Having spent time with student nurse Erika Ito, I would very much like to meet her mother. Firstly I would shake her hand and say: "Congratulations, job well done! You have one terrific daughter." Then I'd patent the secret of her success, and make us all as fortunate.
Early next month, Erika will fly with seven other students to Iraq and Jordan, from where they will drive by car to the border. As the Tokyo chapter of the Japan-Iraq Medical Student Association, they hope to be carrying a good supply of up-to-date medical books in English for staff members and students at Baghdad Medical University. They will take small toys for children. Also leads for propelling pencils, crossing their fingers that these will be allowed through under the current embargo.
"We'll try to explain that the leads are to help children write and draw," Erika explained last week in-between teaching practice at St. Luke's hospital in Tokyo's Tsukiji and homework. "But it may be argued that they will be used to make weapons. How silly."