good news!

good news!

Received yesterday a letter from ikf (funnily renamed "fik", wonder how the germans like that) unofficially confirming that t&t will receive bogus sometime before the end of the year, as part of the "bogu donation program" for this year. every year bogus/shinai are donated by the "japan auto racing association" (!) to countries around the world. Countries like Macau, Congo, Iran,... and others like Venezuela (this last year), Hungary and Aruba. Not sure how the selection works but it seems somewhat arbitrary. Of course we're very happy about this and there is no doubt it will help the development of Kendo in T&T. Normally the bogu are sent to the Japanese embassy of the country, and the Kendo Federation/Association president has to go and pick them up. No problem for us, since I have a good relationship with the Embassy here.

How this came about? Well I wrote a letter

I think that, in order, those were the significant steps:
- writing the original letter
- following up with "kendo in trinidad" story and update
- displaying proper Kendo the first time they saw us (including my 4-dan test and passing) in Aruba
- following up with AJKF, including possible involvement by our regional "sponsor" Ebihara-sensei