Interpretation for African Teachers, whose National Language is French, at Japanese Elementary Schools

[Date, Time & Place] Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 2 and 3, at Hodogaya Elementary School, and Thursday, Feb. 5, at Tobe Elementary School
[Guests] 11 teachers and educational staffs, with 2 from Senegal, 1 each from Cape
Verde, Mali and Djibouti, and 3 each from Niger and Benin
[Attendants] 5 KSGG Members and 6 Other Group Members
[Language] French and Portuguese

This training program is one of the action plans based on the Yokohama Declaration,
hosted by the city of Yokohama and signed at TICAD IV held on May 28-30, 2008.

a) What Japan has, but Djibouti does not, is just a subway

An initiate KSGG member, who attended a male inspector in charge of Elementary Schools, the Ministry of Higher Education, Djibouti, was afraid that the guest might speak French with an African accent. However, he was relieved to find that he spoke beautiful French.
Djibouti is a small country with 600,000 people on 23,300 square kilometers of land.
Its population is predominantly Islam. Geopolitically, Djibouti, which is an important point in the eastern part of Africa as well as Aden in Yemen on its opposite shore, is a country of international trade and industry on the strength of its good natural ports. It is a secure country, even though it is next to Somalia in the east, where the appearance of pirates off the coast of Somalia has caused a big issue of the deployment of Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. A large number of famous Japanese companies have already found good markets in Djibouti.
Having an enjoyable talk with Japanese pupils, the teacher from Djibouti said, “What Japan has, but Djibouti does not, is just a subway, while what Djibouti has, but Japan does not, are wild lions, gazelles, and so on.”

b) A Senegalese Teacher cannot eat tonjiru, or pork miso soup

On the first day, a male Senegalese teacher, attended by a female initiate KSGG member, visited a science class where sixth-grade pupils did some experiments with electromagnets. He said that he has taught the same lesson to the sixth-grade Senegalese pupils, but, as they did not have enough money, they could not even buy one set of “magnet and coil” for one school, let alone each pupil; he lamented that he felt sorry for his pupils.
On the third day, the guest brought sandwiches for lunch with him to the class of the fourth-grade pupils, because as a Muslim, he could not eat tonjiru, or pork miso soup. When he brought his lunch with him on account of his religion, the KSGG attendant who hadn’t been told about the commandment in advance, was confused about explaining to the pupils that Islamic law forbids Muslims to eat some food.
Questions from pupils covered a lot from his private life to social situations. When it came to the 150th Anniversary of the Opening of the Port of Yokohama, the pupils showed a great interest, and listened to the guest, who said, referring to Senegalese history, “Senegal used to prosper because of its slave trade.”

c) “Look-alike President Obama” from an Old Colony of Portugal

Among teachers from French-speaking countries, there was one from Cape Verde, an old Portuguese colony. Seeing the guest, who is 185 centimeters tall with short hair, pupils in Hodogaya Elementary School said with one voice, “Here comes President Obama!” Those from Cape Verde might have a merry Latin character, compared with those from the other countries. He said comically, “Change!” The KSGG member who attended this guest said later, “Perhaps, because of Barack H. Obama, African people, including the guest, seem to be in higher spirits than before.”