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JICA Volunteers in Palau

◆Alii from Palau!

Saori Sakaoka
JICA Volunteer
Koror Elementary School

(In the classroom)

　　　On a hill overlooking downtown Koror is my workplace: Koror Elementary School (or KES in short). It is only 5 minutes-walk from my home.

　　　 Koror Elementary School is famous for having the largest number of students in the whole country… as many as 567 kids!! All of these kids are studying happily at KES every day. My task here is “Improvement and establishment of basic mathematics”. Every day I am struggling to perform enjoyable and straightforward math classes with the Palauan teachers.

　　　I am looking after the 4 classes of 1st graders. Each class has about 20 students, which is much less compared to schools in Japan. Before I started to teach, I thought this is just the right number of students to have in one class; however, after I started teaching, I realized they are quite exuberant and felt as I was thrown into a zoo! But as time passed, each student has become my treasure.

　　　Since I came to Palau being a beginning teacher, KES is my first school to teach. And life at KES has given me many surprises, both good and bad. But through everyday life, laughing, shouting, sharing happiness, etc., I have come to understand the Palauan teachers and Palauan students little by little. Now I feel very lonely when I think about leaving here in only 4 months.

　　　Dealing with the children everyday, I find that only human beings can raise human beings. I have learned from the students that I must always improve and polish myself and to be honest with people to be a good teacher.

(with my host family and their relatives)

　　　The biggest support of my life in Palau is my host family. My host family is just my host mother herself, who always cares and worries about me like a real daughter, and also loves Korean soap opera. Her hobby is reading and cooking. She was very happy when I gave her a book of Japanese cooking and is still reading it over and over.

　　　When I am off from work, I do a lot of exercises. I join walkathons and play tennis. Sometimes I go diving to the ocean, attend hula-dance classes, play ukulele and sanshin (a traditional Okinawan guitar-like instrument with 3 strings), or think about re-starting my Itabori class that I have stopped going… in every sense I am trying to learn new things and absorb as many things as possible. On the other hand, I have ‘absorbed’ too much and have gained 9 lbs…

(Diving on leisure time)

　　　When I regret something about work, I go bike-riding in town or go to the track & field to jog. It clears my mind when I exercise listening to my favorite music.

　　　My two favorite things in Palau are the rainbows and sunsets. The big rainbows and burning sunsets that I often see in Palau always impresses me with its beauty. The beautiful sceneries of Palau always enrich my heart. Palau is a place that nature is always nearby and we could return to nature anytime we wish – that is what I love about this country.