Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Hello! My name is Torri and I decided to be apart of this Apprentice Ecologist Project on the behalf of the Nicodemus Wilderness Project because of my wish to contribute. My goal was to help not only just pick up trash and leave, but to interact with people affected by a natural disaster, regardless of our language differences. I love how this organization focuses mainly on environmental cleanup projects from all over the world, and I think that my experience fits in well with other previous projects done by other Apprentice Ecologists.

My project was a Youth Outreach Trip from the JBC that I am apart of in Seattle, WA. Our goals for the mission were to visit Tohoku and Yokohama, Japan and to focus on helping poverty stricken citizens hurt by the tsunami the best way we could. We saw the places that were completely destroyed by the Tsunami and helped to clean up the area. One of the things that our trip taught us to was to be brave and to work hard. Everyone in our youth team weren't completely fluent in Japanese at the time, so our team was a little nervous conversing with the people there, but with the help of our Youth Group Pastor Akiko Kikuchi, we were able to easily communicate with high school students, elderly in temporary housing, and also experience Japanese culture.

One of our first community services was teaching English to Japanese High School students. Our youth team was sent to Soshin Gakuin, an all girl high school, to participate in the English Conversation Club at the school. All of us had a lot of fun doing this, and I was surprised at how much that I have in common with the teens my age in a different country. Our second community service event was walking along the beach in Shiogama Island and picking up garbage for the small population of people living there. This cleanup provided land for the farmers there to use clean water to give to their rice fields. Our team loved it and we even found small pots and statues buried deep in the sand! After this we went to temporary housing in Tohoku for the elderly that lost their homes and investments to the earthquake and Tsunami. We participated in a traditional tea ceremony and origami folding, and we even learned how to juggle from the elderly women! Once we got over our language barriers, everyone enjoyed each others company and I believe that we helped feel like they are cared about in other countries.

Providing these services to the community in Japan benefited the whole Earth. The pollution caused by the tsunami and earthquake have polluted our entire planets oceans and have caused radiation poisoning in many people and humans surrounding the affected areas. Food supplies from Mexico's waters are tainted and inedible because of this pollution. Our service was not only just a mission trip, but a representation of the United States youth and future generation that are selfless and want a better for our world. We also provided a show of love and respect for the Japanese people hurt by the the tsunami in 2011, even several years after the incident, which I believe means a lot to them.

My Apprentice Ecologist Project was a life-changing experience for me, and I will never forget it. As a student of the Japanese language, it really forced me to use what I had been learning for years and helped to solidify all of the studying I had done up until the trip. Seeing the devastation of the crushed houses and film of oil in the ocean also took the childish mask I had been living with all my life. I always thought that life would be so easy, but never saw what people who don't have life as good as I do go through. I honestly think that I became more of a young adult once I realized that. Ever since then, I have made efforts to be more respectful to everyone and to never take even the smallest things for granted.

In the future, I plan to do much more community service. My main major that I would love in college is to be in Medical Science. That way, I can help cure disease and help entire families on an even larger scale. That is what I think true community service is about. Helping not only the person directly, but the generations to come.

Thank You!

Torri
Freshman, TAF Academy