Homo Sapiens: Getting an education in a rural community

By YOICHI TANAKA,The Asahi Shimbun


NASU-SHIOBARA, Tochigi Prefecture--The sleepy hamlet of Nasushiobara in the mountains of Tochigi Prefecture seems like an unlikely place for a German youth to call home.

But for 19-year-old Joschka Waas, his experiences here have been some of the most eye-opening of his life. It has allowed him to rub shoulders with a broad range of people, from political dissidents to Catholic priests, all from some of the world's poorest countries.

Waas, from the historical city of Weimar, is a volunteer worker for the nongovernmental organization Asian Rural Institute, which trains grassroots rural leaders from developing countries under the motto, "that we may live together."

Waas does not fit the normal profile as he does not come from a poor country, nor does he have previous farming experience. But he is here because, like many young Germans, he wanted an alternative to compulsory military service.

When German males turn 18, they must either serve nine months in the military or volunteer to work for one year in a program doing social work or helping the environment.

"All my classmates, except for one boy, refused to go into military service," Waas says. "Actually I am not sure why we still need to keep conscription now that the Cold War is over."

Most people find a program in Germany in which to enroll, but Waas came across the Asian Rural Institute through an organization that dispatches German youths overseas who are conscientious objectors.

"I was surprised to find a place in Japan, where you could encounter people from developing countries," Waas says.

When Waas arrived six months ago, there were 31 people from 13 countries learning to become agricultural trainers and community leaders. They all returned home in December after completing a nine-month program, and a new batch of trainees will arrive in April.

Working side by side with other trainees from around the globe has been an invigorating experience for Waas. Once, he recalled, he was out in the fields, skinning onions with a Catholic priest from Benin in West Africa. Waas took issue with the church's edict forbidding the use of condoms--in the face of the AIDS epidemic. The priest did not agree with Waas, but they became close friends anyway.

Waas also spent time with a trainee from Myanmar (Burma), and learned about the stifling hardships that many people endure under the military regime in Yangon (Rangoon).
Waas was indignant. "I couldn't believe you could get arrested just for speaking about democracy inside a church," he says.

Last spring, when he was still in high school, Waas attended a memorial to mark 60 years since the liberation of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp in his hometown. That experience will stay with him, he says.

As to his future: "I want to become a teacher, and tell the younger generation how I felt (at the memorial). I also want to speak about my many encounters that took place at the Asian Rural Institute."(IHT/Asahi: February 25,2006)

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200602250208.html