Hi my name is Kewalee. I am 18 years old. I was a volunteer of Nice International Workcamp, Hitachiomiya 2018 in Japan during July 26th to August 6th 2018. I just finished high school from GED test (High School of America) last year. After I finished high school, I traveled a lot in Thailand and visit many places to find new experiences through many positions such as a volunteer, workcamp leader, workcamp leader assistant. So this year I found an opportunity to travel abroad to improve myself, to improve my English skills, to be open-minded as a way to learn new cultures and languages, and to learn how to work with other people.
The main activities of this workcamp were preparing the place and making the decoration for nagakura tanabata Festival. These activities taught me a lot by working with other people who have different cultures, languages, and ages. Even if we are different but it is not a problem because every volunteer and local people are very kind, polite and fun. Even some of local people can’t speak In English but they tried to communicate with us, and also taught us how to work and they taught me to speak Japanese too. Everybody here always smiles and laughs. They work hard and are really on time. Working with them improved me a lot to be a person who works hard and be on time. Practicing and performing Wadaiko made a lot of good memories for me. Wadaiko is a Japanese drums performance and we had to perform Wadaiko on the day of the festival too. For this activity we had only 4 times to practice, at first I thought it was really hard but when we were practicing, teachers are very kind and we had a lot of fun together. We have only 4 times to practice but we did it very well on the day of Festival because we were harmonized and always helping each other. When I went to practice this drum, I met a little boy, his name is Kento and he was going to perform the show with us. After we had finished practicing, we would get 15 minutes to take a break. During that time I tried to talk and played with him. At first he was very shy. But after that he would come and play with me every break time and we become close friend. On the last day he gave me a picture that we took together and he wrote a message for me too, this is the best gift for me from Japan.
To be a volunteer of this camp is the best moment in my life. On the first day I arrived Japan, traveling alone was so hard. But when I asked or when I needed help, nobody ignores me. Even if they cannot speak in English, they tried to help me. Japanese people are very kind. Especially, people in this workcamp are very nice and kind. I don’t know how to explain how much I love this workcamp. Everything was very nice. I met many good friends here, we had a lot of good memories that we did together. I was always happy and laugh when I was working with everybody in this workcamp, volunteers, local people, and host. If I have a chance, I would like to go back to Japan again. This is really nice country, and this is a good choice for you to come to be a volunteer here. Finally thank you for this opportunity and everything.