February 6, 2013

My meeting with Anna to come up with a rubric for the selection process of participants for the CATEC conference was slow work. Despite Jennifer’s request that we include such factors as whether the teacher came from a rural area or was presenting for the first, we had no real way of ascertaining that information from just the application. We put together a tentative rubric, and I suggested sending it to the rest of the committee for their review and input before formalizing it.

I had a couple of samsis with Gulnara, Zarina and Larissa and learned they had hired another young teacher, Victoria, to take over the new classes for children as small as three-year-old. It was her birthday today and a cake had been ordered, but I steered clear from it. Zarina commented that she too would be teaching the little ones at the center. Lingua appears to be heading into all kinds of new territories.

Natalia and Elvira showed up on time at two o’clock and we had no choice, but to hold our meeting in the teachers’ lounge as every other classroom was already taken. The three of us came up with a schedule for the training sessions in the southern part of country to start on April 25 and end on May 10^th. Elvira clarified for me that Forum had never held elections for its officers and the board was simply appointed. There is nothing in the by-laws referring to holding elections. She agreed we should bring up the subject during our next board meeting.

When Elvira left to join Gulnara for another meeting at the Kyrgyz Academy of Learning, I point blank asked Natalia what had transpired to cancel the request for an extension on my membership since she apparently had no intentions of ever mentioning it. With a look of real contrition on her face, Natalia said it had Jennifer’s decision to do so and that she had just learned about it last Saturday. She claimed she pleaded with Jennifer to have me transferred to any other post, but to keep me in country since everyone I had worked with had been so pleased with my performance, but she had said no.

I reassured Natalia that Jennifer was right in indicating she couldn’t simply move me to another post as Georgetown does not approve of such practices. Jennifer had suggested that I apply for any other post that became available in Central Asia and I’d be considered for it. On the other hand, I might be done with my work in this region. This might be my signal to look for other horizons.

Upon Natalia’s departure, I met with Gulnara to finalize the dates for the teacher training sessions I’ll be providing for the pre-service teachers who participated in the competition last December. We settled for beginning on February 19 ending on March 12.

If the above dates work out as planned, I hope to have a breather between the end of that training session and the ones in the South. Perhaps I can fit in the trip to Dushanbe in between as I really want to visit some friends there before my departure from this part of the world.