By Sr. Virginia Guerrero, MIC

Japan

Mantra
Every Wednesday and Thursday, starting out from our convent in Aizu Wakamatsu, I take a thirty-minute walk to the station- to take the bus that brings me up to Shimo Yanagi Wara. From there I walk another ten minutes to Ai no Sato which means Haven of Love. Surrounded by the beauty of God’s creation I find myself repeating like a manta the words, “Thank you Lord!”

Mentally Handicapped
I work with eight handicapped people. Some mentally retarded, others are autistics, physically disabled or psychologically disturbed. All receive compulsory education up to third year junior high in either regular or specialized school.   

Recycling
What are we doing? Recycling. And what are we recycling?

Milk Boxes to Toilet paper
Well the whole process of recycling starts with the support group like the teacher at the Kindergarten of our Xavier School who cooperate by collecting used milk cartons. The clean ones are sold and recycled into toilet papers. Six rolls can be processed from about thirty milk boxes. The others we use at Ai no Sato by recycling then into postcards and calling cards. From Monday to Friday, we sell these cards and so make enough money to pay the handicapped workers a monthly salary of four thousands yen (about five hundred pesos).

Slow, Slow, Slow
Things move at a snails pace. It took about a year for one member just to learn how to cut the milk boxes into plain sheets. Another worker never seems to know whether his iron is burning the postcards under the layer of cloth and newspaper that are used to absorb excess water from the processed pulp from milk boxes. But a caring heart, a kind word of direction, and a helping hand are never wanting among them as they try to accomplish their assigned tasks.

Why do I Return
This is my third year working with the handicapped youth since my second missionary send-off to Japan in August, 1987. Why do I continue to return to get into this work? Well, I suppose it is because of the Church’s call for a preferential love for the poor- and who is poorer than this handicapped people? But however handicapped, they too teach me through their spontaneous sincerity and candid affection. That is why I say like mantra, “Thank you, Lord.”