Creating and implementing service programs

Creating and implementing service programs that are sustainable at home and abroad...

When we travel, we want to be at our best; and, we want to have our eyes wide open. To be sponges of interest and dynamism, to represent with confidence, humility, and genteel ambassadorship the best of the places we are from. We want to take in new cultures, habits, and customs; while not being unduly harsh and/or not accepting of the quirks and contrasts which are new to us.

But, if we are traveling with a sense of service, exchange, and equitability of economy or position, we may also want to use our skill sets, our interests, our profession, our social skills and ambitions for the benefit of the people we are visiting (and, thus, in turn, for ourselves). As experienced and ostensibly benevolent minded travelers, Brittany and I set off for our 10 month ’honey service year’ with the ambition of service right smack in the middle of our highest aspirations. We made a point in our wedding registry to include an option of donations to go towards projects we would find of the highest merit as we traveled.

The truth is, we have found some wonderful organizations - some formal, some informal - doing work in different arenas range. As anyone who knows us might suspect, we also build more informed critiques of NGO’s in general; mainly from perspectives of provenance, utility and sustainability.

Setting up sustainable programs that are sensible and beneficial to the community we come from, to the community we are exchanging with and/or to ourselves as individuals depends on many factors. How long do we plan to work or collaborate on the project. Is our local partner informed and willing to participate as needed. What is the long term ownership management potential for comprehensive oversight and growth. How necessary is the project? What are expected or unpredictable mitigation issues for damages and challenges of the project? How will financing be sustained and initiated? Is this a highest best use project for limited resources? How can our project partner, collaborate, exchange and reproduce in other ways?

There are infinite good program development possibilities brought on by cultural and multinational exchange. New ones arise daily. While possibilities are endless, fine tuning projects to match the culture sensibilities, timeliness, and appropriateness of countries we visit is equally confounding and inexact. Oftentimes, due to our backgrounds, we see project possibilities in government/civic collaborations, NGO/Non-profit, and community participation and engagement. Those with different backgrounds and expectations will have other challenges, dreams, and possibilities. We all have a responsibility to act.

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We finished Service Project #1 - The Tokyo "Sumiyoshi" Neighborhood Garden

Part 1:

Our first project is completed. Today we planted a Japanese sized (read: small) planter bed garden in front of Come On Up shared house in the Sumiyoshi neighborhood of Tokyo. This involved selecting, buying, and carrying everything needed to grow our small plot on foot. We got soil, fertilizer, and plants from a market 10 blocks away. We pulled the loose grasses and roots and used them as a base fluff for building up space at the bottom of the pots for drainage and mulch. We mixed new soils and mulch with old, and planted our garden. Then we commandeered two flower pots that were left aside on the roof and planted extra cabbages in these. We used perennial plants which we had noticed in the neighborhood, purple flowers, a tiny white flowering shrub with blossoms scented with a spicy almost cinnamon aroma, and red and white ornamental cabbages. None of these plants will live long enough to offset a carbon footprint from the non-stop JAL flight from New York to Tokyo. However, you never can succeed if at first you don't begin somewhere. So, try, try again! The final step to our project was sweeping the street of all trash and spilled soil with an appropriately stooped small broom and dustpan. Japan is such a tidy and clean place we could have just as easily lost all the good will of our enterprising community service project by leaving a mess behind.

We are beginning a learning curve in terms of documenting our projects properly. We only have the 'after' to our 'before and after' images, therefore losing the power of transformation. Small project; but, with lots of lessons learned for the next one.

Part 2:

It could easily be said that another way we are always in service is our cultural ambassadorship for the United States, New Orleans, and our folks back home. As a chef from New Orleans, my whole adult life has benefited from being able to cook Creole, Cajun, Country French, Tex-Mex, BBQ, and, best of all, New Orleans food for people all over the world. Today at Tsukiji Fish Market we had a grand time admiring the fish, seafood, and crustacean of the freshest varieties from around the world. There was a beautiful grouper that I thought would make a fine cooked gift for our hosts New Year's party; but we settled on a kilo of oysters and some beautiful very large clams, (thinking the shells would make a nice addition to our tiny streetscape).

What else would make the perfect authentic New Orleans offering to a New Year's  party when you are trained in creole cuisine than our own holiday favorite, oyster artichoke soup? We bought our oysters and set off to the adjacent markets to find artichokes. Using our Point It book, we visited all the vegetable stalls we could locate and finally came to the conclusion that artichokes are rare in Japan in general and out of season, (or, out of stock?), during December. We found the rest of our ingredients at the Life supermarket in Sumiyoshi, but artichokes still unavailable, I am inventing a new oyster stew on the fly. The clams are steaming to be breaded and stuffed with an oily mayonnaise and pork fat base...

In the midst of our planning the greening of our small corner of the Sumiyoshi neighborhood in Tokyo, we started planning ahead to the subcontinent of India. Our friend Sara's family is from there and she offered to let us camp on her ancestral lands. We were looking on a Lonely Planet map for Amendnagar (where my great-great-great grandfather began the Maharashti Missions almost 200 years ago. Since we fly to Delhi, I looked for where these roads would meet and found a calling to go volunteer at Sevagram where Ghandi started his ashram dedicated to universal service in 1936. Here are the eleven vows that visitors are asked to live by there.

The Eleven vows of Ashram life at Sevagram

1. Truth (Satya)
2. Non-violence (Ahimsa)
3. Chastity (Brahmacharya)
4. Non-possession
5. Non-stealing
6. Bread labor
7. Control of palate
8. Fearlessness
9. Equality of all religions
10. Swadesi (the law of the neighborhood)
11. Removal of untouchability

When I visited Mumbai in 2007, I learned that my ancestors mission had brought a challenge to the courts that would remove the laws of untouchability whereby their religion, Christianity, would allow them to break bread and drink from the same vessel as the people they served. They also started women's colleges, medical teaching universities, and print press in Marathi.

The more we internalize and practice our collective benefits from service the better off we are.

When our family took Summer camping trips in my childhood my mother always had us search the woods around our site and pick up garbage, 'Always leave the campsite cleaner than you found it,' she says. This may be a mantra for our service. The first service project complete, we are off to Shanghai and seven weeks in China.

Do you know that Japan consumes most of the Tuna in the world year in and year out?

Want to see more pictures?

We have photos of Tuna auction, a tiny new green space, as well as many other travel photos at:

http://honeyserviceyear.shutterfly.com

(password is "travel")

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