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warden training

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2008.02.23

Today we did a full day of training at the embassy. It was interesting, being in a room full of Canadians. There's a certain perspective, when among your fellow countrymen, that's always absent even when among closely-related nationals (in my case, other native English-speakers).

The training itself was a lesson in terror. Apparently in the great earthquake that struck Kobe nearly fifteen years ago, it took more than a month for electricity to be restored, and it took weeks for water and gas service to be restored.

I had a couple of ideas about how to improve the organization of the work that wardens do in Japan. Specifically, I'd like to put together a wiki to allow all 65+ of the wardens in the country to create a manual for ourselves. Also, I want to explore the use of some sort of party phone line similar to what we use at the office when we've got an incident to deal with.

rand()m quote

Work is about a daily search for meaning as well as daily bread; for recognition as well as cash; for astonishment rather than torpor; in short for a sort of life, rather than a monday-to-friday sort of dying.

— Studs Terkel