2011年7月1日～12日 makenaizoneメンバーの若林さんが「まけないぞう」50頭といっしょにアメリカ東海岸メリーランド州〜ワシントンＤＣへ旅立ちました。
手から手へ。暖かい友情とともにアメリカのたくさんの友人の家にお引っ越しした「まけないぞう」たち。若林さんからの「アメリカの旅」報告 No.1～No.7です。・・・
This time, she flew to America with 50 Never give up elephants with her, and the following is the story of the elephants being introduced with lots of love & warm friendship and becoming new family members & friends in USA. Her reports consists of No.1 – No. 7.
●今を遡ること３０年前、高校生の私は1年間アメリカへ留学。メリーランド州のホストファミリーEastham家に暖かく迎えられたのでした。
そして2011年夏 そのホストファミリーの両親の金婚式のお祝いのため、25年ぶりに渡米することになりました。主人もいっしょです。
私にとってはほんとうの「父母」のように懐かしい「お母さん」（Mom)と「お父さん」(Dad)。
是非この機会に日本のまけないぞうをアメリカでも紹介しよう！と思いたち、早速 被災地ＮＧＯ恊働センターにぞうさん５０頭を注文しました。
30 years ago, I stayed in Maryland in America as an exchange student for one year.
My host parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in July this year, and my husband & I visited Maryland as surprize guests to celebrate the anniversary together. It was the first time for me to visit them in 25 years!!!
Before flying to the USA, I have ordered 50 Never give up elephants to introduce my host family members & friends there.
アメリカ上陸を前に「ちょっと緊張気味」（？）のまけないぞうさんの全員集合写真です。
This is the picture of 50 elephants all together that are so excited & a little bit nervous about flying to America for the first time!!
●いよいよ現地に到着。
両親の住むマンションの入り口前で、右からホストシスター（妹）のLori, そしてLoriの長女のAshley、Mom、主人、Dad、ホストシスター（姉）のDebbyと共に。
（ぞうさんたちはまだスーツケースの中。早く出してあげなきゃ〜！）
The picture with my host family in front of the condominium of my host parents. This picture was taken right after we arrived at Mom & Dad’s place. (From the right, my host sister, Lori, Ashley who is Lori’s first child, Mom, Koichi, Mami, Dad, and Debby, my older host sister.)
At this point, Never give up elephants are still in my suitcase…, I should get all the elephants out of my suitcase as soon as possible !)
●早速、英語に訳して持って行った説明書を見せながら、Momに「まけないぞう」を紹介。
「まけないぞう」プロジェクトの内容にじっくりと耳を傾けてくれ、とても共感を持ってくれました。
そして、「まけないぞう」をEastham家の新しい家族の一員として迎えてくれたのです。
可愛い白い「まけないぞう」！アメリカ メリーランド州にて一番最初にお嫁入りした記念すべきぞうさんです！
First, I introduced Never give up elephant to my host mother with the explanatory leaflet of the elephant that I have translated into English before I left Tokyo. Mom was so nice & sweet to listen to my story about Never give up elephants in her kitchen, and happily decided to have a cute white elephant as a new member of her family!!! This elephant was the VERY FIRST & SPECIAL ONE to become a member of the family in Maryland in America!!!
■ What is “Makenaizo”??
Makenaizo is the cute elephant-shaped hanging towels made by the sufferers of the earthquakes & other natural disasters in Japan. The project of making this towels started after Hanshin-Awaji Big Earthquake in 1995. This project was established to create the work and the motivation in life for the sufferers of the earthquake in Kobe. Since then, Makenaizo Project has been relayed from Kobe to Niigata which was terribly hit by Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004.
“Makenai-Zo” actually means “We’ll never give-up” in Japanese , and also “Zo” itself means “Elephant”, and that is how this elephant-shaped hanging towel was named after. “Makenaizo” is “Never give up Elephant” that would cheer up the people of the areas hit by the natural disasters and give them the power to step forward in their life. You can buy one “Makenaizo” for 400 yen (About 5 dollars), and 100 yen out of 400 yen would be paid to the person who actually makes it in the past disaster areas as mentioned above , and the rest (300 Yen) per one Makenaizo would be used to suppot the recovery progresses of the affected people of 3.11 East Japan Big Earthquake.