Day 27 Community Cleaning and Church

Sunday September 27th, 2009

This morning is a little special for us. Its our first chance to be a contributing apart of our community here in Haruna. Twice a year this community gets together early on a Sunday morning and cleans the area. About a hundred people showed up today. After everyone worked hard they gathered together. Everyone had worked hard cleaning and pulling weeds and stuff. It was funny to me when they started handing our bottles of green tea instead of water.

After an hour of cleaning we all met in front of the Haruna church building and the Chief of the community had a few announcements. Also they take this time to introduce any new members to the community. There were 3 new families. One single young man, Paul and I, and a young Doctor and his family (who has other relatives all around Haruna). It was nice to be recognized as part of the community, and not looked as as a visitor.
After everything we went back home to get ready for church services. Today was our monthly potluck lunch. I was excited to bring something. I made some cheese and spinach stuffed raviolis, garlic bread and blueberry muffins.

It was also a couple of people’s birthdays. Rumiko- san even baked a delicious chocolate cake which we ate with chopsticks!