九州大学留学生会(KUFSA)は、交流活動のひとつとして、留学生センターやボランティアグループの協力を得て、毎年箱崎キャンパスの清掃を行っています。清掃を始めた経緯と今年の様子について、KUFSA役員のふたりによるレポートです。

Lorene L. Abella (Right) KUFSA EX-COM (Treasurer) 1st Year Master's Student Graduate School of Engineering Kanthi Abesundara (Left) KUFSA EX-COM (President) 1st Year Ph.D. Student Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences

KUFSA CAMPUS CLEANING 2002

Every year it has become a tradition for foreign students to unite themselves in one humbling event, the Hakozaki Campus Cleaning organized by the Kyushu University Foreign Students Association (KUFSA), which is held just before the spring semester ends. You might wonder why I used the word "humbling." For an activity like this, one might wonder why it is necessary when our university is so rich that everyday we see janitors around doing their chores! Another reason is, as a participant myself, I have often times thought why on earth am I picking up another person's garbage such as cigarette butts, beverage cans and plastic bottles, etc.! Well, as idealistic as I am, don't Japanese and foreign students alike know that Japan is supposed to be a very clean country, neat and tidy even in very remote areas? It's just a thought anyway! This might sound "overdone" or "yarisugi" but it's true, it's humbling but on the contrary, I felt proud and concluded that it's such a satisfying experience.

We interviewed Professor Hideo Moriyama, called Moriyama Sensei of Ryugakusei kaikan, about how this has begun. These are the excerpts of the interview: Around 7 or 6 years ago the Asian Development Bank (ADB) General Meeting of Executive Committee was held in Fukuoka and was attended by people from all over the world. One of the things that were discussed was a proposal to clean the entire city or at least the city center prior to the arrival of new foreign students. From here, a big cleaning day was set up and volunteers from different organizations came in to help. The activity was focused at Tenjin Chuo Koen and Ohori Koen. This has triggered the students of Kyudai to clean their own campus, too. With the assistance of the International Students Center, it came into realization. They provided working gloves, tongs, and garbage bags. From then on, it became a yearly activity with KUFSA alongside. Moriyama Sensei even thinks that it would be much better if it were held twice each year. Hmm … It's possible, we might be sending announcements months from now. Will you drop by to help?

Sakai Yuji, a senior of the Energy Science Department volunteered to help with the clean up held on July 19 of this year. He said that he felt a distance between Japanese and foreign students, it seems that there's a wall between them. He was even afraid to come close to them (might be the reason why I haven't known him until now!). But that speculation changed when he watched the football tournament recently sponsored by KUFSA last June. He tried to talk with the foreigners and my, they responded in Japanese! So much for walls and the language, someone has to make the first move. A polite gesture and a warm smile make a difference. He added that the clean-up is an important event to gather Japanese and foreign students together and that maybe we can do it bimonthly and hold one activity each month for both.

Another volunteer from Mongolia, Dambadarjaa Purevdorj is a Ph.D. student in Food Processing. He said that it's fun doing things like this together because it is one way of meeting more Japanese students. He even made a slogan: "A clean environment for a clean mind." Well, to us it sounds like "Cleanliness is next to godliness." Is it really? We wonder…

As you can see, Japanese and foreign students have the same impression of each other. The main reason is the language barrier and others are just secondary and minute. There are thousands of other reasons why we are having this clean-up event every year and yes, we plan to make it twice annually. One of those is quite obvious, that is, to give both a chance to discover each other's differences and more importantly, to find what we have in common. Another thing is to show that we care for our school and that foreigners don't only seek fun and pleasure but we are ready to make a move and the tiniest act of thoughtfulness doesn't require a second thought.

This year, about 25 students came to help. It is so amazing that people have the heart to give their service even without compensation and incentives. They never thought of this as a "humbling experience," they were just there and it makes you wonder. During that time, students busied themselves with reports and hours of studying for the upcoming final exams and it made me squirm just by the mere assumption that maybe only KUFSA officers will be there. Mind you, Hakozaki campus is huge! Isn't it incredible how people kept coming to ask you where the gloves are or which part they're assigned to clean? If you were around that day even just as a spectator, you could have sensed the air of collaboration among us. Even with a meager reward like "HokaHoka bento (packed lunch)," everybody was buzzing with his laughs.Moriyama Sensei and the International Students Center had been there and will always be there to extend their support. For many years until now, some volunteer groups have been working together with KUFSA and they have been generously assisting us in every help we needed. In this event, Saito-san from SOLA and Ms. Rie Nakamura from KUIFA were with us. For those who were with us, we really thank you for your efforts and cooperation.

Who says that you have to know how to speak to communicate? You can do hand gestures if you please but KUFSA provides more worthwhile activities than that. Campus cleaning is just one and mind you, there are tons to come. See you there…