Hello everyone, it’s Nomunomu.
I can tell you that we’re currently right in the middle of KISSY (Kyoto Intercultural Summer School for Youths)!
In this month’s newsletter, we’ll first give you a report on KISSY. There have been lots of differences to overcome, but by working together, the children have gradually been becoming closer to each other.

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1. KISSY Overview
2. Thoughts from the Team Leaders
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1. KISSY Overview
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There are 9-14 children from Cambodia, Kenya, South Korea and Japan meeting for KISSY (Kyoto Intercultural Summer School for Youths) in Kyoto, where they will stay and take part in an international workshop. This year marks the third year the event has taken place.
Pangaea runs the activities to open up a new world for children, introduce them to the global society of the future and more importantly, to be able to create a peaceful world together. The events as part of KISSY get children from around to interact face-to-face and work out how to overcome language and cultural barriers through understanding others’ countries and personalities, and how to confidently use communication to be able to get past these differences.

■ Program Summary
30 Jul - Getting to know the people taking part
31 Jul-2 Aug - Workshop (*1)
3 Aug - Presentation of the creations from the workshop
4 Aug - Team Field Trip (*2)
5 Aug - Field trip (National Museum of Ethnology)
6 Aug - End of program

*1 The workshop is an activity where through the IT systems developed by Pangaea themselves, team members work together on the same task to come up with a combined creation.
*2 The Team Field Trip is an activity where teams will be divided by area during the field trip. It will be up to the children to make all plans, like where to go and how much to spend.

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2. Thoughts from the Team Leaders
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This year, we’ve split up into 5 teams and are holding a workshop. Below, we’ve got some thoughts from the leaders of each team.

■ Red Team - Guts
I’ve taken part in KISSY every time since it started, but this year we have more people taking part than ever, and the teams have got bigger too, so I’m really looking forward to it.
I’m really excited to find out what the children can do and in what ways they’ll start to communicate with one another. But for me, the most exciting part is how everyone lives together, so I’m looking forward to that.
Let’s do our best for the coming week!

■ Blue Team - Yuki
This is the third time I’ve welcomed in KISSY, and this year I’ll be helping prepare and take part in it. Last year, once you got past all the frantic dashing about in a hot Kyoto, we made some unforgettable memories. I look at the pictures of the children who are going to take part this year and I wonder what kind of summer it’s going to end up like for them this year? I’m really looking forward to finding out. I’m certain that in Kyoto this year too, it’s be another busy summer filled with cheerful happy voices!

■ Yellow Team - Qoo,
I didn’t know how KISSY because I participate in KISSY for the first time. However, I will do my best with the children who have a lot of experience of KISSY. In addition, I am a team leader this year, not a facilitator, so I will do our best for the coming week!

■ Green Team - Nomunomu
This time last year, I had only been at Pangaea for two months when I became part of the KISSY staff. It was bewildering at first, but then once I became friends with the children and I even started talking with them more, it made me very happy. I’m getting ready right now so I can try my best to get myself to open up more!
I am very nervous about being a team leader this year, but by growing together, I think we’ll be able to make irreplaceable experiences together. Let’s work hard!

■ Orange Team - Jyoko
This is Jyoko. I’m the Facilitation Leader at Kyoto Univ. Village, and I’m also on the Orange Team in KISSY. This July, we tried talking about “Ways to become friends with the children from other countries” in Kyoto Univ Village. “You must not harass them!” “Greet them!” They came up with lots of ideas. That’s just how the kids in Pangaea are like. They memorised how to introduce themselves and various greetings for each country, such as “annyeonghaseyo”, “jambo”, “soou sduii”, “guten tag” and “hello”. So I asked, what else? “Umm...well if we get really stuck, then Gengoro* can help!” So then they were encouraged to practice typing in order to be able to communicate better. I was really pleased to see everyone so bright-eyed and enthusiastic while practising. I’m looking forward to it!

*Gengoro is a character that was made to help with the machine translation.

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