Hello, everybody! This is Bobby. One month has passed since the EEN website was launched on March 11, 2013. My mom and I feel connected to a lot of people in the world. Thank you for visiting our website.

When my mom goes out, she sometimes buys samples which signify the effective utilization of local resources. As an international development practitioner, she is always looking for “Let’s BEAR” products with which she can send the message: “Be Empowered with Available Resources!”

She sometimes works as a trainer in training courses on rural entrepreneurship development. In her training sessions, she often shows some of the samples that she has collected to trainees in order to help them to come up with new ideas for the effective utilization of local resources. Since she has bought a lot of samples, our house is full of “Let’s BEAR” samples.

The other day, when she went to Shinjuku, Tokyo, she bought me a lovely flower wreath. When I touched it, I found that the yellow flowers were not dried flowers. I felt something different. I asked my mom what the yellow flowers were made of, and she told me that they were made of wood shavings which came from lumber. According to her, one side of the long rectangular strip is cut in a zigzag pattern, and it is rolled into a flower. Look at the wreath carefully. Rolled wooden strips are dyed yellow and green. The yellow ones are used for flowers, and the green ones are used for leaves. Amazing! Some flat pieces of wood are used as branches, adding natural taste to the wreath. If I lived in the forest, I would like to make a wreath like this with a lumberjack.