Children

I'm taking a break from the novel I've been posting.  I'm still writing it, but I just want to post something else right now.

Last week was my last week of classes.  I mostly just played whatever was the favorite game for the class and took pictures.  In one class, there is a 7 or 8 year old boy who is always causing trouble.  Throwing things on the ground, hitting kids, getting up and walking around, and other disruptive outbursts.  Apparently, he has family problems and lets it out at school.  It's kind of sad for me because there is nothing I can do to help.  He seems to like me well enough, but he knows I don't really know what he is going through.

Well, on this last day with the class, we were playing this game where the kids are all running around.  Chaos.  He was being pretty good, but he wasn't really playing.  Something was wrong.  There is another kid who has a similar situation, and he was acting up.  The Teacher was attending to him.  Then something happened and the first boy I was talking about got upset and kept writing "shi ne" in Japanese on the chalkboard.  That means die.  It seemed serious.  The other teacher was busy with the other kid and I didn't know what to do.  I just walked over to him while still conducting the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown for the game.  I kept patting his head and shoulders and back which is about all I can do to show the children affection here.  I kept saying "daijoubu, daijoubu," which basically means it's ok, it's ok.  I kind of gave him a half hug arm around the shoulder and after about a minute he calmed down and started playing the game and having fun and didn't do anything bad the rest of the class.

I'm having trouble trying to think of how to explain the feeling, but it was good.  This kind of serenity.  I was so happy and satisfied.  After that, he had a hard time trying to pretend not to be excited to see me.  He asked me to sign all his stuff, it was adorable.  I will never experience anything like this time I spent in Japan in my life again.  My school and schedule were nothing like any other teachers I've talked to.

Today is my last day at Goshogaoka Elementary school.  I'm sad.