Susan Jas hated his boss, Susan, and passed that feeling along to us, though I'm sure she was a nice person.
Once, early on, we were outside in the coop building (like a tent) and Jas told us to keep an eye out for her becasue we
we weren't allowed to speak English, smoke, drink or write notes. Of course, Jas would be the ringleader for smoking, drinking as
we discussed customs in English. He told us not to get up and offer her a chair and when she finally did drop in we pretended that she didn't exist
and then since she knew no Hindi we would spend the time talking about her as our "lesson". Now fast forward one month and we are
at Kapauu and we are more fluent. She comes to sit in and with Jas leading we cut her to pieces in Hindi while trying to look so
serious in our studies, but dying to burst out laughing.
Hide and Seek While doing practice teaching at Kohala we were very badly treated concering our language classes. We would come home from school beat and go immediately into class. I can remember doing a shopping routine with Barb Mutz.
We were the only two awake and enjoying class. They tried to change the venue. We tried it a couple times at school.
Ramon took us on a field trip to the old stadium and we went shopping in a local little shop - without using English.
Another time Jas had us out and about and decided to play 'hide and seek'. David, Diane and I took off to hide.
We went into a gully and I figured if we circled we would end up where the whole walk started. I really kept those two moving
at a terrible pace. After 30 minutes it looked like my plan wouldn't work, so they went back. I kept it up for
awhile until I ran across some guys surveying a road - I figured they would know where they were, eh? They told me that I was
now 3 miles out of town and much higher than where I had started. So I followed the cane field road that they pointed out to me
and after a good trek I came out on the opposite side of town. I got a Pepsi out of our co-op fridge and when I had finished it
I went upstairs and there was everyone in class. I just joined them as if nothing had happened.
A great game we played was to say in Hindi, a book or movie title or saying in Hindi and then the others had
to guess it in English. And we actually played "dog and the bone" using a handerkerchief in a cramped room.
The time that Emosi came to observe we were role playing being introduced to our headmaster. "How do you do? I'm
here to take over your school".
King Kamaemae Jas held a lesson on the lawn infron t of the King's statue. I took a movie of the session.
Stories 1. I was telling, in Hindi, a story about my day in the market and Narayan said I had to stand.
So I did some shopping and said that this tired me out so I went to a drug store and sat at the counter and had a Coke.
And continued my story while seated.
2. Another time I told the story of the Ugly Duckling using my grapefruit as the swan and oranges as ducks.
While others told their children's tale I would draw pictures of it on the chalkboard.
Teachers' Pets The thing I remember most about the final test was the extra "coaching" I received from Joyce.
Let me assure you that I was her pet, just as Ann was Jas' and Sweeney was Narayan's favorite. And I guess they had
personal interest (pride) in our success. Poor Joyce was backing a loser. She gave me a list of four questions that
would be used in the finals and told me how I should answer them. I didn't care what mark I got. I knew I would be okay
in Fiji, so I wasn't worried. As it turned out they didn't use any (probably because I was at the end and could have been told by others
what questions were used). I got a 1+ and Sweeney got a 3 as I believe did Ann. |
