Franchised!

Daniel and Felipe Caltabiano

 This blog has been franchised!  After finding this site, a pair of brothers in Brazil by the names of Daniel and Felipe Caltabiano were inspired to take on the same challenge.

Not only that, but they've gone worldwide, with the goal of 10,000 deeds in one year.  You can post your own deeds on their Facebook wall to add to the count!

Follow them on their website, Holistic Self-improvement, or on Facebook.

Serving food at the House of Charity

There's something called the House of Charity on the street between my apartment and the lightrail station. This week I finally stopped in to find out what it was. It's both a home for homeless and chemically dependent people, and a food center for the public. Today and tomorrow are MEA days, which means no school, so I had nothing to do-- a perfect time to volunteer.

The other volunteers today were doing community service for minor offenses. I talked to a number of folks and heard their hard-times stories of mistakes they made in the past. I particularly enjoyed listening to W, who served time as an accomplice to murder, and now volunteers as a way to give back to the community.

ONE GOOD DEED: Volunteer at a food center for the homeless and chemically dependent.

Volunteering at Wellstone International High School

Today I got set up to start volunteering at a high school called Wellstone International. It's 100% ESL students, which means they are mostly immigrants still learning English. I will be volunteering three days a week, helping out however I can in actual classes. I need the classroom experience to fill a prerequisite for the teacher licensure program I'll start next June. I'm also excited to be working at such an interesting school. It's 60% Latin American, 30% East African, and 10% Southeast Asian. ESL is what I want to teach as a career, so I'm pumped to witness ESL teaching in action.

ONE GOOD DEED: Become a volunteer at Wellstone International High School.

Support my local meditation center

With all the job searching, apartment searching, car searching, university research, and family business that I've been dealing with, I was sooooo ready to get back to the old meditation center I used to visit--Common Ground, in Minneapolis. I attended an all-day retreat today, meditating with a group from 9am to 6pm. At the end of the day, there was a circle where we could all say what we were grateful for. When I mentioned how happy I was that the guiding teacher Mark put his talks on the Internet, so that I could listen to them even in Japan, Mark broke a wide grin. I think it made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

ONE GOOD DEED: Support my local meditation center with a donation.

One last book for the library

Everything's all packed up and ready to go. But I found one last book that I couldn't bear to throw out. The library will make a better home for it than the trash.

ONE GOOD DEED: Donate a book to the local library.

Obira Shrine Festival

Today was my town's Shinto shrine festival. Every shrine has a festival once a year where the sacred objects are taken out and placed in an o-mikoshi, which looks something like the ark of the covenent. The o-mikoshi is then paraded around town on the shoulders of local men, accompanied by loud shouts and lots of sake.

The shrine festival is probably the single most important thing keeping Shinto alive in the hearts of the general public.

ONE GOOD DEED: Support my local shrine by playing taiko in its festival.

Promoting my town

A Hokkaido travel guide by and for foreign teachers is being revamped. I was happy to write up all the little lovelies of my town.

ONE GOOD DEED: Promote my town in a Hokkaido travel guide.

Supporting the local Shinto shrine

Every town in Japan has a shrine, and each shrine has a festival once a year. The fishing village to the south of me had its festival today. While the customary monetary donation is miniscule (5 cents, given because the coin has a hole in it like Chinese coins and is considered lucky), showing support is necessary for keeping Shinto alive. I can't imagine Shinto would last long if people ever lost interest in the annual festivals.

The caretaker of the shrine invited me to a special dinner table inside it, and taught me about its various sacred objects (showing me as much as could be shown without violating taboos).

ONE GOOD DEED: Support my local shrine by participating in its annual festival.