UGANDA, Part I: Nyamukana.

Nyamukana is Godwin's home area. Bemanya Godwin is a very close friend and brother to me and one of the best things that came out of my year as a volunteer teacher in Uganda in 2001-2002. I stayed in the home of Dorcas, his aunt, and my "Mummy". Godwin also stayed with Dorcas and we taught together at Mother Care Nursery and Primary School - a project started by Dorcas and 3 other local women who saw a need for quality education for the town's orphaned and disadvantaged children.

The whole point of me coming to Uganda at this time was to attend Godwin's graduation ceremony from Makarere University where he attained a hard-earned Bachelor of Education degree. However, as is often the case, Makarere was short on cash (despite the ridiculous fees collected from all graduating students) and the ceremony was postponed until late September. Of course it was too late for me; I'd already booked my ticket. Eh, it happens.

Godwin picked me up at the airport in Entebbe with a huge smile and wave - it's surreal every time I see him.... I went back in 2004 for a month-long visit with one of my bestest buds Ben Riche, and it was the same way - as if it's Godwin standing in front of me! He doesn't seem to get any older; actually, he seems to be getting younger.


Godwin's wife Immaculate, and their son Baron and daughter Treasure. Godwin was always good with kids and it transfers well to his role as father.... he is a great Dad. With Baron, who isn't talking yet, he plays this game where Baron grabs different parts of Godwin's face and Godwin says, "Have you got my ear?" "Have you got my eyes?" "Have you got my nose?" and Baron "mmm"s the affirmative.



Immaculate: a lovely, gentle young woman. We really hit it off; one time, in one of the highlights of the entire trip, she was asking Baron "Who's this?" pointing at me... and she said, for him, "It's 'uncle'. Uncle Kenny!". I felt so great.

Godwin and Treasure.

Baron crawling over me. Seconds before this pic, he had hobbled over to me (he had a nasty gouge on his right heel from a biking mishap) and lay down beside me with his arms behind his head, just like me. So awesome.


The girl laughing is Anita, one of the orphans Godwin and Immaculate take care of. In the the foreground is Kevin, the only child from Immaculate's first marriage.


Anita and Deke. Anita is a great kid - she has this face which is always at the point of breaking into a brilliant smile, but she shies away and you only catch glimpses of it here and there. She's a real tease.

The wee one is Rita, another orphan under the care of Godwin and Immaculate. I originally wanted to take a picture of the pot cooking over a woodfire, but when the kids saw the camera, they quickly scurried into the scene.


Me playing pool very badly. You can see how many balls are still left; this was after 20 minutes of play. I was playing with Yu, a Japanese dude who we met on the bus ride to Godwin's place. We invited him to stay with us for a few days, and he did.



Yu, with Deke, Keven and Rita. They were all quite comfortable with us foreigners...

My last morning in Uganda.

PROACTIVE.

It is not uncommon, when English-speaking foreigners get together, to make fun of "Engrish" in Japan. The neverending hilarity of nonsensical signs, the outrageous, unwittingly witty witticisms of our students who tell us they'd like "a burger with flies". But it's only fair to point out that most of us use stupid English all the time without even knowing it, and without the valid excuse of it being our second language (although it is for me, chronologically). The following is an example of such ill-usage. Place: Vancouver International airport, awaiting boarding of plane to Japan.

Airport Dude: "OK, I apologize for the delay, but I will now begin proactive boarding. Those who have seats 1-25 please come to the counter to begin boarding, proactively. I repeat, we will now proactively begin boarding those with seats 1-25."

At this point, a kid of about 10 who was beside me, asked his Mom what proactive meant. The Mom told him. A few minutes later...

AD: "I am continuing to proactively board passengers at this point. Will those with seats 25 through 50 please come to the counter to be boarded proactively. I am proactively boarding... blahblahblahblahPROACTIVE blahblahblahblahPROACTIVELY blahblahPROACTIVE PROACTIVE PROACTIVE".

After awhile this was the only word I heard, because I was waiting for it. The Mom beside me was laughing too..."He's so proactive".

Let this be a lesson to us all, that when the airplane of our dreams is delayed by the inevitability of bad karma, we must not be afraid to take up the sword of proactivity and board the flight of a better life.... man, Dave Barry makes it look so easy.

VANCOUVER.
Picking up where I left off, my last few days in Canada were spent in Vancouver with one of my oldest friends, Meghan (she's 85 years old).


Meghan, of Wilmot Centre, Ontario, Canada, drinking two drinks with two straws at the same time.

We went to a bookshop where I found this cat casually napping atop my favourite Dean Koontz novels. It was all nice until I tried to get a book from underneath it; apparently this cat knows that Dean Koontz novels make the best mattresses. My own mattress needs refurbishing - I've had to make do with Dan Brown's works.

The weather was gorgeous and, as Meghan promised, so was Vancouver.

Speaking of gorgeous...



I've been working on these poses since I was an elementary school kid when everyone assumed I knew karate.

"Dirty Pizza".... I forget what the actual restaurant was called, but this was good pizza. The expression I'm trying to...express...sigh... is "bliss".

Meghan's boyfriend Michele and his Mom, and me, climbing up towards Mt. Seymour. We didn't make it.


Meghan and Michele.

HOMESTAY PROGRAM
Part II: Quality Time With Mom and Dad.
Location: Kinmount, Ontario.

My parents decided that it would be prudent of them to take me far far away for a few days so they could have me to themselves, as I had basically been absent for my first 3 days at home (see Ben & Becky's Wedding). We went up to my parent's (and more historically, my Dad's) old stomping grounds near Kinmount, Ontario - about 200 km north of Toronto (maybe). Anyways, Dad used to own a piece of riverside property where he built a "cottage" (little more than a garden shed) where he could stay on weekends to fish, canoe, and enjoy the beautiful peace of Canadian wilderness. Back then, it really was wilderness...now there are cottages here and there, but back then, it was my Dad (later, my Mom) and the fish and the trees and the river.


Note the sweater and jeans. It was remarkably cool when I got to Canada, although everyone had been saying how hot and humid it had been... The tune I was playing here - you can probably tell - is "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by legendary Canadian fisherman Gordon Lightfoot.


Safety first!


I didn't catch anything all day. My dad caught a little small-mouth bass in the morning, and on the way home, we stopped at his secret spot and caught this little sunfish. But as all good fisherpersons know, it's not how many you catch, or how big they are, but rather, how many times you wipe out on the slippery rocks getting to your secret spot (Dad and I - once each).


On the beautiful porch of Kinmount Bed and Breakfast (http://www.fobba.com/member_kinmounthouse.shtml) where my parents had come several times before. A gorgeous old house renovated beautifully into a gorgeous B&B. Patrick Healey is our host - excellent cook, easy conversationalist, generous with time and knowledge, good guy.

Guess how old my Dad is? Go on........... 70 years old, y'all. Seventy.

Delicious desert provided by Patrick - note the award-winning cranberry loaf.
Me Ma and I.

HOMESTAY PROGRAM:
Part I: Ben & Becky's Wedding
Section C: Ceremony and Party.

The sun was shining as it had never shined before. It shined like a freshly minted loonie pressed into the still-wet cement of a sidewalk in a new subdivision in Baden. It was the shiniest rehearsal ever. The next day, for the actual wedding, it poured (rain). I kept telling anyone that would listen that "adversity unites people" and I think this was the main reason why people had such a good time despite the dismal weather. Ben, you're welcome.



This is Ben and me dancing to Dave Matthews Band "Crash Into Me". We pretended to have a lady with us in the hopes that a lady would see us, take pity on us for having imaginary partners, and come join us. It didn't work, probably because my tie was askew and what woman of integrity wants to dance with a man with a skewed tie?


The Rob dance.
My dad, Morio, dancing. I dragged my Mom onto the dancefloor where she humoured me as much as her dignity would allow. My dad joined us a few minutes later, bopping his way over to us. My dad is a natural bopper. He always bops and hums when he's heard a song that's moved him - i don't think he realizes that he does it. If look carefully at the photo, you can see his right foot bent at a 135 degree angle and his heel slightly off the floor. Together with this motion, he taps his right leg with his right hand (pictured) and thus loses himself in the joy of dancing for minutes at a time.


The Cousins Lichti: Derrick and Todd sing Thunderstruck. As you can see, it is not just a great rock song, it is a way of life.


Ladies in reeeeeddddd.... Steph and Lindsay, dancers and song-knowers esquire.

HOMESTAY PROGRAM:
Part I: BEN & BECKY'S WEDDING.
Section B: Pregame Preparation.


The groom's peeps went to the Elora Gorge for a swim on the morning of the big day. It was nice to schedule that time of relaxation in because it prepared us for the freakout of crunch-time later that afternoon as we scrambled to get setup in time for the ceremony.
Rob, holding flowers.
Shad, Becky's little brother, scolding me for being silly during rehearsal. Note the sunshine.
Rob's thought bubble: "Hhhhhhhh... he won't. go. away."
Pregame meal at the Ogasawara residence. Thanks Mom and Dad for the excellent meal and dressing room facilities! Rob: "Dude, you're parents are like guardian angels". Ben: "It was like getting ready at a five-star hotel, only that the people who work there are your best friends."

HOMESTAY PROGRAM:
Part I: BEN & BECKY'S WEDDING
Section A: BEN.

I'm Back!....back...ack...ack..... Helllooo?....helllooo?....elloo?

Once again, I start my entry with a mild apology to my faithful reader (you know who you are) who checks this blog hourly to no avail.

I've just come back to Japan after a lovely 2.5 weeks at home in BADEN, Canada. Thank you to everyone at home for being awesome and giving me reason to return to Canada someday!

Here are some photographs to chronicle my time at home:

This first bit is called BEN because it's all about BEN. He is one of my best friends and he got married to another lovely friend of mine, Becky, on the weekend I got home. My parents didn't see much of me as I spent most of the first 3 days home with Ben, his sister (and Best Woman) Emily, and Rob - roommate, friend, and groomsman extraordinaire.

Ben and Emily at The Huether: the night of Ben's bachelor party.

Awesome boots, hat, and glasses provided by Derrick M. Lichti - highschool classmate, friend, and probably the one guy that most of us would turn to in a "Life-line" situation.
Ben, Ken, Derrick, Adam. Featured on our t-shirts is Ben with lots of hair. T-shirt design by Derrick M. Lichti (pictured above).

PRESENT.

Once again, I have gone many a sunrise and sunset without posting on my poor blog. Part of the problem is a) I'm lazy and b) I have a million different web-based updater-thingers to keep track of. What the heck. There's the omnipresent Facebook, the neglected Blogspot Blog and there is the Japanese version of Facebook, Mixi (I started up Mixi at the request of my cousins in Hokkaido who wanted to keep in touch with me. However, it is a real challenge to operate a page entirely in Japanese and writing a blog in Japanese is quite a gruelling task for my feeble brain...). Also, there are the occasional email updates that I send out to various friends and famille.

It is hard work updating the same events/feelings/emotions/revelations over and over again...

Anyways, here are some pics of what I've been up to lately...



PARTAY. Leaver's Party - a party for those who are leaving the JET programme this summer. A kind of last hurrah so despite the fun, it was kind of sad, if one stopped long enough to think about it.

Marko. Dear Marko. A wise, moody, dark, funny, sensitive man. He hates it when people call him moody, though.

I totally dominated this photo. It's all me.
Hiroshima Carp game. Seventh-inning balloon-release. There were many people employed to scamper about and collect the fallen ballons after they had run their course.
Dinner party...we made sushi... salad... cheese and crackers... bacon-wrapped asparagi.... very delicious. I caught Paul (with green bandana) in an introspective moment. Same with Mark (beside Paul), come to think of it...

Testing vs. Learning.

[WARNING: Possibly dry content]

Without any further ado:
The Japanese education system is insanely 'kibishii' (strict? gruelling? much-pressure-placed-on-exam-results?). Kids graduating from jr. high into high school go through such cramming as we in Canada don't experience until we are preparing for university. Indeed, that is how you determine which high school you go to in Japan: high marks, you may be accepted to an `academic` high school....low marks, you go to a technical or trade school. And lots of schools in between. There is tons of pressure on these young kids to pass well on their exams. Since they are tested on the curriculum (i.e. textbook material), teachers are pressured into jamming as much of the textbook into their heads as possible.


Every teacher, educational administrator, person who teaches anyone anything, comes across the dilemma of testing: how to test, what to test, and accordingly, how to teach what is to be tested. I've never really appreciated this issue until now but it's a hot topic amongst teachers - especially English teachers (or any language teacher, really). This is because there are multiple facets to the learning of any language, which include: listening comprehension, reading/writing, and speaking (I'm sure you are all aware of this; I'm just laying out the premise for my mild rant, or whatever this is).

The bane of many ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in Japan is the emphasis placed almost exclusively on reading and writing with the result being that many students, even if they can manufacture a grammatically correct sentence on paper, are completely at a loss when confronted with an English-speaking human.

Anecdotal evidence:

My students just finished mid-term exams and are currently getting their results back. Some did really well, some did poorly - that's to be expected. What surprised me (and what prompted me to write this post) came about when I was talking with a 9th grader named Kana about her test. She was really excited because she predicted her usual 50% but she outdid herself and got a 69%! I'm not making fun of her; I was genuinely happy that she did so well (relatively speaking). Glancing over her test paper, I asked her if she knew what the following sentence meant: "Lisa is liked by everyone." She had correctly written that sentence, she got it right. BUT - she had no idea what it meant! No comprehension of what she had correctly written.


I don't think testing and learning are mutually exclusive but seriously, sometimes I wonder.

Related to that, I find it interesting that at one of my schools (I haven't investigated this with my other two schools) those classes which are energetic and outgoing and actually try to communicate in English (hereinafter "the Awesomes") often perform poorly on exams while those classes which won't/can't speak a word of English (hereinafter "the Ivory Towers") are those that perform well on tests.

I guess if the English exam is just a means to an end (i.e. get into a good high school but never really have anything to do with English for the rest of your life), then that's fine. But for those who are studying English to be able to expand their world, to communicate with people all of the world in what is quickly becoming a universal language, I have to ask (rhetorically), who is more likely to successfully adapt? The Awesomes or the Ivory Towers?

After reading this, I feel I should clarify that I'm not blaming the Awesomes and Ivory Towers for their respective short-comings. What I'm blaming is the SYSTEM that pressures students and teachers alike into learning/teaching the textbook instead of reality! Who has seen the Matrix? Just kidding.