Thanks for the wonderful essay, Ritah!

Ritah Mwagale is a participant in 08IEC(B) course from Uganda. She has been treated as a baby sister in 2008IEC(B), simply because she is the youngest member. She wrote this beautiful essay for us a little before she left Okinawa.
Someone started to smile, some others bursted into laughter...but anyway we are all glad to read it.
I'd like to share this feeling with you, so upon her approval, I'd like to post it.

If MTEC Family were African...

For the first time, MTEC opened up its doors to a course attended by only Africans. And in light of that, I am tempted to think of MTEC in the African way.

In Africa like any other continent, family plays a key role in one’s life. Family is the basic unit from which one’s behavior and norms are shaped.

As a result, family in Africa is very influential to one’s life. So big is family that it moves beyond the simple father-mother and children structure to include grandparents, aunties and uncles, nieces and nephews.

I am sure each MTEC participant was at one time in their lives sent to live with an uncle or grandparent or lived with any of the two in their homes.
Therefore, the key question I am going to attempt to ask is. What role would each MTEC participant play suitably if we were in an African setting?

The family would be considered wealthy because there would be a big homestead consisting of two homes…MTEC Studio and MTEC computer room. And we would alternate in between homes depending on the season...whether wet or dry :)

Not only that, the community would look up to this family because the children (who are the participants) would be very educated. It is not a common occurrence to see 3 doctors in the same family, health communicators and a journalist!

The family would be blessed to have a sweet, caring and very humorous mother. Nana- San. She would be respected for having boys. Because they would be very instrumental in mowing the grass of our homesteads and protecting us in the night. Brother Sita would be greatly in charge of this.

Our family would also be a happy one because we would have a caring Uncle Miyagi-San who would always keep us abreast on whatever innovations are happening around us. This would make bon fires so much exciting. As we would be taken through each innovation after another. Sister Boi would punctuate each story with “ayii.

While Brother Yacouba would quickly browse through his dictionary for the meaning and nod his head affirmatively!

Chiho-san would at times come and help him out in French and we would all look in awe!! And say “S.u.n.i.m.a.s.e.n, how do we say this or that in French”

In so many ways, we would be a model family because not only would all of us know how to shoot and edit photographs courtesy of uncles Kiyuna and Nishimura, we would have advanced techniques in Karate. The females especially Sister Grace would not be messed with.

Uncle Uramoto…oh my God, where to start! He would always add a twist of humour in our everyday life. During lazy hot afternoons, he would go under the big mango tree in the centre of the compound and call all children to join him. Sisters May and Saha would be the first to join him. There, they would learn how to make kites and all other fun things. Suzie would sit beside them and laugh all through the whole thing. In case any of them said they couldn’t do it, she would say “girl, be strong…man!”

Of all the children, Patta would be the most mischievous but his innocent look would let him get away with it. And in his place, Mosille would take all the canes from mama Nana!

The whole family would look forward to public holidays because that’s when uncle Maekawa would treat us to his various humorous escapades as we all sit by the fire place. We would hear stories of different types of ‘nese” and under table negotiations. He would however also be serious and bring us to book regarding our studies. He would then let Uncle Tokumura to do formative and summative evaluations of whether his lectures improved our learning behaviour.

And I yours truly, would each day sit by the rock behind the house “in Uganda” and look after the goats as I make my journal entries.

Thanks Ritah for this wonderful contribution.

Well, this group has really been like one family - family of Africa.
I'm really happy to be your "mother" - now nobody call me "a sister" any more, but it's OK.- and so much proud of you as MTEC graduates! Thanks to the Internet, we can remain as one family. Stay blessed!

Click here for another post about Ritah - she is the very first participant from Uganda.