, and designing of water pipeline bridges. I realized that there was a problem as a central agency in having jurisdiction over all the water purification plants in Malawi. The problems such as understanding the status of raw water, water purification capacity, water supply capacity, and facility capacity at each water purification plant were not understood. To solve these problems, we proposed to promote a "data book project" to survey each water purification plant and identify problems. We also interviewed the staff who manage the water treatment plants about the problems, and took photographs of the facilities, equipment, and deterioration status. I emphasized that this would be very useful for future water supply planning and maintenance in Malawi. Upon implementing a pilot scheme in a few locations to begin with, and reporting on it, I received permission to roll it out nationwide. This would turn out to spending my final year in Malawi. I and two staff members in a chauffeur-driven Land Rover drove from northern Malawi to central and southern Malawi, and the three of us traveled all over Malawi to complete the surveys.

I finished the final report during the final month and included the "Data Project Report" in the 13th Cooperation Volunteer Report. At the beginning of the report, I wrote, "If I am given the age of 24 years old again, I would not hesitate to seek for a JOCV team and wish to be assigned to Malawi as if I were searching for my other half."

Since returning to Japan in 1982, I have been engaged in water treatment design and construction of water treatment plants from the north to the south ends of Japan, and it remains an extension of what I had been doing in Malawi. Since leaving my job at the time of the founding of the Malawi Association of Japan in 1983, I have been connected to Malawi, working together with my colleagues on the Association's activities as a board member.

From seven years ago to the present, I was given the opportunity to devote myself to the reconstruction and revitalization of Fukushima, and I have been spending my days struggling to do so. Tomorrow, March 11 (I wrote this on March 10, 2022), will be 11 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and my current Warm Heart Project is to apply in my daily work the "Warm Heart" I learned in Malawi.

(*The Malawi Association of Japan is an organization that was established in 1983 as an outgrowth of the OV Association of Malawi.)

This is the final installment of "A Piece of Memory," a project commemorating the 50th anniversary of the dispatch of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers to Malawi. Over the past year, we have posted the memories of 41 JOCV OVs, and in the end, we were able to get to the Showa Era JOCV members all at once. We would like to thank all of the OVs who contributed and all of our readers for their continued support. We look forward to your continued support.