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Special Report |
LAST UPDATE February 4, 2008
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| January 8, 2008 |
A Slice of Peace Boat Life I – Peace Boat Staff Members – The People Behind the Mission |
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Although Peace Boat is a Japan based non-government organization (NGO), its staff is made up of a diverse range of people based throughout the world. The organization employs more than 100 people and has hundreds of volunteers who all help to make the magic of Peace Boat happen. Despite their diverse roles and background, Peace Boat staff members share a passion for making a positive difference in the world, excellent communication skills and an unrelenting drive and enthusiasm for their work. We spoke with two staff members about their roles and what it’s like to work onboard Peace Boat.
Iwasaki Yumi, 29, joined Peace Boat three years ago as a staff member after going onboard for the first time as volunteer communication coordinator (CC). Originally from Tokyo, Japan, she went to college in the United States where she studied foreign languages with an emphasis on teaching and stayed on to work as a Japanese teacher. After eight years there, she returned to Japan where one night she was woken by a dream about working as an English/Japanese interpreter in a ship that sailed around the world. ‘I came across the website after I dreamt about it, so when I became a staff member I thought it was meant to be,’ she said. For the past three years, she has been working as a language program coordinator for the Global English and Espanol Training (GET) Program. Looking after the students is her main responsibility, and on any given day she plays the role of facilitator, counselor and administrator, acting as a bridge between the students and their teachers. |
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As someone who believes that meaningful change begins with the individual, she derives great pleasure from the transformation of the participants she is surrounded by while working onboard. ‘On Peace Boat, when you are exposed to new things and have encounters with other people, or hear a different perspective, it’s like a chemical reaction and there is no going back,’ she said. ‘I like to see that happen and help some people have that experience. I don’t think that just by going around the world you can change it. The idea is that people will change while traveling and will take that with them when they go back. It can be a really powerful grassroots movement – to learn from here and take it back. Change has to come from the bottom, from the personal level,’ she explained. Although Yumi has been around the world on Peace Boat five times now, she is by no means jaded. ‘I always learn something new: the more I learn, and the more I know, the more I realize how little I know – and that’s on a daily basis!’ she said. Given all of her intercultural and traveling experience, it is appropriate that Yumi lives by the adage “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” ‘My friends call me a chameleon because I can fit in anywhere,’ she said with a laugh.
Yoshimoto Takashi, 23, is a relatively new Peace Boat staff member whose role onboard the 59th Global Voyage involves creating the daily schedule and tackling the daunting task of coordinating the schedule for over 100 events on a daily basis. He has also been heavily involved in promoting Article 9, the pacifist clause of the Japanese constitution. Takashi learnt about Peace Boat through a friend at university where he studied international relations and went first as a participant on the 51st Global Voyage before becoming a staff member. ‘I have always been interested in different countries, people and the problems they face. I wanted to take action about these things in Japan but I didn’t know how. Coming onboard Peace Boat showed me how I can take various kinds of action, such as raising awareness and sharing the truth with others,’ he said. |
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He felt that in terms of his future, Peace Boat was the best vehicle for him to pursue this mission. ‘This is where I could develop the most and do the most good. On Peace Boat, it doesn’t matter what your background is – if you want to do it, you can get a chance to do it,’ he said. ‘Although I studied international relations at university, I’m not particularly academic or intellectual. But, on Peace Boat, that doesn’t matter. We can make use of any skills,’ he added. ‘On Peace Boat, it’s very different to normal society, with all sorts of people, both young and old. You don’t have to worry about hierarchy, you can talk to a lot of people – there is more opportunity to grow on Peace Boat than in Japanese society.’ |
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