3 major problems Japanese teacher volunteers may face on teaching in developing countries

Although I'm not a teacher volunteer, I happened to get opportunities to teach environmental issues at two high schools here, Weno Island, Chuuk state, FSM. Recently, I've found it so difficult to manage the classes without assistants. The difficulties I have right now might be common problems for all Japanese volunteers. For, these were made up on the basis for our culture and public education through our entire lives.

So, I'd like to demonstrate 3 major problems we have in teaching overseas, which will make you understand how unique is the way Japanese volunteers have lived in.

Recent works

     Recently, I had worked with J-PRISM specialists for improving the existing dumpsite. This dumpsite is supposed to be expired within 3 years although EPA hasn’t identified the location of the next waste disposal site. Therefore, we need to maintain the current one and start the procedure for building the new one at the same time.

     Regarding to the one which people are utilizing now, while operators of the site have already got accustomed to how to arrange piles of garbage, there were a few concerns these days. First, there was a pond or rather wet area at the center of the site. However, the specialists put some pipes underneath the waste from the wet part to a leachate pond. Thanks to this treatment, the water will be drained away adequately to the pond even after rainy days. Second, they seemed worried about whether the operators can maintain the dumpsite by themselves, but it turned out to be no problem finally. Additionally, since the boss of them is a kind of hard worker, the experts seemingly don’t need to take heed of it so much.

     The process of building the new dumpsite needs to be observed even after the meeting yesterday for sharing information of the coming one and making an action plan. First of all, we have to finalize the place of the new dumpsite. This should be finished as soon as possible because the existing one is about to be close to its limit of capacity. In case of that there occurs a time lag between the closure of the current site and opening of the new one, residents on this island can hardly dispose their garbage. In addition to the timing of opening the new site, the dumpsite itself may be a problem in a view of environment assessment. That is to say, the stakeholders have to choose the most adequate place to dispose the waste from all the people of this island. For instance, if the place is in swamp area, disposed wastes aren’t decomposed smoothly, and might be a worse place than the present condition.

     In summary, they still need assistance from the project whereas J-PRISM will be finished at December next year. However, I trust that they can manage this situation with the basis of the proficiency of the operators at the dumpsite.

7月の反省会

July 27, 2014

ミクロネシア連邦（FSM）に到着してから4か月が経ちました。

前回の日記からも随分時間を空けてしまいました。

It has been four months since I arrived in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Besides, it took quite a long time from the previous post.

How weak am I ?

May 3, 2014

I did.

I got sick the other day.

It has been only a month since I arrived here.

Apr 10, 2014

Apr 10, 2014

Pacific countries faces various environmental problems in recent years. The most prominent thing is negative effect of global warming. That means encroachment on land by rising of sea water. I won’t disagree with this opinion. However, such encroachment is proceeding in other aspect. That is garbage problem.

Apr 7, 2014

Apr 7, 2014

I had the first Chuukese lessen today with a SV. This lesson contained uttering lessen of vowels that are called “Osowa” in Chuukese. I was so shocked by that the instructor intended to keep making us continue saying the same part for 3 hours. So, I switched the lesson to just talk. Then I could catch some interesting information about attractive sights on Weno.

The very first post

Apr 6, 2014

This is the first time to post an entry in English.