Employment

When I was in Japan, I hardly had any experience of volunteering. There was no soup kitchen and no food bank in my area. No one around me was doing volunteer work. Volunteering wasn’t such a common activity. That was almost twenty years ago, though, and after the big earthquake in 2011, the situation of volunteering in Japan seems to have changed for good.

At the time I came to Canada, my English wasn’t good enough, but I should have done something to settle in, so I thought, “Now it’s time to volunteer!” and I asked a church nearby if they needed some volunteers for their monthly community lunch service. They said, “Of course. Just come here on the day of lunch a little bit earlier.” That was it? It seemed very casual. So, I went there on next month’s lunch day.

When I arrived at the church, no one was there. Then, while I was wondering what to do, some of the staff appeared one by one and I was led to the kitchen where an industrial oven was working. “Hello. Thank you for coming.” said a stout woman in her sixties, welcoming me with a big smile. Her name was Mary, and she was a leader in the kitchen. “What’s your name? Naoko? How do you spell it? N-A-O-K-O? Do you pronounce it like now-co?” saying this, she repeated now-co, now-co to remember my name.

My first job was to prepare the dispensers for ketchup and mustard to put on each table. Then Mary asked me to melt the butter in a microwave and put corn flakes in it and shake it. What would it be? Mary put it on the big tray of egg soufflé and put it in the oven. “Is it delicious?” I was wondering in my mind.

At around noon, community people gathered in the church hall and we, the volunteers, got busy setting the table. The menu of that day was: egg soufflé with corn flakes, two types of ham, salad, rolls, and pineapple cake. My task was to put the ham on the plates. I wasn’t sure how many times I did it, but I did it like I was automated. Then lunch started and I took a seat with the others. First of all, I tried the egg dish which I was very curious about. It was surprisingly delicious. I had never had this combination of dish, egg and corn flakes, but it was really good. The other dishes were all well prepared, too, and I enjoyed the meal.

My next task was to offer the second serving of rolls saying, “Would you like some more rolls?” That was a pretty hard task for me, because I have a soft voice and the hall was very loud with lots of people. Moreover, my English had a Japanese accent. I wasn’t sure whether the people could hear and understand me or not, so I got very nervous. I almost shouted, mimicking and exaggerating the intonations of English speakers. Fortunately, the people understood me and replied to me, “Yes, one more, please.” or “No, thank you.” I did it! I felt as if I belonged to the community at this moment.

When I said goodbye after having helped to clean up, Mary hugged me saying, “Thank you for helping us. Today we were short, so your help meant a lot.”

I was embarrassed since I didn't do such a big job, but at the same time I was very happy and felt fulfilled. Yes, I did volunteer work in English in Canada. Woohoo!

I couldn’t go back there a month later because I started to work right after, but this was a precious experience as a start of my life in Canada.