It was nice to meet you again!!

Hello everyone ^^ I'm Minty, EIC 2011's Camp Leader from Thailand. How are you doing? I hope you are doing great and not too busy with your school to keep in touch with your lovely EIC family.

Speaking of EIC, do you still remember activities we have done? Yes, there were many of them but I hope you still remember Traveling around the World where we can travel and experience difference parts of the world? Well, in APU(Ritumeikan Asia Pasific University) there is one big event that gives you taste of diversity of the cultures as well as entertainment. It is “Tenkusai” the festival that we all are looking forward to every year.
Tenkusai festival is held once every fall semesters (around October). Many circles in APU are selling food from different countries and performing on stage.

This year Tenkusai was the most special one for me and I hope it was for my friend, Minori as well. I hope everyone remember Minori from Spy3- Camp 3 (EIC 2011, Participant). She came to visit camp leaders and experience her first Tenkusai this year.
When I have heard this from Stefanie, I was so excited and very looking forward to Tenkusai festival and to meet Minori. On the day, Stefanie and I took Minori to many stalls to meet 2011 camp leaders. Lin, Tika and Alex were making and selling Korean traditional snack. Fatemee in another stall nearby was cooking curry from Bangladesh. We (Minori, Stefanie and I) tried almost all the food. We had sausage and bubble tea from Taiwan, Chicken from Indonesia and of course Fatemee Curry rice from Bangladesh. They were delicious.

After we finished eating all food, we went inside and visit many volunteer circles booths. We first stopped at PRENGO one of the longest histories of all APU circles. PRENGO focuses on helping develop education system in rural area of Eastern Thailand. Do you still remember how many children cannot go to school? A lot of children in Thailand have no money so they cannot go to school. They have to work to help their parents. Every year PRENGO members go to rural area in Thailand and help those kids to study and also teach their parent how to make their hand-made products able to sell around the country and earn more money. Minori said she remembered what we have learned in Deta’s presentation and she realized how lucky she is to be able to study and wanted to help poor people.

Time went by so fast, it was almost 4 PM when we say good bye to Minori and send her off to her mother. She promise to come back to visit us in Beppu again. This year Tenkusai was my favorite and I am already looking forward to Tenkusai next year. Maybe if you have time, why don’t you come to APU Tenkusai and have a wonderful time together again? :)

Minty(EIC 2011 Campleader, Thailand)