Japan

The sadness in Japan is so overwhelming. Sometimes it's out of my mind, not intentionally, but because natural disasters are so foreign to me that I can't even fathom what to think, what to picture, what that must feel like....it's so...far away.

It's all so very sad. But, I did think an experience I had last week was sweet.

I have a half Japanese boy in my class. His mom's family is in Japan, so their family spends summers in Japan. When he got back about 2 weeks into the school year, we were all so interested to hear about his summer. He told us a lot...from the plane ride ("..it smelled like strawberries"), to the school, to the friends, to the beach ("You can listen to the shells and hear the ocean!").

So, when news of the disaster came, I didn't think he'd be in school. But he came in just like any other day. He didn't say a thing about the disaster all day, and did not seem stressed. I didn't want to ask, figuring maybe his parents hadn't talked to him about it until they could check on the extended family in Japan.

The next day, I overheard the boy talking about a tsunami. So I pulled him aside and asked if everybody in his family was ok. He said, "Oh yeah, everyone's fine." I asked, "Was your family near the areas affected?" "Yes, there was an earthquake and one person died." "One person in your family?" "No, no, not in my family. One person in Japan died. Everyone in my family is fine." I think we have a misconception here....the casualties are sure higher on the news... I didn't want to clarify and confuse any talk going on at home.

So...yesterday, the local newspaper comes....there's a story on the front page about a girl from Logan who was studying in Japan for a year. She was right in the affected area and her family was able to fly her out and home quickly. She's my student's sister! Bless his little heart....not sure if he didn't know, or didn't want to talk about it....ha! Oh well, glad his family is together and safe!