Gym Class and Gospel Choir

Growing up, I always loved gym class and recess. In elementary school I played soccer with boys at recess and joined in for dodgeball in middle school gym when other girls would stand in a big clump and scream and run when the ball would come near them. In high school, when gym class was seen as an annoyance, I secretly loved it and I remember getting mad when my class tennis partner sat down on the court and refused to play. Even though I'm awful at tennis, I still wanted to do something!

Knowing this about myself, it's no surprise that I love running around with the kids here on recess. It's very tiring, yes, but I love climbing up play structures, going down slides and running around like I'm five years old. Today I took my turn helping out with the weekly PE class. The teachers were two hilarious guys that the students loved. During class, we played some form of dodgeball where me and the two guys were on the outside of the dome (the playground has this great big covered area with a surface that's like an indoor soccer field) and were trying to hit kids with a ball. At first, I tried going easy on the kids but the two guys were whipping the ball at the kids so I started doing that too (except my way of whipping balls at kids probably doesn't hurt because I can't throw that well). I ended up hitting a poor little boy on the top of the head, but instead of feeling bad for the kid the teachers roared with laughter and starting doing a dance and chanting in Japanese! I didn't get it but I laughed anyway and so did the little boy.

Part of our duties as guest teachers at the school is to be a part of a gospel choir along with mothers of the students, and today was our first practice. When Lori, Mike and I walked in, we were immediately asked if we were altos or sopranos and in Mike's case, bass or tenor. Now, to some of you this probably seems like an easy question, but for me it was like she was still speaking Japanese. I haven't been in choir since 7th grade when we dressed up like boys and sang songs from "Footloose!" Although I like singing in church or in the car by myself, I really don't know how to sing as far as keys and things like that go. Music is a foreign language to me.

I ended up going with Sopranos. The first song we sang was in English, but then we moved into Japanese songs. This wasn't too bad because the lady next to me was kind enough to write out the sounds for each character so I could sound out the song. But the the director decided it would be fun to add sign language to one of the songs and then I was lost. All at once, I tried to hold my music, sing notes that were somewhat similar to my soprano neighbors, sound out the words, watch the director, and copy the sign language. I was a mess. Despite this, I actually enjoyed singing with the group and felt pretty sweet by the end.

Mike and I are still taking out turn at the church's after-school programs. I am in the nursery (kids under 5) and he is with 6-11 year olds. Today I taught the little ones the "Hokey Pokey" and took lots of pictures of them. There's not a whole lot for me to do because there are four other helpers and they can actually understand the kids, so today I brought along some of my Japanese language homework and made flashcards. A couple of the kids sat with me and would say the word in English and then in Japanese. They are so smart and know so many words in both languages for being so young. When I was done making the cards, one little girl held them up and started quizzing me! She would correct my pronunciation of Japanese and together we made up motions to help me remember the words.