Kate’s Quests

OMG. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are stalking me! I have said that I’m not interested. I’ve told them that I’ve done my own exploring and came to my own decisions about God and spirituality and today I turned them away for the the fifth time. The first time the came, I was just surprised to find them here in Japan. They were Japanese and didn’t speak English, but they gave me some literature and I said “no thank you” and shook my head, indicating that I wasn’t interested. After I shut the door, I came laughing into the hallway to tell DJ what had happened and realized that, um…they probably heard me laughing at them. I figured that at least they wouldn’t come back. Wrong. The second and third time I talked to an American and a Japanese woman. I explained that I wasn’t going to convert and that Buddhism was right for me. I had asked all the questions and done all the research and I was happy with my decision. The American told me that she was out and just trying to spread the truth and I again said thanks, but no thanks. The fourth time came two Japanese and today was a single Japanese woman. Shouldn’t they have blacklisted me or something by now? I’m not going to convert, it’s just not going to happen! It’s less creepy than it is just plain weird here. Although…I have to admit, it is a little creepy.

Today was also the first day back to school after the holidays for some of the kids. This did not go over well for one of the students in my class. This first class is always the hardest for me because this class is full of three year olds (thankfully it’s the only one). We even got a new student today so now we’re up to five 3 year olds. They are really cute, but they have so much energy and understand so little, that I just feel at a loss to do much. The teacher I work with there is very good with them, thank god. I know that she would like me to become more assertive and take more control over the class, but I just get so lost. I can’t teach English while trying to get two boys from head butting each other and two others from spinning around in a circle and one launching himself off of the table. They don’t understand my commands and so she is able to grab their attention in Japanese and then steer it back to English. This is obviously another reason why I need to learn Japanese, but one thing at a time.

So they begin the class with one child knocking on the door. (This is routine for all classes). “Who is it?” The first child asks. “It’s me (fill in the name), may I come in?” “Yes, you may!” And then the long handshake “Hello, how are you doing?” “Just fine thank you, and you?” “I’m fine too, thank you. Please come in and take off your shoes.”

It’s the same routine every single class and he’s been at this school for at least a year. But, with two weeks away from school…he wasn’t happy about having to do it again and so he screamed and cried. We didn’t try to make him do the introductions once he started crying and he calmed down fairly soon afterwards. Then a half hour into the class, he and another boy are rough housing and he falls and the water works start again. I don’t know what was with him today…I’ve seen this kid launch himself all over the room, falling and banging into things, but today was the first time I’ve seen tears. His mom sat through the class since he’d cried at the beginning and she just sat there giggling at him. I felt a little bad for him, but well…not that bad.