The Saga Continues... Finally

So my computer, which I bought brand new in August by the way, crashed in late March, and, because I bought it in the States I had to send it back home in order to get the warranty. It took about two months total to get it there, fixed, and back to me, but here I am, back again and completely unsure of where to begin.

Let’s begin with Kyushu Gakuin because I am sitting in the teacher’s office right now having finished another day. First I wish to state that Kyushu Gakuin is fast becoming home for me. I really, really like my job. My students are amazing and I could not ask for better co-workers.

My desk at work. A bit messy!

I arrive at work around 8:00 every morning. I usually bike, unless it’s raining, and by bike it only takes me about eight minutes. Side note: my bike is so cute! It is ancient, with a wire basket on the front, and it is a deep red, and looks like an old Schwinn. Makes traveling around this town much easier. But riding in a skirt is a bit of an issue… How do Japanese women do this? Anyway, I drop my stuff off at my desk and head down to the teachers meeting. I never really know what’s happening during them and my translators more often than not won’t have caught much anyway so we usually head back upstairs to talk to Kotegawa-sensei to find out what happened. Kotegawa-sensei has been here for something like forty years and he attended school here before that. He knows anything and everything about this place and, if he doesn’t, he knows who to ask. Luckily for me, he is an English teacher!

After that it is time for chapel. I give chapel speeches in English every third Monday over the intercom system like I mentioned early. The rest of the week I, James, and Maria, the other two native speaker teachers, attend chapel in the Hall with the students. Different pastors attend every day to give the message.

First hour starts right after chapel. Classes are fifty minutes long and the teachers move from class to class, not the students. Each of the three grade levels is broken down into “kumis” or homerooms, so when we are headed to class we call the class by the grade and the kumi. “San no ni” for example is third year, second homeroom. I have an interesting schedule because, this year, I am the only J-3 at KyuGaku. So I have seventeen different classes with a total of 621 students. I see each class, around 40 students apiece, once a week. This makes it very, very difficult to remember names, though I am getting much better at placing faces in different kumis and remembering things about them. That boy plays soccer, that girl wants to a city official, etc. I work with five other partner teachers throughout the week and they are all wonderful people and very helpful. Depending on the class I am either a full teacher or an assistant. For example, in the oral language classes I am a full teacher. However, in the writing classes I am more of an assistant because no one is really sure what to do with a native speaker in a writing class.

I have all high school classes except for one, which is a third year Jr. High class. Here is the interesting bit. I teach eleven of the upper level students of that class ALL BY MYSELF!! Luckily, on my first day of teaching, while I was super nervous, they were absolutely terrified at the prospect of having a foreigner for a teacher, who spoke little or no Japanese! I couldn’t get two words out of them. Even more luckily, one of the girls lived in the States for three years and she helps if I get too stuck, but I don’t like to rely on her too much. I think she gets embarrassed. She is adorable and is always sending me encouraging smiles from the back.

Greetings are a big deal at Kyu-Gaku and so I say “Good morning” to every student I pass and “Ohayoo gozaimasu” to all teachers. This ends up in a bit of a tongue twister sometimes when I am switching back and forth between Japanese and English! Most of the students respond (they are supposed to after all), but in a variety of ways. Most of the boys give me a curt head nod and a “MAS!” (short for gozaimasu), unless they are feeling particularly genki (or lively) and then I get “HAWRO!” or “GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!” From most of the girls I get smiles and polite “Ohayoo!” The karate girls though are awesome. They come to a full stop, end their conversation or stop what they are doing, and give me a full bow and a very clear, “Ohayoo Gozaimasu!” Every time. Now that they know me a bit better they often soften the formality of it by offering me a smile and “Hello” afterwards. These greetings go on all day and are very important. The first thing I do when I walk into the office in the morning is give a very clear greeting to the whole room and then several more to individuals on my way to my desk. After school I tell the teachers “Oskarasamadeshta” (don’t know if that is spelled correctly but that’s how I pronounce it) which means “You’ve worked hard”. That goes to every teacher as I leave the office. I say “See you!” to students as I leave.

Many of my students have far better English skills than they think they have and I hope to convince some of them that they really do very well. It’s funny when I talk to groups of students because they all whisper amongst themselves to figure out what I said and how to respond. But they always try! I adore my students and have a lot of fun with them both in and outside of class. The students don’t call me Keenan-sensei or Miss Keenan. They call me Caroline or Caroline-sensei and I feel it breaks down some of the barriers. This way they see me as more of a mentor than a teacher (especially since I am only in each class once a week!) and I think it is helpful to my role as a missionary. There is a line from a book by Father Gregory Boyle that I think of often. It reads, “It is more important for them [students] to know you than to know what you know.”

English Conversation Club: Kyushu Gakuin and Luther Gakuin. The Luther girls are in the light blue and the Kyushu  Gakuin girls are in navy. All the boys are Kyushu Gakuin. You'll notice that three of those boys are foreigners; we have some foreign exchange students here. If you look close you can see your friendly neighborhood J-3s as well! Photo posted with permission from all students. 

KyuGaku, as I mentioned in an earlier post, is an amazing sports school. This week they competed against the rest of Kumamoto Prefecture in a variety of sports to determine who goes to the All Japan tournament later in the year. I was able to go see the kendo team, who are currently ranked number one in Japan. Kendo is Japanese fencing and it is more aggressive than western fencing. It was awesome to watch and the championships for the individual matches were KyuGaku versus KyuGaku! We finished first AND second! It was funny because I had absolutely no clue what was happening through most of the tournament, but I was only a short way down from where the rest of the KyuGaku team was sitting (only the two best from each team compete in the individuals, the rest are in the team portion of the event). They were very loud in cheering on their teammates so I always knew kinda what was going on. But in the championships when it was KyuGaku vs. KyuGaku they were completely silent and very intent on the match. 

Sorry the pictures aren't the best. I only had my phone at the time, so it is still pretty far away. I tried to upload a video I took, but it wouldn't let me. I'll keep trying!

So that’s it on KyuGaku for now. I am sure to post more later of course! If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below. I’ll be happy to answer any questions on what Japanese school life is like.

On to church life! I have chosen a home congregation! I am now attending Kengun Lutheran on Sundays. It’s about twenty five minute bike ride, or I can ride the densha, which I will be doing during rainy season, and that takes a little over a half hour. I work with the teens for Sunday School. There are about four that attend regularly, though we have more that attend occasionally. First there is a children’s service, complete with a children’s sermon (those can be LONG…). Sunday school is exactly like Sunday school in America, except when you have two missionaries teaching your class (Katie, a long term missionary here, also goes to Kengun and teaches with me) you have a lot of language learning emphasis! Bible class in English etc.

I enjoy working with the students, but it is at church that I feel the language barrier most keenly. I often feel left out of conversations that take place all around me in Japanese. Everyone laughs or maybe they get serious or distressed, or they tease each other, and I have absolutely no clue what is happening. I’ve gotten better at picking up the gist of speeches or conversations, but it is still difficult, and when the teens talk to each other I am completely lost.

I really like Kengun though. I feel like God called me there. There was lots of talking with Morgan and Laura to decide of course, and lots of prayer, and I just kept circling back to Kengun. It has four social services attached to it: Megumi Kindergarten, Aigien, which is a home for children who are orphans or who had to be removed from their parents care for whatever reason, the LEC Center, which takes in students who have been expelled from other schools, and the Lighthouse, which is home to adults with mental or physical disabilities. I am slowly feeling out how to get more involved at church, but my time feels so limited!

Kengun Lutheran!

So Kengun is in the morning on Sundays and I usually get home about 1:00 or 1:30, having arrived there at 8:45. I have a short break, usually filled with random paperwork or things that I need to get caught up on and then I go to Kumamoto Lutheran for the English International Service. I lead the bible study there every Sunday. Currently we are reading Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion by Father Gregory Boyle. Interesting choice for an international service where the majority of the attendees do not have English as their first language, nor are they American, so their understanding of American gang culture is sketchy at best and mostly comes from Hollywood, but I think everyone is enjoying it anyhow. It all started because we were talking about grace, and this book is all about grace. Father Gregory Boyle worked at a parish right in the middle of the worst gang neighborhood in L. A. He went on to found Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in America, and I strongly recommend his book. It is one of my favorites. So anyway, I used a story from it to illustrate grace and everyone was really interested in the book so I decided to use it for the bible study. As you may have guessed, I am way in over my head! The language is so slangy that it is incredibly difficult for non-native speakers, plus there is a lot of Spanish thrown into the mix. Still, I think people are enjoying the stories. We have excellent conversations.

I love being able to worship in English again! I hadn’t realized quite how much I missed it until I attended that English Christmas Day service in Tokyo. I have made some really good friends at the Kumamoto service, from all over the world: Indonesia, South Africa, Ireland, Japan, the Solomon Islands, and more. SO HAPPY TO WORSHIP IN ENGLISH!!! It has made me realize how much I took that little gift for granted.

So I work Sunday through Friday with Saturdays off and I have come to zealously guard my Saturdays. They fill up too quickly. Paperwork, cleaning my apartment (including massive bleaching of my bathroom every week, stupid humidity, stupid rainy season), attempting to finish blog posts, talking to family and friends on Skype, grocery shopping… and usually all of that has to be crammed into the morning because I have things to do in the afternoon. Busy, busy bee over here!

The view from my new apartment during cherry blossom season!

I love my apartment though. I have three rooms plus the bathroom! Imagine that! And a dresser! And a couch! And a table! And a dryer! And a full kitchen! Really, it’s the little things in life. I just bought my first rice cooker. It sings “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” at me when I put the rice in and another when it finishes. My meal repertoire has expanded quite a bit. I now make curry, chicken, fried rice, and bratwursts in addition to my rotating pasta, salmon, or eggs, meals. The trick is learning to cook for one, plus lunch the next day. Haven’t quite figured that one out yet, but I will.

Anyway, that’s a glimpse of my life here since I wrote to you last. Crazy how things change in a few months isn’t it? Missing everyone back home, but I just remember how blessed I am to have so many people to miss! Hoping you are all well, dear readers, and I will try to post more regularly! Sending lots of love to y’all from Japan!

Kumamoto Castle in spring. So beautiful!