Amalu was born in Los Angeles. She moved to Hawaii when she
was one. Her family moved back to Japan when she was five. They lived next to a
American Marine base in Okinawa. When she was in second grade in 2002, Amalu
joined the Girl Scout troop on base that was led by her younger sister’s
teacher. Her goal was to learn how to knit, to meet new people and make new
friends.
This was not a Japanese Girl Scout troop, but a troop for
American girls overseas in the West Pacific. Amalu was allowed to participate in this
Girl Scout troop that was mostly made of the children of Marine’s due to her
American citizenship.
Amalu’s troop did all the traditional Girl Scout things:
they cooked common American foods like
peanut butter cookies; they had
potlucks; and they also explored other cuisines (Amalu remembers a Russian pot dish
they once made). When they were exploring food from around the world, they
often couldn’t find the exact ingredients they needed due to the fact that they
on an island in Japan, and the base sold a limited amount of food. Due to this,
they had to make a lot of substitutes. When they wanted to have snacks for a meeting, they would often go off base to buy Japanese snacks like
Pocky.
Sometimes, Amalu and her mother would make
onigiri (rice balls) for the
troop.
Her troop also went on camping trips. One of Amalu’s
favorite camping memories was when her troop climbed
Mt. Fuji together. They
learned about the natural aspects, and a teacher from Tokyo came in and
taught them about reusable resources and how they could be more eco-friendly.
When Amalu was a Junior, they did a program with charm
bracelets. To get each bead for the bracelet, they had to learn a new thing.
The new thing could be anything form leadership skills, to information on how
to be green.
Amalu didn’t do her Bronze or Silver Award, but she did do
her Gold Award. She got in contact with a local orphanage that was started by
the US Marines after World War II. The orphanage had been losing volunteers for
the last ten years, so Amalu started a program where volunteers from the church
on the base would come in a few times a year to help them out with the things
that were needed with yard work, and creating events for the children and
volunteers.
When Amalu went to Girl Scout summer camp (around the month
of June in summer), it wasn’t just a regular Summer Camp where girls would go
horse-back riding, camping and snorkeling.
It was a place where West Pacific US Overseas Girl Scouts from Japan,
Guam and Korea would gather. The main language used was English, but many girls
came from mixed backgrounds like Amalu. An activity they did at camp that Amalu
vividly remembers was making cages for the turtle eggs.
Turtles are really endangered in the Pacific area, so the girls would make cages out of thin wire
to project the eggs from ravenous creatures.
Amalu just got a life membership for Girl Scouts. She wants
to remind other females that Girl Scouts is an option, and she wants to share the
wonderful opportunities and experience it gave her with others. Her troop
taught her how to be an independent woman and be confident. Her troop used to
have women from the military come in as motivational speakers, and speak about
what they did and their roles in life. If Amalu hadn’t been in Girl Scouts and
she hadn’t gotten her view of experiencing the world, she may have never had
thought or had the courage to come to college in the United States. It wouldn’t
have been an option in her mind.
At the end of the Friendship Song that Amalu’s Girl Scout
troop used to sing, there is an extra verse added that isn’t sung by mainland
US Girl Scouts. The third verse talks about how even though friends may be
overseas (her troop was unstable due to military kids moving every few years),
their friendships endure.
