Chasing a dream (3)
March 25, 2003 Masashi Shigemori
The tuition of the Berkeley English Academy was about $500 per month, and it ran from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm, from Monday to Thursday. This is much cheaper than learning English in Japan. I also think that it is much more practical than that of Japan.
The first day I received the test. It was a terrible result and I was classified into the lowest class (Level 1). The content of the lessons were grammar for conversation. Generally it is said that Japanese know the grammar, however my case was different. Fortunately it was good for me. The number of students were about ten and they are Spanish, French, Pole, Thai, Korean, Argentine, and Japanese. They were all young people in their twenties. Some of them took a short intensive program for summer vacation only. About ten years ago, I remember there were many Japanese in the school, however, this time I saw many Koreans. I studied hard with them, enjoying playing with them, and had a good time with the younger students. The classmates and instructors accepted me, even though I was 65. While going and returning to and from the English school on the Berkeley campus, I took a nice walk around campus, went to the city library with my classmates, did homework and preparations in a cafe, and heartily enjoyed student life and Berkeley City.
There were two purposes of this visit to Berkeley. One was to master English conversation skills and the other was to research and plan our future volunteer activities at Berkeley. Of course the best part was to spend time with Isamu.
We traveled to Yellowstone and Teton National Park by car. We had to cross five States and drove 4000 kilometers. Isamu and I really enjoyed this trip. Isamu loves mountains and he reached the top of the mountain (3300m) with a wheelchair using the ropeway. Once Isamu climbed mountains (Kitadake of Southern Alps in Japan) when he was in middle school, being carried on my wife and teacher's backs. So this time, he came to the place with his wheelchair higher than he had experienced before. When I worked for the company, I talked to my staff about the basics. I first determined it by referring to the actual site and actual matters. This time was exactly the same as before. I met many people, went many places, bought a second-hand car (Isamu covered half of its cost), expanded active areas, and made many wonderful friends. This place gave me a lot of opportunity to know the truth. I will mention some of them in the following:
- Berkeley was the birthplace of independence of people with disabilities. Berkeley was the first university in the U.S. to accept disabled students. Therefore, there are no physical barriers against people with disabilities. The residents of this city all naturally accept people disabilities. Some of the Americans that came from the east coast told me this area is exceptional compared to other cities in the U.S. The Center for Independent Living (CIL) cerebrated its 30-year anniversary this year. I visited this organization and met Jerald, he was one of the founders of CIL, and explained our plan. He told me that he would greatly support our program.
- I happened to meet another Japanese P.C. person and talked to him about his life. He was in his forties and studied in the community college in Berkeley. His transport was the electric wheel chair with mouth and chin controller. He took me to his apartment. He was single and the entrance door was equipped with a wireless remote control system. When he tapped the big push button on the wheelchair, the door opened automatically. There were two computers and a telephone in his apartment. He took them with him from Japan after it was remodeled for better control without using his limbs. To help cope with daily life about five Japanese students alternately supported him attending him on day-shift and night-shift. But he told me that he sometimes had trouble taking a bath on the night-shift because there was only one male attendant. Living expenses were covered mainly by the Japanese Disabled Support Pension. However it was only about one million yen per year so it was difficult to manage on that. I really admire all the people with disabilities living in Berkeley with their strong wills. I hope many Japanese with disabilities to have the chance to live in the U.S.
- The rent for the apartment is comparatively high. I saw the price of a house for sale ten years ago and it was 35million yen for three bedrooms. Presently for the same size house, it's about 60million yen and itfs still increasing. It is far from my capital. Even if I sell my Japanese real estate, this would be the worst time to sell it because of the Japanese recession. Therefore, I am thinking of starting off with renting houses or apartments with two bedrooms.
- I hope to open a dormitory in the near future with the capacity for five P.C. persons and five attendants supporting them. In order to collect the donation, I hope to establish the NPO in Japan by early next year. I explained this matter to my American friend, they gave me various ideas, for example, you should establish the NPO in the U.S. to collect funds, you better extend the request of donations to Japanese Americans, I will help the establishment of NPO, I will support your management, etc. So now I think it may be possible to make the network of host families who accepts Japanese P.C. people.
- While I stayed in the U.S., I was struck with admiration by how the NPO works effectively. In Japan, recently it has largely increasing numbers of NPO by reflecting and learning the American systems. However, it still needs to import the structure and to create the corresponding laws. Isamu goes to work using the lift equipped pickup van. The cost is covered by the company and a member of NPO drives the van helping the person with disability to get in/out of the van. In order to obtain this fund, NPO receives the donation of the old car from the person who bought a new car. The NPO then sales the old car to get the money. The person who donated car can deduct the equivalent value from the total sum of income and it helps deduction of taxation. Some NPO function exactly same as part of the welfare department of the city hall in Japan. Some home-group NPO looks after people with disabilities (in Japan this is the sub-section of the welfare department of the local government). Isamu enjoyed rafting in August and went water-skiing in September. Every winter he goes skiing. And all the above sports activities are controlled by the different sports promoting NPO.
I learned much more than I can write on this essay. We will make use of them in our future activities. Finally I would like to explain our scheme. If you any questions about our plan, please feel free to tell me your ideas or opinions.
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