March 18: Moving to Moka City

Today we said farewell to our first host families and moved on the the next place, which for me was Moka City. It was sad saying goodbye and some even ended up wiping tears from their eyes as the bus pulled away....
We arrived in Moka City around noon to find out we had to give a presentation to the Moka-West Rotary club. But, we were prepared and it was very smooth. At the meeting Geraldine and I met our second host mother, Hisae Hirosawa. She is a kind woman, about 63 years old. She is one of 5 female members of the Moka-West Rotary Club. (Hirosawa-san later informed us that she had to join the Moka-West club because the Moka Rotary club doesn't allow women to be members!)
After lunch we were shuttled off to meet the mayor of Moka City. This was a real honor and a real hoot. The honor part was that the mayor took time out of his busy schedule to met with us and to present us with a medallion that is somewhat akin to receiving the key to the city. It is a numbered medallion, that is appparently not easily handed out. Mine is #2716. The hoot part was the translator - oh my gosh - she was so funny! First off, she developed this spittle at the sides of her mouth as she talked - I had to turn away - I couldn't look! Then at one point she slapped herself on the face, hard! She said the wrong name and smack! Hilarious! The other funny thing was my big 'ol head. We almost couldn't get the necklace around my head - I had to take of my glasses and kind of shimmy the necklace over my face. Whoops!
The next two stops included a visit to Moka City's information center and a computer college. At the computer college we made a video letter that will be posted on the college website. I'll include a link to it on the blog. The city information center was an amazing building that looked like a train- check out the photos. This was a very cool place that included information about the city, a computer room and a place for kids to learn and play. It was very high tech.
After all that we went home (uchi) to Hirosawa-sans house. We met Megumi, her daughter, and her son whose name I don't recall. (That's the problem with posting late - I forget things!)
The son dragged our massive suitcases up the stairs to our lovely apartment unit. We had our own shower, kitchen, living room and bedroom. We were told to come down for dinner at 6pm- so we had some free time to unpack and get settled. Hirosawa-san had left us a lovely tray with candy, tea and coffee in the living room, so we had a cup of tea and chatted until it was time for dinner.
At dinner we had an amazing spread of Japanese food and followed it up with Japanese tea and a bit of chatting. However, once the clock hit 7:30 we were promptly sent up to bed. Geraldine and I were amazed - uh - "What now?" we thought. We ended up talking for quite a bit before going to bed. It was quite nice rooming with another GSE team member.