One month

One month has passed since I came to school in Jinja. I have enjoyed staying so far.

So, this time I am going to explain what I have done for the past month.

First, I had some lessons. As I have already told you the first lesson is P4 class and the topic was circle. It was not easy for me to teach them because of two reasons. First, it's not easy for pupils of P4 to understand English. Second, it was not easy for me to teach by English. Because of these two reasons the first lesson was not easy but I enjotyed it. As for P6&P7, it was more easier for me to teach them because they understand English well compared to P4. Since not all topics I have taught in Japan sometimes it's not easy for me to understand the contents of the topic. So, my colleague, Joseph, he helped me to understand. He is very good at math.

Second, I am going to explain my life in Jinja. The working hour starts at 8 am. until 5 pm. After I finish working I go back home. My home is located in the school. It takes only 1 minutes from the school. What is good I can easily access to the water (There is a tap at the school.) and safe. Since I live with Joseph and two other people who are relatives of Joseph, they normally made suppers for me, which means I don't have to cook. I only cook in the morning to make a sunny side egg.

Third, since I brought a soccer ball from Kampala I can play football with kids in the village. They play football in bare feet. Though some of them have sandal, they took it off. Maybe for them it's more easy to play without having anything. On weekends, I sometimes go to a bar to watch premier league with Joseph. He support Manchester United and I just started to support Arsenal because I support Fry Emirates. The game which we saw at the bar was ManU VS Leichester. Since Okazaki, who is a member of Japanese national team was in Leichester I had to support but there were plenty of supporters of ManU at a bar. As a result, Leichester was lost.

So this is briefly what I have done for the past month. I enjoyed so far. I hope it will last for the next two years.

Kenya @ Jinja

P.S I am going to travel for a fortnight heading for eastern part of Uganda.

A Lecture at Teacher's College

Since I have an oppertunity to have a lesson for the future primary school teacher at Jinja Teacher's College. I went there last Saturday and had a lecture for the differences of education between Japan and Uganda.

I had two lectures. Each lecture lasted for 50 minutes. After I explained what is the difference of lessons for math between Japan and Uganda, I had a model lesson. The first period I taught about ratio related to pie chart and the second period I taught about finding area (rectangle). It was challenging since I didn't have much oppertunity to talk in front of college students, and math taught by English. But somehow I managed it.

The script as follows came from those lectures for the first 15 minutes each. I hope students at teachers college learned something from my lecture!

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Good morning, ladies and gentleman! My name is Kenya. I am from Japan.

Do you know any cities in Japan? I am from Tokyo, Japan.

Today I am going to talk about three stories.

First, I am going to introduce myself. Second, I am going to talk about the difference between Japan and Uganda, especially the math education. Third, I will have a model lesson which is based on my experience in Japan as a primary school teacher. If you have any questions please ask me at any time of the lecture by raising your hand.

So, let me introduce myself. Do you remember my name? My name is Kenya and I am Japanese. I will turn to 30 this year and I am single. I have worked as a primary school teacher in Japan for the past three years. I taught mainly math. I have a family of four my father, mother and my brother and me. I have learned politics at my university and then I travelled throughout the Europe by bicycle for ten months. During that travelling, I thought it would be interesting for me to work with kids. But in order to be a teacher in Japan I needed a licence. After I went back to Japan, I went to teacher’s college like you and I spent three years (normally it takes two years) and I got a licence for teaching at primary school. At that time, I worked at primary school to help the class teacher as a part time job. Then, the headmaster of that school offered me to work as a teacher at different primary school and then I took that offer. Luckily, I had a job and started working as a math teacher at primary school. At first year, I taught math from P1 to P3 and for the next two years I taught math from P3 up to P6. Then, after finishing the school year in 2016. I left Japan and came here!

Any questions so far?

OK, then I am going to talk about the second story, the difference of math education between Japan and Uganda for primary school. I will talk about three points.

First, the biggest difference between Japan and Uganda for math education is the value of math. We think math is important to make a think logically. Here in Uganda the answer, or the result is the most important for math, or to get a high score of the test, which means accuracy and efficiency is the top priority. Of course, we think that it is important to get a high score of the test, but we, especially the teachers impressed from the students not because of that they got a high score but because of the way of thinking, or how to solve the questions. We think how and why the key words for math, not what are.

Second, based on this idea, we consider the value of expressions. I noticed expressions are not so important in here when I marked. For example, in Japan when pupils solve the sentence questions in math exam they got 5 points for the expressions and another 5 points for the answer. So, there is a difference between 2 times 3 and 3 times 2. If the answer is 2 times 3, you must write 2 times 3 for the expression. Otherwise you lose your points.

Thirdly, I will talk about the lessons. In Japan, we do question-solving method. Have you heard about this phrase? In this method there are six steps mainly. We do it in one lesson lasted for forty five minutes. The first step is question. Ideally, it comes from the pupils, but mainly we give them. The second step is to think about the clue or hint to solve the question based on what they have already learned. Normally the question which is given shall solve how to solve the former lesson. Third, solve the question by themselves. Forth, share the idea what they have found or how they reached the answer. Fifth, we conclude how to solve this type of questions. Sixth, they do some exercises. Sometimes we skip sixth because we give them homework every day.

Well that briefly what I have done for the past three years as a primary school teacher in Japan and what I have felt since I came here. Any questions so far? If not, let’s try a model lesson.

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Kenya @ Jinja

The First Lesson

One week has passed since I came to my primary school in Jinja.
I did my first lesson in Africa yesterday.

It was unexpected lesson. Since one of my school teacher absent from school, I decided to have a class instead of her. It was a math lesson and I did it for primary 4 (P4).

The topic was circle. The contents of the lesson was not so interesting because I had to explain a lot of things in order to teach what is circle and other things. The things I taught them were, a centre, circumferences, a radius and a diameter. I thought it was not so difficult because some of the pupils have compasses and I could borrow the one for teahcer. Even there were some chalks of different colors.

But it was not easy. They always say "yes", so I though they can easily to understand but it was not true. I think there were maily three problems they have. The first problem is my English. Of course, I could speak English but they couldn't understand what I said because I couldn't use suitable word for instructions. It is because I have no experience to teach math in English. The second problem is my pronouciation. Sometimes I felt they couldn't understand what I said. So, I explained it in different way. The second problem is thier language. The pupils in Uganda they started to learn English from Primary 4. It means they just started to learn Enlish. Since they only use English at school it's might be hard for them to use Enlish especially for speaking in class. And finally, their personality, I feel they were a little similar to Japanese pupiles. Even they can freely say what they think but they sometimes afraid of mistakes. When something happens, for example, a younger pupile was crying, they just had a look.  I don't know the reason why, so, I said "Take care of him."

Though my first lesson was more difficult than I expected, I will be better next time.

The pupils, they are pure and I feel I will be in good with them for the next two years.

Kenya @ Jinja

"Buy me Chapati"

Since I drunk heavily on Saturday, I couldn't wake up until noon.
In the afternoon, I stopped by an cafe then I had a rolex (an Ugandan dish, eggs and vegetables with rolled chapati) before going to the town. After eating Rolex, I went to the central part of town, I hanged out and bought some stuffs which may need at my working place.

Before going back to my dorm, I went to the different part of town where it is located about ten minutes walk from my dorm and then I had dinner.

When I was eating rolex again, two boys came to me and asked,

"Will you buy us Chapati?"

Then, I answered. Something like, "Ask your mom!"

Then he said,

"My mon doesn't have enough food, so, please buy me a chapati, I am hungry!"

I was wondering if I buy chapati for them, I was staring at them and thniking about chapati but not just for free. I thought something is needed in returen for the chapati. Then, I decided to ask some questions for them.

K: "How old are you?"

C1: "I am nine and he is ten."

K: " What's your name?"

C1: "My name is Joseph."

C2: "My name is Obey."

K: "Okay. Do you go to school?"

C: "Yes."

K: "Which grade are you in?"

C1 "I am in grade three and he is four."

K: "By the way, have you eaten a meal today?"

C "No, not yet."

K: "But you've got plump." by touching his stomach.

They were laughing.

K: "What about tomorrow? Are you going to school?"

C: "Yes."

K: "Then, you will get school lunch tomoroow. Posho, maybe?"

C1: "Yes. But I won't get lunch since I didn't pay for the meal."

K: "Okay. Thanks. Then let's eat."

C1: "Give me some money for tomorrow lunch."

K: "No, I won't. But you may get another meal when you meet me again, if you're lucky."

C "Okay. See you then."

K: "Bye for now!"

They are polite. Generally, perople say "thank you" when he/she get something from the others. People in Uganda, they have a different costom to show their appriciation. For girls, they kneel when they express their gratitude. As for boys, they bend their knee a little and show their feeling for appriciation. I felt it's very important to say thank you in this kind of situation. So, I decide that I will teach them to say "thank you" if they forget to say so. In this time, they did well and I was impressed.

Kenya@Kampala

P.S   I am going to start working at primary school in Jinja on 1st of August.

Masaka

Since I have another week before dispatch I have visited to my senior volunteer who works at Masaka. I went there for two nights. Masaka is  a city which is about 120 km west from Kampala.

The first impression of Masaka is bright! People were friendly and pupils were talkative.
I went to his school from the city at the first day. Since it was already afternoon we went to another school where he teaches as a volunteer. It was a math class and pupils learned speed. Surprisingly, they know the formula what we all "hajiki", or the relation among time, speed and distance. What was wrong is that they don't know how to use the formula. So, I taught them how to use the formula and some symbol such as × and ÷. I felt good when I felt the moment that they understood what I said.

After that we went back to original school where he teaches and then we practiced jump rope before catch ball. Since there is a competition for the jump rope for the next month, they practiced during the lunch time.

In the evening, I stayed at director's house. It is a house but it is also backpacker's hostel. I stayed there for two nights. I ate dinner with them. What was interesting is that there were five people around the table with dish. The director, his wife, a woman from Germany, maid and me. They ate at the same time with one dining table. Since I and a woman were guests. We took dish first, then, the director and his wife followed, after that the wife told to the maid that something like "It's a time to take dish." The hierarchy was clear.

The guest house is very comfortable. Even it offered me hot water and breakfast & dinner. I enjoy staying very much. If I have another chance to stay in Masaka I will choose the same place.

Yuji @Kampala

The School has Changed

Since there are several reasons the school where I am supposed to go has changed. Originally, Hippo's school is located in Luwero district where it is located in north of Kampala. But now, Hippo's school is located in Jinja district where it is east of Kampala. It's about two-three hours from the capital.

Jinja is a industrial city. There is a JICA project which is building a new bridge at the moment. Since the bridge across Nile river is getting old. So, they reconstruct the new one. And it is said that there are a lot of people from Western county. I saw a lot of Mzungu (People who has white skin.) in the city.

Just before entering Jinja city, the main road was getting narrow and making one lane. The road stretch towards the bridge. It was my first time to see Nile river. It is called Victoria Nile which is originally from L.Victoria. Since the river is used as a dam which is organized by the government. A photo from the bridge is prohibited.

After crossing the bridge I finally entered Jinja city. Hippo's school is located about 45 minutes away from the city center; fifteen minutes to Mubare direction on the main road and turn right and walk about 30minuts. (Of course, this time we went by car.)

The first impression of the Hippo's school is pretty. There is no gate and no gym but there is one-story school building and large flat earth ground.

I felt it's a countryside and a village but this is what I wanted.

The number of students is about 400 and there is no boarding school. The students come from their home and they are from P1 to P7 students. Since there is not a good place to stay near the school I may stay at a school sharing a house with other teacher. I think I will work out. The day for dispatch is 1st of August.

Kenya @ Kampala

Why not get married with my sister?

I think this is my first time to be said from the person seriously that I want to get married with you.

This is a kind of greeting in Africa and a lot of people may be said few times while you are staying in Africa.

So, this is a kind of example.


On this Tuesday, I went to  language centre with other members. This was the fifth day of the language lesson. So, this was the last day. At the last part of the lesson, there was a test and everybody must take it. There were three test in total; the one in general speaking (self-introduction), at a restaurant and at a market. When I finished the latter two tests I met my teacher coincidentally at a room with a lady.

Teacher asking me naturally and he said.

T: "Have you got married?"

K: "No, I haven't."

T: "What about African woman?"

K: "What?? Well, never thought seriously, but I think it's fine."

T: "Think about Japan, is it possible to bring your wife if you got married in Africa?"

K: "Yes, it is. It's possible."

T: "So, what do you think about her?"

And, he looked at a lady who is sitting next to the table.

K: "As a wife?"

T: "Yes. Yesterday she told me about you. So I thought in case of you."

K: "Well, it's hard to answer because I don't know much about her and it's important to love each other when I get married."

T: "Don't you like her?  Won't she pretty?"

K: "No, she is pretty. But what I said it's need a time to love and think. And I will stay in Uganda for the next two years. I need a time to think about that."

T: "Yes, you're right. So, please think about her."

K: "Yes, I will."

Few seconds passed...

K: "If I say yes, what I am supposed to do."

T: "Of course, you have to buy some cows and other things in order to get married."

I felt that I touched with their greetings and culture but at the same time I also felt that I saw how their life is hard and they want to change the situation what they are facing with.

Kenya@Kampala