Nostalgia of teachers who taught special needs kids

“You will kindly excuse me because my English is not very good, so I might interchange and speak in Kiswahili from time to time.”

This was the opening statement during an interview with a teacher who had worked as a volunteer in Kenya for two years. His name is Oki.

If you are Kenyan, you might be tempted to pin the name to Nyanza or Western regions. However, Oki is from neither. Oki Keisuke, 29, hails from Japan.

A desire to experience Kenya is what inspired him to travel close to 11,000km to teach math, art, music, and physical education at a school for students with special needs in Nakuru Hills Special School.

Having studied special education at university level, Oki packed his bags in February 2016 and headed to Nakuru to work as a volunteer teacher. And the county became his home for two years.

His fluency in Kiswahili could easily deceive one into believing he took, at the very least, a six-month course in the language. However, Oki learnt the language in two short months.

He was taken through the course by a Tanzanian teacher living in Japan, who works with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica), which is a governmental agency responsible for Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme.

Oki was placed at Nakuru Hills Special School through Jica’s volunteer programme, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs).

Nakuru Hills Special School is a mixed public boarding school for persons with mental and physical disabilities aged between six and 25 years. 

CULTURAL IMMERSION

As the interview progressed, it was evident that Oki gravitated more towards Kiswahili, and we consequently decided to conduct the bulk of it in the language.

Donned in a red dashiki print hoodie during the interview, Oki’s deep immersion in the Kenyan culture is evident. Although he is now back in Japan, he says he misses Kenya.

“Ningependa kuishi Kenya milele kama ingewezekana (I’d have liked to make Kenya my permanent home),” he says.

Reminiscing on the warmth of Nakuru residents, Oki recounts a time he taught students how to knit scarves to keep the cold at bay. The skill was taken up by boda boda riders who wore scarves he knit — something that gave him joy.

“Nilipoona dereva wa piki piki wakivaa tambara, nilifurahi (I was pleased to see riders wearing the scarves,” Oki says.

In terms of education, though, Oki, who taught pre-primary 2 pupils, did see some differences in learning methods, saying Japan incorporates more active learning techniques than is done in Kenya.

Whereas many Kenyan students focus on jotting down in their books what is written by teachers on blackboards, in Japan learning incorporates more teaching aids, such as puzzles and blocks.

Oki created blocks from slabs and stones, which he then used during math lessons to teach pupils how to count physically. He also incorporated beads, magnets, paper money and stick paper during lessons.

As Oki speaks, one can pick a deep sense of purpose in his call to be a special needs teacher. Among his achievements aside from classroom lessons was teaching the children how to effectively use the toilet and maintain hygiene, such as washing hands.

He says by the time of leaving the school, several teachers had started incorporating the use of teaching aids to ensure active learning.

VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME

One of the goals of Jica through its volunteer programme is to provide Japanese technical assistance in rural schools in developing countries.

Japanese aged between 20 and 69 who are qualified and willing to work in developing countries are dispatched for two years by the Government of Japan.

They are sent to countries which request for volunteers in the fields of education, health, environment, community development, social services, agriculture, science and technology.

Oki says immersing himself into the Kenyan culture was not always easy, more so when it came to ways of learning. But with time, there was an exchange of ideas and teaching methods.

Oki, for example, at first found the teacher-parent relationship in Kenya strange. While in Japan there are clear demarcations on association, which is mostly at a professional level, in Kenya, the boundaries are less defined and the two are often personal friends.

This experience was also encountered by music teacher Mori Ayaka, 29, who also spent close to two years in Nakuru county before leaving in June this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mori says she was surprised parents and teachers interacted freely at a personal rather than strictly professional level. Her experience in Kenya was an eye-opener, she says.

Although she taught music at Pangani Special Learning Centre in Nakuru, her educational background is in economics, though a passion for children drew her towards teaching.

A desire to give back to society then led her to Kenya.

Unlike Oki, Mori spoke in English during our interview. However, she would drop in a Kiswahili word here and there — ‘sawa’, ‘sana’.

Mori said she had a culture shock of sorts when it came to religion and its use to justify several behaviours.

“Timekeeping is not something many take seriously in Kenya. In Japan, time keeping is down to the minute. If you are late for the train by one minute, you will not catch it,” she says.

“In Kenya, some teachers would stream into school more than an hour late and see nothing wrong with it, no apology. Instead they would justify, saying, ‘God is in control of time and will decide when I need to reach school’.”

Living outside the school, Mori used to walk to the premises every day. Although she felt safe for the most part, she says she would sometimes come across herds of cows taking over the space, which frightened her slightly.

However, when it came to navigating the public service transport system, Mori said she did it well. With fluent Kiswahili at hand, she would negotiate the fare and board matatus whenever she needed to visit Nairobi.

SERVING COMMUNITY

Despite the initial challenges, Mori says she was able to leave a mark at Pangani school, where she taught the pupils how to use music as therapy. She taught them how to play the piano and enjoy singing.

More also taught the children with special needs how to effectively use toilets and maintain hygiene through handwashing, which she also taught fellow teachers.

As we conclude the interviews, a quote by Martin Luther King Jr comes to mind. “Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You do not have to have a college degree to serve. You do not have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You do not have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Here are volunteers who travelled across the world to live on a minimum allowance equal to the cost of living in the host community. To make an impact, however small it may seem, in Kenya.

It is a challenge to each and every one of us to serve indeed.

Edited by T Jalio