December 10, 2012

Most of the snow had melted as the weather had been relatively balmy over the weekend thus enabling me to walk very fast to meet with Ainura for my second Russian lesson. She had brought in some handmade flashcards with objects in it for me to recognize or learn, and I couldn’t believe that a commercial set of such flashcards couldn’t be found readily available in the bazaar. I already feel as if I’m making progress for my vocabulary is expanding exponentially.

I had received a text message during the lesson from Gulnara at Lingua and when I called her back, she asked if I could possibly substitute for one of her teachers who was ill today. This teacher had two back-to-back classes from 4:00 to 8:00pm. I wasn’t really excited about the prospect of teaching for four hours straight, but didn’t want to disappoint the students and said yes.

After dropping off some additional materials to be laminated for tomorrow’s session, I went to Lingua to work on some new presentations I’d like to offer in the future such as one on humor in the classroom and the other on doing away with the reliance on the textbook so classes can be more flexible and fun for everyone. Adina came in to ask me to draw a name for the Secret Santa contest and I drew Nargiza’s, which was great as I think I know her and can easily buy a present that would be suitable although the 200 soms might pose a barrier to such selection.

Natalia sent me a message indicating that the PAO, the same guy who had never gotten back to me about the Thanksgiving dinner, needed to talk to me before 5:00pm. I replied I’d be available until 4:00pm, but he never called thus leaving me to wonder if I was in hot water for some reason.

The first class I subbed for had only eight students, all teenagers, and the two hours seemed to drag. The second one was livelier as there adults in it and the topic in the textbook was a bit more interesting. I guess I find it harder to substitute here because I’m not familiar with the textbooks, all published in the U.K., and couldn’t even operate the CD player as it had some round buttons to navigate that I had never seen before.

Gulnara had said she would pay for a taxi to take me home when I was finish and I was really glad for that as I was hungry and tired by 8:00. Natasha helped me get into a taxi and I was home in less than 15 minutes. I had some of my leftover pumpkin soup and went to bed early.

December 09, 2012

I had a very productive day today as I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. In preparation for having people come over on Tuesday for the book club gathering, I thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom, picked all the clothing from my bed and adjacent surfaces and tidied up the living room.

I told Willoughby she was welcomed to stay overnight that day since she lives in the suburbs of Bishkek and wasn’t sure how late the minibuses would be running in her direction. I made an effort to clean up the guest room cum office so she’d have access to the sofa bed which Ryan had shown me how to open properly.

I managed to cook the pumpkin soup with lots of curry powder and fresh cream and it tasted divine. I ground some of the coffee beans Matilde had given me; put away the laundry I had done the night before and finally did my hair. I also managed to locate my address in a Google map and sent a reminder for the meeting on Tuesday with a link to it so everyone can find it easily.

In addition to all that, I finally gave up on listening to my music through either the Media Player or the recently downloaded Real Player and returned to the ITunes set up that had worked so wonderfully for me before. I spent the afternoon going down memory lane by listening to my favorite songs by Sandro.

Finally, I had to research the popularity of the movie “Mamma Mia!” for having seen the lethargic musical in Las Vegas back in 2005, I couldn’t imagine that the movie version could have been any better. And I wasn’t disappointed as the movie is a through exercise in nonsense from beginning to end with bad singing and worse dancing all around. Staring at the bloating stomach of the middle age men in it did nothing to enhance my enjoyment. And to think that this movie has raked in millions of dollars in revenue. Unbelievable.

December 8, 2012

Still enjoying the fine weather this week has brought, I boarded the marshrutka to the Children’s Library and barely made it in time to see Natalia launch into her talk about the TEA (Teaching Excellence and Achievement) program and was chagrined to find a full house for this presentation as the teachers were highly motivated to find out how they could travel to the States for additional professional development opportunities on our dime. We had to find chairs from other rooms in order to accommodate all the attendees including two men who had never shown up for any other sessions.

The coat room at the library where everyone is expected to drop their coats and bags, but I never do

Elvira and Gulnara approached me to offer congratulations on the publication of the newsletter and showed me the very blurry copy Elvira had been able to print from her university copy machine and which was being handed to those present. You could barely make out who was in the photographs, but at least the text could be read somewhat. Willoughby later commented that the photos were too large thus causing the newsletter to take forever to download and so we need to resize every photo before adding it to it.

Following Natalia’s presentation and Tatiana’s testimonial about her participation in the same program, another teacher came up and gave a talk about Bloom’s Taxonomy. I could only catch glimpses of it, but it was definitely a different take from mine. This teacher is partially sighted and wore dark sunglasses indoors. I gave her my card and asked her to exchange presentations so we both could be more knowledgeable about this topic.

Galina approached me during the coffee break to find out if I had the music for teens I had promised her and she agreed to follow me to Lingua where I had left my flashdrive once again attached to the computer. We had to have a short staff meeting as Forum is offering winter break training sessions for teachers which will last three days and they want both Willoughby and I to participate. I offered to do two sessions since I won’t have anything else pending that week.

                                               A moment of levity during the coffee break

When I walked into the computer room at Lingua, my flashdrive wasn’t attached to the computer and immediately panicked as I had looked for it at home and knew it wasn’t there. I then spotted the wristband that is normally attached to it and which someone had placed over the CPU tower. I asked Zarina, Gulnara and Adina if anyone had turned in the flashdrive and they said no. I was about to suffer an apoplectic attack when another teacher popped in and said she had it. Why she hadn’t turned in to the front office is a mystery to me unless she was snooping into its contents, which would really make me really mad.

I copied the music for Galina, checked my email, had a bite to eat and then it was time to print the handouts for the conversation club. Only eight students showed up and it was a bit slow as we talked about growing up and how parents dealt with their changes in personality.

Zarina confirmed that my Internet access had been used up and that I was, once again, confused about the date when I paid money for it. She also called the hotel in Kazakhstan to confirm my reservation, but before the clerk got to the reservation number; my cell phone ran out of money. I walked to the supermarket nearby and paid for both Internet and cell phone access.

It was nice to be home relatively early today as I had decided to forgo attending an embassy-sponsored blue grass concert being offered for free at the Opera Ballet Theater. I was basically starving when I got to my flat and just heated up the leftover lamb stew and ate it while catching up with the news. I did a load of laundry and partially watched a documentary, “Gonzo”, about Hunter Thompson, a writer and journalist who killed himself back in 2005.

December 7, 2012

As it has become a rule by now, I ran out of money in my Internet account and had no connection this morning. It was just as well as I needed to be at the Russian Slavonic University School of Economics at 10:00 to observe two classes. I got off the marshrutka a block earlier than necessary and so Olga and Galina had to come and rescue me. They gave me a tour of this building, but it wasn’t necessary since it was the same run-down sort of structure I’ve come to expect from all universities here.

They did treat me to coffee and biscuits in their small department’s office and then I left with Galina to observe her class. I failed to ask her for a copy of her lesson plan ahead of time and she just launched her lesson by writing five words on the board with no definition or any other context. There were only eight students here and it became obvious that they usually sat with their best friend as the gossiping and laughing went on throughout the entire class. I didn’t realize the class would be 80 minutes instead of the usual 50.

Galina kept saying “tak” after every comment and had no idea what it meant in Russian. The students were asked to translate sentences from Russian into English and vice versa for no apparent reason. The subject was films, and more specifically, Hollywood-made films, but I had no idea if this was a new topic or the continuation of a unit. At the end of the lesson, I told Galina that the lesson should have been conducted entirely in English and her response was that that was the way lessons were taught at this university because students would be required to translate during their exams. I hated to sound so negative, but I had seen no signs of communicative teaching here at all.

Olga’s class had ten students but I missed the beginning of the lesson because I had been giving Galina feedback and had to leave early as Willoughby was waiting for me at Lingua to finish the work needed on the newsletter. I apologize to the class and Olga and promised to come back another time so I could stay for all 80 minutes although I had already seen the same emphasis on translation during the short time I had been there.

I got on the right marshrutka and it deposited me in front of Lingua. Willoughby hadn’t had lunch, so I invited her to go with me to the Halal Kitchen place and she ordered an omelet which came with an ample side order of vegetables. I had order my usual fried lagman and a fresh salad that never arrived, so she shared her salad with me. The tea was very hot and strong, so we drank our share. She presented me with a corkscrew she had found at a bazaar and hoped wouldn’t break before I opened at least one bottle of wine.

Back at Lingua, I showed Willoughby what I had been able to do the night before and convinced her we should be able to knock it off in just about two hours. Despite a few setbacks with the photos, and MS Word freezing on us too, we were done by four and then proceeded to import the list of contacts from the website to the new Gmail account and sent that baby to Elvira and Gulnara for approval. I gave Willoughby a hug and felt immensely relieved not to have that task pending anymore. Gulnara replied congratulating us and giving us the green light to send it to everyone else.

Willoughby needed to go to the Beta Stores to buy some kitchenware and I needed to exchange some money, so we rode together to that destination. She had mentioned that she liked using her debit card at this location and I tried to use mine for the first time, but after going through the entire transaction, I was told my card was not valid. I’ll have to write to my sister to contact the bank as I’ll be running out of cash pretty soon.

I bought a few things for myself, said goodbye to Willoughby and walked home. I tried the corkscrew when I got home, and even though the cork broke, I was able to enjoy a glass of Georgian wine before heading to bed. It had been another exhausting day. 

December 6, 2012

It was hard to believe that it was December as the temperature reached 50 degrees and the abundant sunshine made it feel as if it was even higher. I decided to walk to the Arabaev University and stop at the post office along the way to mail the letter to Stephanie and pay my utility bills. To avoid being bombarded by the diesel exhaust from the many minibuses plying the Kiesvkaya Street, I decided to explore the one behind my building, Toktogula.

There was still plenty of snow and ice on the sidewalks where the sun didn’t hit and I saw lots of people, including elderly ones, skidding and trying to hold their balance. I continue to be terrified of falling and breaking my neck. At the post office, I was told to return after two o’clock to mail my letter, reason unknown. There was a long line of people paying their utility bills, so I decided to just do both on my way back.

Jyrdal met me at the gate as I had called her earlier to find out if they could handle the photocopying of a handout for the teachers so I didn’t have to go to the underpass. When we walked into her office, I met Eric, another Peace Corps volunteer who teaches critical thinking skills at this university. I mentioned to him that was doing a session on Bloom’s taxonomy that dovetailed perfectly into his topic, but he confessed he had never heard of Bloom as he wasn’t even an English teacher, but a health educator. I promised to email him the presentation so at least he’d know what the teachers had been taught.

The turnout was lower than the first day, but at least there was room at the round table for everyone to sit comfortably and have a surface to write on. We played the “Name Game”, which they liked, and proceeded to the Bloom’s materials. I gave them a piece of text covering the recent admission of Palestine to the UN council on an observer nation and asked them to come up with appropriate questions according to the Bloom’s classification, but only two teachers could it and one of them was not following the action words on the table.

It turned out that they had found the piece of text too difficult to read themselves as one of them even asked me what “abstain” meant. Unable to comprehend what they had read, asking questions about it seemed pointless. I really felt sorry for their university students who should be expected to read something similar to this and then answer questions on the topic. I could just feel how embarrassed and uncomfortable most of them were to be put on the spot. I gave them an exit slip asking what they had learned today, something they already knew and something that had not being clear before they left.

All of them said they had never heard of Bloom’s taxonomy, many said the text had been too difficult and most felt that they couldn’t understand the classification and question method at all. Perhaps Natalia would consider conducting a follow up session here in the spring to revisit the topic with these teachers as it was clear they are not in the habit of asking questions that go beyond the five Ws.

My letter to Stephanie, containing seven typed pages plus an article on Cuba ripped from the National Geographic magazine, cost me almost $7.00. I was simply shocked for 248 soms is a considerable amount of money here. The utility bills came up to 671 soms or a little more than $14.00.

My quest for apple cider vinegar continued and after stopping at two other supermarkets, including the just-opened Food Boutique where there was no vinegar of any kind, I found it and got three bottles of it for good measure. At the corner of Toktogula and Umatalieva, a young guy was selling honey, something I have always forgotten to add to my list, and I had to rummage through my bag to find enough change to pay the 250 soms or less than $6.00 for a sizeable jar of the stuff.

Nargiza, the teacher from KNU, had called me earlier to say she wanted to meet with me around five and I had planned on asking her to come up to my flat as I was plain tired. Instead, she called to say she had cooked a national dish, manti, for me and was waiting for us to have dinner together. I cursed under my breath as I prepared to walk to the university to meet her just as the sun went down.

Nargiza lives in a hostel for teachers in a run-down building with no lights at the entrance or on the staircase. The kitchen reminded me of those improvised cooking areas set up in the Dominican Republic while a proper kitchen is being built except that here the arrangement was permanent. No counter space, no stove, but a hot plate, improvised plumbing system and so on. The manti was barely edible and there was no sauce but a bottle of supposedly spicy ketchup.

                                         
                                              Nargiza's kitchen

I found out that Nargiza hadn’t invited to dinner just because she wanted to see me, but because she’s working on a paper, due on December 15, on the subject of euphemisms and needed my help compiling examples. I felt a bit deceived and somewhat furious she hadn’t mentioned on the telephone for I had no time to devote to such project. I offered to show her two worksheets I did have on euphemisms and double talk to see if she could use those examples.

                                     Nargiza and her children

Her neighbor, another Nargiza, came in then and offered me a ride back home in her car. That was the only pleasant side to this visit.

December 5, 2012

I certainly couldn’t complain about the weather this week as it’s has been sunny and much warmer than I had expected for the month of December. As agreed with Ainura, I stood in front of the Philharmonic Hall at ten in the morning, and she had no trouble identifying me at all. We walked to her university, the International University of Kyrgyzstan, which was right on the same plaza.

Ainura has been a language trainer for Peace Corps volunteers for many years and charges 200 soms, or about $4.25, per hour to teach Russian. We agreed that my lessons would have to be flexible to allow for my crazy schedule and that I would go to her university for my classes. I had my first lesson during which I emphasized my need for spoken Russian and not the grammar-based instruction which is favored by most teachers here as I didn’t plan on doing any reading or writing at this point.

                          Ainura in one of the classrooms at the Kyrgyz International University

When finished, I walked all the way to Lingua to exchange some money and catch the minibus that would take me to the Russian Slavonic University to meet with Sophiat. While waiting in the foyer, I ran into two of the teachers who had completed the series of workshops last week. One of them, Anastasia, insisted on staying with me until Sophiat came down from her classroom. It was too early for our appointment with the hairdresser, so we went into the canteen and had some snacks reheated as the soup was already gone.

My hairdresser was of Uzbek and Kyrgyz descent and immediately mentioned she was ready to leave the country for better opportunities elsewhere. Sophiat explained what I wanted and I was quickly taken to the sink to have my hair washed. The cut in itself took just a few minutes as she was indeed an experienced hairdresser and I was a really happy camper until she pulled the hair dryer and insisted that she should dry my hair because of the cold weather outside. I refused, paid her 450 soms (about $10.00), including a tip, and walked out.

Sophiat was curious about learning Latin dance moves, and I told her she needed the right pair of shoes first of all, one with a secured strap, and since we had plenty of time before reporting back to Lingua, we stopped at the shoe store, Lion, a chain originating in Russia. The only pair of shoes with a strap was a maroon color pair of pumps with a good 4-5 inch square heel costing more than a hundred dollars even though the material wasn’t even leather.

Right next door, a Christmas store had opened offering miniature Christmas trees in all shapes and materials along with balls, baskets and crystal figures. For a country that claims not to celebrate this holiday, I was really surprise to see the variety of merchandise being offered including a nativity scene and the three king’s figurines.

When we got to Lingua, Joel and Willoughby were already there and after making the proper introductions, we promptly got to work on the now infamous newsletter for Forum. The website Judson had recommended wasn’t the “just follow the prompts” kind he had stated and we had lots of problems trying to add columns, resize photos and create new pages. It became obvious that this would be a newsletter only available in electronic format and not possible to print as individual pages for those teachers still without access to the Internet.

We couldn’t even manage the list of subscriber so as to select a few people to screen the newsletter before sending it out to the general public. Joel had to leave at four and Willoughby and I played with it until five and then I just gave up. I really don’t know what to do at this point, whether to scrap this project and just go back to square one in spite of Forum’s request that the newsletter be available for distribution this Saturday.

I went home a bit downcast and even though a young woman yielded her seat to me, I was soon surrounded by a crush of bodies and my claustrophobia kicked in. Traffic was hardly moving and I opted to get off ahead of my stop and just walk home.

December 4, 2012

Melting snow was dripping from the roof when I woke up this morning signaling the warmer temperatures ahead. I got to spend the morning puttering around getting things ready for the first training session at the Arabaev University and didn’t leave the house until one, but not before calling Ainura, the Russian teacher the Peace Corps office had recommended, and setting up an appointment for tomorrow morning to discuss engaging her services.

I got into the #129 mini-van only to notice it wasn’t moving at all and that many commuters were choosing to walk instead. I had no idea what was going on, but I only had about thirty minutes to get to the university and chose to walk as well to try and make it on time. When I got to Manas Avenue, the source of the problem became obvious as a line of policemen were keeping the street free of traffic possibly just so the president or some other dignitary could travel free of any obstacles. I don’t know whether drivers are advised ahead of time of such road closures, apparently not, or why the policemen don’t detour traffic in other directions.

I made it to the front entrance of the university with five minutes to spare and called Jyrgal to let her know I’d be waiting for her to come and show me the way. She took me to the university’s resource center where a round table took up the majority of the space and some books, donated by the Oxford University Press, lined up one of the walls. I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a roll-up screen to show the presentation, but Jyrgal’s laptop only had Microsoft Office 2003 and my PPT couldn’t be opened by such an old program. An IT person was called in, and I suggested saving the presentation to that format, which he did and brought it back to me.

One of the teachers complained about being asked to find her partner by playing “Famous Pairs” as she indicated they didn’t know any of those characters although they were represented in literature, films, TV shows and cartoons. I replied it was perhaps high time they learned about them and taught it to their students so they too would be familiar when they encounter these characters while reading, watching TV or movies.

We had a spirited discussion about classroom management and they all agreed that asking for students’ input or their feedback on their teaching were not things they’d ever consider doing as they went contrary to the long ingrained practice of the teacher being in control and dictating everything. I had then take the survey to decide what the next seven sessions should cover.

The traffic was still snarled when I left the university, and I proceeded on foot to meet with Willoughby at another coffee house called “Coffeeman”, right next to Beta Stores. The minute I walked in it was clear I couldn’t stay as many people were smoking and there was no fresh air. I started coughing almost as a reflex. The young waiter was apologetic, but I promised to go back in the spring when they’d have an outdoor sitting area available.

We walked back to the Kievskaya Avenue and I told Willoughby I had seen another sign for a coffee house nearby and we walked into La Dolce Vita to find an elegant space all white leather and hardwood accents, but the smell of cigarette smoke pervade the air as well. They too had an outdoor space out front, so spring might be a good time to revisit it.

Across the street, another sign indicated coffee was being served and Willoughby begged me to try it as she was getting tired of walking. The place had no real coffee and the server didn’t understand anything about it. I had to console myself with drinking a cup of instant coffee with milk, and she had a glass of dry white wine. She showed me a wire contraption the Peace Corps had given her to wear over the soles of her shoes that would prevent her from slipping on the icy surfaces. I told her I wanted one and she promised to inquire about it.

We discussed the agenda that Forum has set out for her and how happy she was to have found a beautiful apartment with a piano in it as she plays routinely. We agreed to meet tomorrow to go over the newsletter as Forum would like to have it available this Saturday for distribution during our bi-weekly meeting.

I walked home in the twilight, stopped at two supermarkets looking for apple cider vinegar and found none.  Watched the film, “It’s a Free World”, by the British filmmaker Ken Loch, about the exploitation of illegal immigrants in the United Kingdom. It painted a picture as bleak as that of the United States with the same callow disregard for the lives and well-being of those unfortunate enough to have to flee their country of origin in search of a better life elsewhere.