Friday started off like most of my Fridays are likely to start off from now... with 4 year olds kicking me, calling me a "silly of witch", saying the word for male genitals at random intervals and sit
ting all over me (while I am getting paranoid that they are peeing on me) while I am trying to teach. Welcome to the world of kindergarten Englis
h teaching! Of course after about a mont
h I will have them all under control, but the first month is always a fun packed time! I really wonder what kind of home life a lot of these kids come from....After that exciting start to the day I went straight to pick up our latest batch of recruits. Although we don't specify if we want boys or girls we seem to have had mostly girls lately so my son was very happy to have some boys to play with for a change. I enjoyed the change too in terms of the lack of "cat fighting" between the students, however the traditional Japanese male attitude is always very evident. They looked strangely at me the first night when I suggested that I wasn't their slave and that perhaps they could bring their own plates into the kitchen for me to wash.... Anyway, as usual we managed to fill in the time okay - the main problem being that right now I don't have anything that really needs planting so ended up getting them to plant some MORE kumara (sweet potatoes) after they dug up some potatoes. etc Here's hoping half of them will die or we are going to need to be taking orders for deliveries in autumn! Next group of 6 boys (can hardly wait...) arrives on Thursday so I need to find something different for them to do. Perhaps some soy bean planting.....
I'm off to Kitakyushu all day again tomorrow to do an outdoor education program indoors for a group of mothers... all I really want to do is go to bed (something I must admit I did on Thursday afternoon... don't tell anyone!) but I'll put on my smiley face and pretend to know far more than I do - one of the advantages of being a "foreigner" here is that you are not often questioned on your accuracy of facts etc......
I for one will buy ANY AMOUNT of kumara you'd care to send my way. I eat them in preference to potatoes and my kids love them. And they won't grow in Hokkaido.
ReplyDeleteCan you do a post one day about how you got into the hosting of JHS groups? It sounds so interesting.
I love that first photo - they look as though they are about to burst into song!
ReplyDeleteHe he. We have guests coming at the end of the month who want to experience the country life. They will be planting kumara, beans, weeding, picking wild butterbur and splitting wood. There really isn't that much that needs planting right now....
ReplyDeleteHope your course went well.
The boys group looked like they had fun!!! I liked all the pics but the first one of them in the garden was my favorite. : )
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your education program you're doing today! : )
Yes and smothered in butter, every year I would line up at the super market during their season and buy one served in a paper bag that was heated by stones?
ReplyDeleteLike Vicky, I'd be more than happy to take them off your hands, not the kinder kids but the Kumara.
You are my hero, I would have turned grey by the end of the day!