Darunee Fund            

    for Education in Asia

Darunee Newsletter No. 16 

An Encounter on the Day of Roi Katoon      By Zenzou Yamaguchi, Shinagawa

 This happened during November trip to Thailand two years ago. We visited local schools and communities in Khon Kaen province for the scholarship program around the date of the floating lanterns, Roi Katoon. We had been immersed in the romantic atmosphere, while lanterns floated on the pond, with local people in the evening. 

We had dinner together at the open-air restaurant near the airport before taking a night train atthe Don Muang station. When I nearly finished dinner, a young waiter came to talk to me through a participant who understood Thai language, “If my memory serves me right, are you Mr. Yamaguchi?” I was so surprised because I came to this restaurant for the first time and I had never met him at all. Then, he kept saying, “I graduated from the junior high school in Chaiyaphum thanks to a scholarship, which you gave me. I kept your name and face in my mind through your letters and pictures. I came to talk to you as I heard that a Japanese group managing the scholarship program were staying here”. 

I have never missed writing letters of encouragement to scholarship students each year. As I do not expect at all that everybody including him contact me, I was so moved to know that he remembered me. Moreover, I felt that it was not just coincidence that he noticed me in this romantic traditional festival.

 I heard that he lives in the dormitory here, for work from May with three other scholarship students. I am so happy to be a donor every time I see scholarship students working actively after their graduation from junior high school. I think that they may sometimes feel lonely and at a loss due to their first stay in Bangkok. While I saw them as independent, I cannot help but pray for the future of other scholarship students as well as them.

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