One boat, 1,000 prayers, countless journeys
MANILA, Philippines—An amazing thing happened on April 13 when Peace Boat sailed into town. It was the culmination of a series of events that started a month ago when I set out to do a summer project with my 7-year-old son, Gabby. We ventured to make 1,000 origami cranes with the help of other kids and their families. I had hoped that it would teach him and kids his age an important lesson in empathy in light of the terrible disaster in Japan.
Because the Peace Boat arrived, what was supposed to be a summerlong project was completed more than a month early. Support came from everywhere, so we were able to complete a little over 1,000 pieces.
The cranes came in different sizes and textures, as diverse as the people who helped. But the cranes themselves symbolized a single thing—that everyone had Japan on his or her mind and all wanted to express support for its people.
Origami
It all started on March 15. Gabby came to me with his favorite origami book and asked for help in making a sampan (boat). I taught him the crane instead and told him the story of Sadako Sasaki [See sidebar.] in the wake of the 9-magnitude earthquake and 10-meter tsunami in Japan.
After we made our first crane, he made a how-to video using pictures from his book. He asked me to put it on Facebook so our family and friends would know that we needed to make 999 more. There was an immediate outpouring of support and encouragement.
The idea of a blog to document the creation of the cranes hit me a few days later.
I was watching the news about how the Japanese were trying to account for the missing and the dead, as well as the dire situation in the Fukushima power plant. “They’re still talking about it?” Gabby asked me as he and his 14-year-old brother, Enzo, sat and watched with me.
“Yes, it’s that big a deal,” I told him. It dawned on me then that I needed to explain to my children why this was such a “big deal.”
Current events
My husband and I have made it a point that our children are aware of current events. Like many parents, when the news is about a disaster, we explain to our children how these events affect other kids like them and remind them to keep the victims in their prayers.
But, with Gabby’s reaction, I realized that children run the risk of getting desensitized. Even if they do develop the habit of praying, they’re also likely to dismiss a particular event as just another one of those many disasters we see in the news these days.
To my mind, that would be a terrible thing. One would hope that our children would never have to witness a disaster of such massive scale ever again. But I hope they will remember the lessons from such an event.
Many of the lessons will be too big for them at this stage, like the impact on the world economy and the debate on nuclear energy. More importantly, we all need to learn from how the Japanese people are dealing with the severe hardships they are experiencing with much dignity.
And so I created a blog called “The Summer of a Thousand Cranes.” The plan was to ask parents to teach their children about the origami crane and to send photos and a short message. And, this would hopefully make a lasting impression on the children who will participate.
Getting started
By the time I started the blog, children were already busy with exams and moving-up day so it was difficult to get them involved right away. Instead, several play dates over the summer vacation were planned with friends and family.
Among the first ones to agree were my colleagues at GMA New Media Inc. Joan Bulauitan, SVP for Technocreatives, called the initiative “a defiant and noble effort of channeling a painful memory into a creative art.”
Our first play date was with the Glean family. Glenn and Liza were old friends from UP Diliman. They visited with their two sons, Diego and Red. As planned, we did origami first before the kids did their favorite activities of swimming and playing video games.
That play date with the Gleans were particularly special because that’s when I met a group of kids I now call “the nameless five.”
We live in a community in Pasig called Riverfront. Right in the middle is the clubhouse and a swimming pool. Liza and I were making cranes while keeping an eye on the kids who were swimming. There, five children, ages 9 to 14, joined us. They made 20 cranes.
They were very eager and I told them to meet me again the next Saturday at 5 p.m. at the same spot. I told them to get permission from their parents first since I couldn’t mention their names or post their pictures on the Internet unless their parents agreed.
Meeting the nameless five convinced me further that more children should learn about the crane.
When one of them, a 9-year-old girl, asked, “Are these the cranes of Sadako?” there were surprised looks all around. I was happy that she knew about the girl from Hiroshima. But, her friends had a funny look because the only Sadako they knew was a girl from a popular horror movie.
My officemates also began to make the cranes. Those with children sent pictures of their little ones.
Our chief technology officer even brought young Eli to work one Friday so he and Gabby could do it together. Eli was one of the few who immediately recognized the peace crane, which he learned in Grade 2 at La Salle.
Inquirer announcement
Last week, I learned about the arrival of Peace Boat from an article in the Inquirer, [which launched a relief drive for disaster victims in Japan with the ship and Initiatives for International Dialogue. Part of the drive was to turn over 1,000 peace cranes as the symbol of the Filipino people’s wish for healing in Japan]. While I immediately thought of fast-tracking the project so we could send the cranes to Japan via Peace Boat, I was a little hesitant about contacting it at first because we had only made about 200 at the time.
Dingdong Caharian, our general manager, asked me about the status of our little project. He said that his 5-year-old daughter, Ashley, also wanted to help. When I told him Peace Boat was arriving, he suggested a crane-making session after office hours.
I then made a quick call to a former colleague in the Inquirer and an e-mail to its corporate affairs manager, and the date with the Peace Boat was set.
I figured, with the crane-making session with “the nameless five” and family gatherings over the weekend, plus the after-hours session with my officemates, completing 1,000 cranes would be doable.
But then, I had a severe case of migraine the weekend before the boat’s arrival. I used what little computer time I could muster to post a call for help on my blog and e-mailed a short backgrounder to the Inquirer upon the request of an editor. At that time, we only had 209 cranes.
Outpouring of support
When my short piece was published in the Inquirer on April 11 and my friends reacted to my blog post on Facebook, I sensed an overwhelming response to the project.
The crane-making session in the office pushed through, with Abby Payuyo, our corporate affairs manager, acting as Teacher Abby. She mastered the crane after making almost 50 together with daughter Nikki.
At a meeting with our joint venture with Summit Media, PEP.ph, Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng suggested to Karen Pagsolingan, managing editor; and Marilyn Dee, assistant general manager, to rally the troops and make paper cranes out of old issues of YES! Magazine.
Karen would later tell me in an e-mail: “Our only intent was to help a 7-year-old kid complete his 1,000 cranes. But origami turned out to be a bonding activity for the entire team. Each fold was coupled with hope. Each output was embellished with smiles and stories. A 30-minute break from show biz stuff did us a lot of good … and hopefully, the Japanese people, too.”
Family members also rushed to make cranes and call on their own friends to donate relief goods. My sister, Anna Anastacio, made 125 cranes with her son, Gian, and our niece, Karen. She was also instrumental in soliciting personal care products from Splash.
Strangers respond
One of the most amazing things about this project was the response from strangers. There’s Daphne Purnell, an assistant division chief of an agency under the Department of Interior and Local Government. She caught a repost on a Facebook page made by my officemate about my call for help.
She later said in an e-mail that her daughter, Kristin, 10, was excited to take part in the project when she shared the idea of making paper cranes. “She enjoys learning the art of origami and wanted to show her concern for Japanese friends who are close to our family.
“A number of my officemates were also interested when I shared the idea with them last Monday. However, only Myra Gialogo, Patricia de la Masa and Hannah Manalag managed to help because of work deadlines,” she said. It was Patricia who eventually brought 69 cranes to me.
Then, there’s Laureen Lioanag, a business administration student in UP Diliman. She is involved in fund-raising activities for Japan, including selling gambare T-shirts. According to her, “Gambare, Nippon” loosely translates to “Don’t give up, Japan.”
She also said in her e-mail, “It’s not the powerlessness we should fear. It is the indifference we should all do something about.” Her brother helped her in making 60 cranes.
Lastly, there’s Madel Canicula who read my short piece in the Inquirer. She met with me in Pasig at 8 p.m. on April 12, traveling through heavy traffic from her office in Resorts World in Pasay. The first thing she asked when we met was “Did we make the quota, ma’am?” I didn’t know at the time that we already had 1,060.
When I asked her why she went through all that trouble to give me her paper cranes, she said in an e-mail, “I believe that prayers surpass all that is physical and monetary. Prayers can also be expressed in numerous ways like a song, dance, poem, etc. So aside from donating goods, I am sending my prayers to the victims in Japan in the form of origami cranes.”
My last stop at 10 p.m. was at my brother Fetan’s house. My sister-in-law, Dell, had dinner ready and more cranes created by her daughter, Patricia. Ate Dell also helped in soliciting donations from her officemates in Unilab.
As Michelle, our helper, and I spent hours to string together all the cranes, we were both in awe over the effort that went into making each one of them.
When the day came for Peace Boat to dock in Manila, everyone was excited. Our group included my husband, Arnold; our two kids; our nephew, Gian; our friend Liza and her son, Diego; and my officemate Mon with Eli.
In spite of the heat, the children were excited to see Peace Boat. The event had a festive atmosphere, with music and banners. Later that day, Liza posted on her Facebook: “Spent this morning with Diego to accompany Edna, Arnold and kids to bring the thousand cranes to the Peace Boat. It was a good experience especially for the kids to see how a small personal act of sympathy can still make a difference.”
Prayers, journeys
It just seems like serendipity that Peace Boat got us rushing our little project and this piece would come out in the Inquirer on Palm Sunday. It is the season of prayer, after all. And, if prayer could take a physical shape, I think it would be that of a crane.
Upon seeing Peace Boat, my son Gabby asked if he could ride it and bring the cranes all the way to Japan himself. I told him that the cranes would have to go to Japan without him. And maybe, when he’s older, he can visit Japan himself.
I believe everyone who has participated in this endeavor has gone on his or her own journey without even boarding the boat.
As for Gabby and I, our next journey will be to find the nameless five. We need to tell them that their cranes are finally off to Japan. And we need to tell their parents about the wonderful thing their children had done.
(Edna Belleza, a mother of two, is senior vice president and chief information officer of GMA New Media Inc.)
