Dear beautiful friends,
It
has already passed the first day of Summer as lunar calender, so how are you?
In
my home town, Yuasa, it is beautiful to see the fresh greens and flowers,the
blue sky, birds chirp and swallows flys around and feed their babies in the
nests. And the best thing is full of
the smell of orange flowers everywhere!
From
14/4 to 29/4, I was in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, mainly for my social activities,so
I would like to report about it including some former situations.
Since
September last year, wchich was the time Ms. Sari(my local project partner)left
Vietnam,I have continued project with only Vietnamese participants at local.
However,
they(Mr. Lam, Ms. Hue and Mrs. Tran) have stoped the monthy meeting and just
continued small sewing and embroidery works at home. I also understand they are
not close friends each other, so they do not talk on the phone or meet each
other often. Besides, everyone has different job to support themselves and
their families which keep them busy and no time to meet each other.
Then
when I go back there I meet indivisually to ask how they have been doing and
provide some chance to earn money by small works depends on how much skills they have.
When
I checked the stocks of Furoshiki last September, I was shocked to see the
amount!! So the Furoshikis are always in my mind and I feel I have to sell and
think about how to sell all the time.
I have tried to increase more shops or cafes letting our products
sell, and tried to create new products out of those Furoshikis, like ponchos,
aprones, reversible bags etc...
Within
this 2 weeks visit, I returned the shops and cafes to ask the owners what types
of the products their customers like the most, and exchanged to new products
and also received the money. I was glad to see the amount they had sold was more
than I expected and I gained confidence what I have tried to convey to
people,”Eco+Hand-Made+Fashionable+Useful in daily lives” is gradually accepted
there.
Before the visit, I announced 2 workshops. First one, I mainly
organized for local Japanese women's association at my french friend's organic
shop. I began to talk about how I'd started my social activities and we
practiced how to wrap things like bottle of wine or yoga mat by Furoshikis.
Another workshop, my Vietnamese friend, Binh helped me to announce
to local Vietnamese people. He sells
Japanese potteries at his shop and the participants like Japanese culture. So I started to introduce what “Furoshiki” means and also introduced unique
Japanese costumes in daily lives as well.
Later on, I spoke about the purpose of my project and the finally showed
how to wrap many things by Furoshikis and everyone enjoyed to practice
together.
This
time, I had a chance to visit the house of Lam. In my experience, having
visited many extreme poor families, it was very tidy and clean even though it
was one of a small room of mansion. Yet, Binh was shocked to see the area of
poverty and I understand his reaction.
People living with high standard in Vietnam do not know the reality of
poverty and when I share it they cannot believe the fact.
Lam and his mom has high skill to make many products. The last order
was using the Furoshikis to create other products; one was reversible bag and
the other was a bag for a wine bottle. They were fine, so I paid to their
works, and I asked new works which was making a Eco-bag. I showed the sample
which has a small bag attached to the Eco-bag, so you can put the bag in and
easily carry it in your pocket when you go shopping by walk or bicycle.
A
few days later, Lam showed me the Eco-bags and he and his mom did great job! I
was very happy to see the quality and it looked very fashionable which is very
important point to sell. As soon, I showed some of them to my friend who owns organic
shop and thankfully she accepted to sell them there immediately. We agreed to do
this as collaboration products and will add her shop logos on them.
At
her shop, she has already given another work to Lam that is making newspaper
bags by hand. So Lam and her mom continuously can earn extra money by doing it
and she said to me every cutomer loves it and I understand as it looks so nice!
At the meeting with Lam's mom, she saw my dress which was the
pattern of patch-working, then she said she can also make like that. Then I asked
her to try it and also another long skirt which is always received good
compliment. Actually, it was too difficult for her to make the dress, so I gave
Lam another simple pattern which my mother had made out of Kimono fabrics.
One
day before I left there, Lam came and showed the works how he had made the
dress out of the Furoshiki and also skirt used left over fabrics at his home.
Wow! I was sooo surprised how beautiful they were! Of course every work was
done by hands!! I could not stop smiling and telling him I was so happy,
which made him also big smile( : so both
of us were so happy that moment. Because
of impressed works, I asked new works like another skirt, dress,simple summer
cloth and no sleeve. I have a confidence that many women like the dress and
skirt and they want to buy them. It is just so precious to see all the stitches
made by hands, so I wish many people can see them and chose to buy meaningful
products to wear.
In
Ho Chi Minh city, the constructions are going on everywhere every time. And people are busy to spend time and energy
for making businesses more and more and earning money more and more.
Honestly, I felt tired with the reality there.
Nevertheless,
when my friend called Lam to ask about certain work, he replayed “I only accept
the works from Maiko. “ which made her surprised as it is quite rare to happen
in Vietnam and she gave positive compliment about his royalty. I was also
pleased to hear as I can see he trusts and respects me.
Many
people choose raising money ,making successful business and being famous the
most which sometimes makes me sad...
yet, when I know about Lam's decision, I was moved as he understands what is
more important than only making money even though his life has been very
difficult. I remember, I often spoke at the project meetings,”of course we
need money but as long as we are doing good things generously, money will come
even it takes time.”
Lam
is the person whose works are always well done, and always comes on time and sometimes gives me a present. Over all, I've learned a lot from him and deeply
respect him as who he is.
To
be well known what I have done by people, and living in competitive capital
city is not my way of living, and I
realized that I feel enough when I can share my life with person (s) like Lam
and hold “ what is really important to
me” in my heart.
When
I had meeting with Ms. Hue, she explained sadly to me that the table mats with
the embroideries has not been sold well at the Opera house. Thus, she can only
give the small work of making coasters to the poor in her village. Actually at
the Opera House and some shops, the coasters were sold better as they are more
popular to use everywhere and cheap to buy. I also bought coasters as much as
she had to sell in Japan. Personally I really like the embroideries showing
Vietnamese daily lives or peculiar scenic. They are very beautiful and I want
to maintain their hand works as sadly many embroidery works has been done by
machines nowadays.
The
other day, I met Mrs. Tran, and as soon as I saw her I could tell she got
injuries badly! And she told me about the bike accident. Because I also had the
experience before, I felt so pain to see her like that.(><) The safety
in Vietnam is getting worse and worse. She drove slowly but the bike coming
from behind with 2 men and she fall down on the street, which trick was
typical as well as my case when they
want to steal s.t.
Unbelievably,
my friend told me recently it has been happened children have been kidnapped
for the purpose of being sold their inner organs.
Of
course many of us take care of ourselves carefully to live there, but
unfortunately we cannot avoid unexpected situations. I sometimes feel it is
miracle to be able to be here.
Mrs. Tran has tried to help an elder woman who cannot walk but as
the embroidery products hasn't been sold well, she cannot support her through
our project for now. Before saying good-bye to her I handed a little amount of
money to her and the old lady with deep compassionate and hope from my heart.
Because
of big cerebration for 30/4, which is the date of remembrance of victory of the war in
Vietnam, many police forces blocked the streets to prepare the parade. There
were also youths who are following the Socialism marched on the street strongly
which was scared to me.
This
year, it is the 70th year in Japan after the war ended and 40th
in Vietnam. Both nations have tried to reach the western standard and focused
on development of economy and technology. As the result, many Japanese and
Vietnamese people satisfied to gain material needs, on the other hands they
lack of the richness in hearts, and the gap between poor and rich is severe
common issue now.
I
really think this is the time, we need to stop and think,”what is very
important for us to be human beings?” and I hope little by little there will be
a person who can make the action . I pray for the change of our society getting
better as “snail's pace” and the most I pray for the everyone's peace of mind
and world peace.
The
last, although I always mention this,;till now I have continued my social
activities is because there have been priceless supports from my family and
lots of friends. Without them, I could have even not here. I deeply and truly
appreciate their help and encouragement for me.
I am
still learning everyday so that please forgive me when I make some negative speech or action which
make you uncomfortable, but I keep making my effort and I would be very happy
to see lots of smiles around the world( :
Arigatou (:
May, 2015
Maiko
Takenaka
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