Japanese language classes in “Ajizal”, an autonomous region for internally displaced persons
Every Friday, I went to Ajizal, an internally displaced persons (IDP) community, to give Japanese lessons to the children. This day was my first time, so I joined the class as a support person for “Eri-san,” who had been teaching in Ajizal for about two months!
On that day, we practiced reading hiragana and katakana, learned how to say colors, and at the end of the day, we ate dumplings made by Eri-no-san. The children were very energetic and lively, but they also actively participated in the class, studied Japanese, and actually used the words they learned. I was impressed by their willingness to learn. ☺️
karuta club
After my classes at Ajizal, I went to the Spring Hinata and joined the karuta club. Everyone was learning the bottom phrases and taking the cards quickly, and I was not able to get any teeth at all 😂.
I was very happy to see that they liked and were enthusiastic about Japanese culture 😌.
Cultural Workshop
Every Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., we offer Japanese cultural workshops.
This time I held a workshop to introduce Japanese sweets in the 2:00 p.m. session.
(↓The scene at that time)
I introduced mainly Japanese sweets and dagashi (fancy confections) with quizzes and other activities. With the help of my friends, I made the slides in Spanish, so I had a great sense of accomplishment when I finished.
Santiago, a TikToker who came to this event, made a video on his TikTok introducing this event and “Spring Hinata”!
Please take a look at how I was introduced too, like this
☺︎https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSBHvtY6u/
Dumpling workshop
In the 4:00 p.m. session, I had the opportunity to help out a bit with the dumpling workshop held by Erino’s! Everyone seemed to enjoy the process of kneading the dough from flour and making the shapes with their own hands. It was a lot of fun to see how many unique dumplings were being made, some in the shape of cats and others with toppings of their own choosing 😂.
Sightseeing in Medellín
Sunday was my day off, so I decided to go out with a friend I met at Spring Hinata! She and her family took us to many places where we could enjoy Medellín.
First, we went to eat Bandeja Paisa, a traditional dish from the Antioquia region centered on Medellín.
It is a hearty dish with a large plate of beans in soup, ground meat, chicharrones (fried pork belly), chorizo, morcilla (black sausage), rice, fried egg, avocado, platanos, arepa, etc. I ordered a mini size, but it was still too big to eat😅.
Afterwards, we went to a small town called El Retiro for coffee, went to a shopping center to take a Colombian version of Purikura, and had a very enjoyable day!
They were a really sweet family who took us to many places over the course of a day even though we had just met them.
In the next issue, we will take a look at the second week in Colombia, when we explored the city of Medellín!