It's pretty amazing to consider that it has been over a month since I've last posted to this blog. A lot has happened since August 11, and I'd like to share it with you.
- I had the opportunity to share my experience with teachers from my school district on August 13th, and the session was very popular. I was blessed to have a good sized group from Apopka Elementary there to support me. Honestly, I wasn't sure how strong my attendance would be since workshops scheduled at the same time included those about robotics and one about space education that was actually being taught by an astronaut. The turnout was strong, however, and the hostess of the session actually had to turn people away ten minutes before the presentation started because we were just so full. I nearly lost my composure twice while presenting, once when sharing about Keijiro Matsushima (the a-bomb survivor) and once when describing my home visit with the Nishio family. Overall, I was told it was a good presentation and a few people stopped me outside the convention center to tell me it was their favorite. That was very flattering, especially considering the quality of the other presentations (I attended three others that were awesome: one by Peggy Lantz, the author of The Young Naturalist's Guide to Florida; one by the OCPS Autism Support Department; and one by UCF's Science Olympiad coordinator.)
- Fumiyo Nishio's daughter Sayaka got married! She sent me a photo... it was awesome. All of the women in the wedding party were in kimono and all of the men were in tuxedo. The bride wore a traditional Western-style wedding dress.
- I received a letter from Keijiro Matsushima. I sent thank you letters to all of the speakers in the JFMF program in the hopes that they would continue to be part of future JFMF experiences, and he wrote back to me. I am truly honored. He shared some teachings from Buddhism relating to the use of the A-bomb, explaining that "a man always makes a lot of mistakes every day, and he or she needs to make all possible efforts to not make the same mistake again... Those valuable victims of the Hiroshima ask us survivors to transmit their voiceless voices telling the terrible reality of the A-bomb and asking for the peace of the world."
- School has begun and we are now one-eighth of the way through the school year. It's amazing how time flies. My students have already written letters to the fifth grade class over at Shinshima Elementary and we are waiting for a response. I've begun working on the Kodomo-no-hi festival with school staff and will be presenting at the PTA general meeting September 23rd.
Tomorrow I will post the second to last entry about my trip to the wonderful country of Japan. The visit to the Ryokan was something very unique that I never want to forget, and was probably the one thing that could have effectively made me feel better after having to leave the Nishio family after such a short visit. After that I'm going to wrap up the final three days in Tokyo with one entry and it will be on to covering my follow-on plan. So...see you tomorrow!
