February 7, 2013

As promised, I made my way to Elvira’s class so I could observe her methodology and subsequently provide her with a letter of recommendation. She came to meet me in front of the building and escorted me to another broom closet of a classroom with enough seats for exactly twelve students sitting at individual chairs. There was a small whiteboard on a corner and that was that as far as audio/visual equipment was concerned.

Elvira spent the class guiding the students through the introductory biography sketch of Mary Shelley before proceeding to have them read the preface to “Frankenstein”. Everyone mispronounced the name, using the Russian way, and correction was never offered. All the sentences written on the board contained mistakes in both spelling and punctuation marks, but then again no corrections were offered.

I gave Elvira feedback while having a portion of cold plov and insipid potato salad in the cafeteria and offered a few suggestions for avoiding the dead time waiting for students’ responses. I had not been clear at all as to what the goal of the lesson had been and a lesson plan was never forthcoming. I plan on doing a second observation next week and hope to see some improvement.

I had run out of paper and couldn’t print the handouts for today’s session. My email to the dean had gone unanswered, so I contacted one of the young teachers to help me out and she agreed to print them for me. I got to the university with fifteen minutes to spare and was immediately whiskered into the faculty’s meeting room as they were having a banquet there.

One of the teachers had had a death in her family and her colleagues put on this banquet as a sort of wake for the soul of the departed. The teacher in question was dressed in black and I asked if she was doing so as a way of mourning, but she said no. Only wives were expected to dress in black or blue to show they were in mourning in this culture and they would do so for only one year. I got to try a new dish from the Dungan cuisine called “funchosa” that looked and tasted very much like our chow mein.

The workshop in itself seemed to go well with my dividing the time into finishing the classroom management first and having them complete the survey on classroom management practices and sharing their findings with their partners. Many of them admitted their results had fallen into the “Poor” category thus indicating they were failing to practice the type of behavior that would insure learning would take place at all times.

The second half was taken up with my giving them a glimpse of what Bloom’s Taxonomy was all about as once again none of these teachers had been exposed to it. I could see many heads bobbing along as I pointed that the type of actions they regularly took to ascertain students had learned the material fell into lower order questioning and testing which demanded a mostly passive role for their learners.

I showed them how, by using higher order learning strategies, the students could become independent learners and the teacher more of a coach or facilitator who would work alongside them to unleash their creativity and ability to come up with a finished product. As usual, I promised to email them the entire presentation so they could peruse it at their leisure.

I walked back home in the brilliant sunshine stopping once again for staples at Narodni and then got home to crash in the living room couch. I must have slept for a scant twenty minutes when a group of people, including some shrieking children, came up the stairs and started another form of racket that was to stay around until the late evening.

My head felt as it was in a fog and I could barely look at my computer screen. I’m afraid I might still need to take antibiotics, something I really hate to do, but my allergies/cold seem to be lingering around for too long.

Willoughby and I had played phone tag all day and finally got to speak so we could compare notes about our days so far. She had received the announcement about an American hip-hop artist presentation on Sunday afternoon and the subsequent ballet that same evening. I told her I needed to wait and see how I felt before making a decision.

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.

February 5, 2013

As it had been predicted, a light snow was falling this morning when I got up. Coffee in hand, I checked my email and Facebook updates and learned that my best friend Stephanie had finally caved in and joined the 21^st century by opening an email account and sending me a message through her niece’s FB page. I must admit that she did it mostly out of frustration at not being able to get snail mail reliably to and from Central Asia.

The letter I posted at the beginning of December has never reached her, and I have yet to receive the package Elizabeth sent me on December 12 either. Someone recommended going in person to the main post office to inquire about this package, but I will need an interpreter in order to do so. I’ll see if someone from Lingua can accompany me there.

I headed to the Bishkek Humanities University way too early as I was uncertain of its location only to discover it was a ten-minute trolley ride from the bus stop on Manas Avenue. It was only one o’clock and I chose to use the half hour left until my meeting with the dean to walk around the neighborhood, an area totally unknown to me. It was not a pretty sight once one stepped away from the main artery as muddy streets showed unfinished houses and small badly-lit businesses.

I returned to the campus, called the dean from the lobby, and was ushered into his office for the obligatory tea and biscuits ceremony. He had been to the States on two previous occasions and had even visited Kyrgyz friends in Miami Beach of all places. I kept nervously glancing at my watch while periodically mentioning that I wanted to go and set up the classroom, but he insisted the room was being prepared for me and I didn’t need to do anything about it.

He then got a call from Natalia saying they were running late and for me to wait for them before starting. That seemed odd, so I tried to clarify by asking if they wanted to watch the workshop from the beginning and he nodded his head.

When two o’clock rolled around and most of the teachers were present, I mentioned we were waiting for a couple of visitors to arrive, but I’d go ahead and introduce myself in the meantime. More minutes went by and they weren’t there yet, so I introduced the “Famous Pairs” cards for them to find their partners with the usual clueless participants needing some help.

They were in the process of completing the Venn diagram with things they both shared, around 2:25 pm, when Natalia Jennifer finally showed up ushered in by the dean. I explained to them I had had no choice, but to get started or the one-hour slated time would have been wasted. Jennifer apologized profusely and told me her instructions had been for me to start without them as she had been to yet another meeting and it had ran overtime.

The teachers were informed about the requirements for attendance and the obligation to allow for at least one class observation. They completed the survey to determine what they wanted to see covered for the next seven sessions and then we went on to talk about classroom management. Most of their comments were on the need for planning a tight lesson and only one mentioned creating the right atmosphere in class.

I had to compress the usual presentation, but even while doing so, the teachers made some very pointed comments that would have been worthwhile exploring further in the future. At three o’clock, I stopped since they had other obligations to fulfill and just promised to email them the presentation so they’d have a chance to read it and continue the discussion on Thursday.

Once they were gone, Jennifer commented that since the topic seemed to be so relevant to the teachers and they all appeared to be so engaged with it, she recommended devoting all of, or most of, the next session to finishing it. I’ll play it by ear depending on the reaction I get from the teachers once they get to read the entire presentation.

I chose to walk back to the house as the light snow had not hardened yet and it wasn’t too cold. I stopped at Narodni and bought a few staples before getting home. It was time to start putting together my presentation for the Forum session this Saturday as I still needed a few more pictures to round out the activities I want the teachers to carry out.

February 4, 2013

I had a decent night sleep and felt much better when I got out of bed at almost nine in the morning. Whatever that medication has in it, it surely works at drying my sinuses and preventing me from coughing all night. Having skipped the news entirely yesterday, I attempted to watch CNN while drinking my coffee, but they had the umpteenth rerun of the same program.

I had enough energy to do the dishes and tidied up the place in anticipation of the landlady coming by to discuss the noise level with the levels on both sides of my unit. Not that I had any faith such talking would be able to solve the situation, just to give her a chance to play the local card in this game.

Shortly after I had my muesli for breakfast, the most horrendous sound started coming from the unit being renovated. It sounded as if someone was operating an industrial-sized drill like the ones used in the States to break sidewalks or pavement. It sounded as if someone was drilling inside my head. It was time to flee the apartment once again, but not before dashing a note to Mika that was contemplating moving into a guest house if need be to get away from such infernal sound.

When I got to Lingua, I tried to speak to Gulnara to ask her for clarification regarding my post not being renewed but I think she saw it coming and blew me off saying she was heading to a meeting and would talk to me later. I didn’t see her for the rest of the day. I will not attempt to bring up the subject again as I do have my dignity after all.

While sitting at the computer, Nargiza asked me which university had been the most enjoyable to work at so far, and I selected the Kyrgyz National University because of the warmth of its teachers. Nargiza graduated from the Manas Turkish University, a private college partly funded by the Turkish government and she confirmed the administration there does not want any influence from American teachers. It only has one among its faculty members.

I called the contact person at the Bishkek Humanities University and confirmed he would have a laptop, projector and whiteboard available for me tomorrow. He requested I call him when I get to the front of the building and he would guide me to the appropriate classroom where the workshops are due to take place. I finished the photocopying of the handouts and warm-up exercise, made a few changes to the PowerPoint presentation and then left.

I headed to the Halal Kitchen for a plate of lagman noodles and was happy to find it practically deserted. The ride home was a pleasure since the #4 trolley was almost empty and I got to sit at the front in clear view of my stop and a step or two from the exit.

A woman was placing yet more construction debris on my apartment landing when I got home. I didn’t even pretend to be civil and simply ignored her. When the landlady rang the bell, she told me she had spoken to the woman in question and had been informed all work on that apartment is due to be finished this week. The older couple I had spoken to a few weeks ago is moving in then hence providing me with a note of relief that no children would be around.

Mika didn’t know the tenants on my left, the ones with the little elephants in need of Ritalin, but has a friend who will find out for her so she can go and talk to them. I feel she is overly optimistic about her chances of solving the problem, but it’s worth giving it a try for I hate the idea of having to pack up my stuff once again and move.

Once more, Mika promised to go in search of the dining room chairs tomorrow.  

February 3, 2013

It has become apparent to me that peace and quiet in Bishkek are not to be had as long as you live in a Soviet-style apartment complex where neighbors don’t seem to care for each other’s comfort. By mid-morning on a Sunday, the owners of the flat across the landing started to hammer away precisely on the wall shared with my bedroom.

I flew into a rage and knocked on their door repeatedly until a young woman came out. She claimed to understand some English and I think I made very clear to her that it was Sunday and no work was supposed to take place on that day. I returned to my apartment and not ten minutes went by before the hammering resumed.

This time, there was nothing polite to say. I rang the door bell until she came out again and just yelled at her to stop being such an obtuse person and stop the noise as I had a cold and my headache was being made worse by their racket. Apparently a decision must have been made to stop hammering and instead I could still hear someone doing sanding or something similar on the wall.

I had to flee my apartment for on the other side, the army of little savages had started their daily stomping. Even with the music on, I couldn’t stop from hearing them. I sent a note to the landlady letting her know this level of noise was unacceptable as it normally went on until close to midnight.

I called Willoughby and we agreed to meet for coffee before the ballet. It was colder than it had been for the past week and I wish I had dressed warmer as I cooled my heels waiting for her. We walked to the Masal coffeehouse and were served lukewarm coffee once again. When I mentioned it to the affable young server, he insisted that only freshly brewed coffee could be served piping hot but not the ones that were milk-based. He definitely needs to attend a barista course soon.

Jennifer joined us at the Opera Ballet Theater and we were pleased to see that the place was almost full to capacity with lots of children in attendance. We were subjected to the typical Russian-style speeches from three government representatives at the stage who spoke about honoring a local dancer and in favor of promoting the culture of ballet among the young. The last part of the message seems to have been lost on the young boy next to me who played video games on her mom’s cell phone during the entire performance.

The program was short and sweet, no intermissions, and some decent dancing except for a tango number that seemed to have no tango steps and much less ballet in it. I had suggested grabbing a bite to eat after the show and remembered Willoughby mentioning that there was a decent Chinese restaurant behind the Tsum department store, so we headed that way.

We were sat in an area where people, mostly men, were smoking and where a TV screen showed a program with Chinese subtitles. When I complained about the smoke, Willoughby inquired as to the possibility of there being a non-smoking section and there was with the additional bonus of not having to stare at a TV screen.

The food was a bust as the only edibles portions were the fried rice and the broccoli flowerets. I couldn’t find the eggplant in my dish and the sweet and sour pork proved to a be a tough piece of meat rolled in flour, deep fried and then ladled with what tasted like ketchup, and I refused to eat it. The beef broccoli was tough and stringy and came in a flavorless watery sauce. We requested chili sauce repeatedly, but apparently they couldn’t understand what we meant and brought us actual chilies in a bowl.

I was taken aback when Jennifer asked me what my plans were for next year. She must have picked up on the puzzled look on my face for she then asked me: “You know your post is not being renewed, don’t you?” I told her no one had bothered to notify me and she then went on to try and justify this action by informing me that the embassy and her office had made the decision to re-write the proposal for my post to request a senior fellow who could help out with the textbook project being undertaken in Kyrgyzstan.

Since this is the second time that I’m denied the chance to extend, I can’t say I was surprised just dismayed to see that no one had had the decency to pull me aside and tell me. And these are people working on the diplomatic front, mind you. Jennifer insisted on paying the bill once again and we proceeded to walk her back to the Hyatt hotel where Willoughby and I got into a taxi to our respective destinations.

The little monsters next door were at it again, so I chose to watch a movie until they went to bed. “Bitter Moon” was a distressing flick to say the least. 

February 2, 2013

What a wretched night I spent unable to breathe, constantly blowing my nose and taking Advil repeatedly to keep my headache at bay. My fever broke in the early morning hours and I woke up drenched in sweat. After a long shower and a bite to eat, I went to the American Corner where Jennifer was going to give a presentation and Lingua would be issuing certificates to the winners of the pre-service teacher contest.

Jennifer’s subject was the release of the video game, “Trace Effects”, for teenager students of English, a preview of which we had seen at the mid-year conference. We moved to the third floor of the American Corner where a row of computers had been installed and teachers had to share a computer to navigate through the game. I’m not sure how successful, or useful, this game might be here since most schools lack computers or have so few that only staff members are allowed to use them.

Lingua introduced the winners of the contest, handed certificates and goodie bags from the embassy and the requisite photos were taken before we repaired to the usual venue for Forum members to discuss issues related to the organization’s doings. Gulnara showed a PowerPoint presentation highlighting the major successes of the last couple of years making special emphasis on the reviving of the newsletter and the functioning Facebook page.

                               Listening to Gulnara summarize what Forum does

One member of Forum had brought along with craft items she makes from a combination of materials, mostly felt, and put them on display for all to see. Jennifer was enthralled with the paintings of tulips on some of them and bought a few as souvenir indicating they were definitely cheaper than anything she could buy in Kazakhstan. She also commented that a silent auction, a concept completely unfamiliar in Kyrgyzstan, might work as a fundraising idea. She pointed at me to follow up with a discussion of its inner workings in the near future.

                               Admiring the handicraft items a Forum member brought in

Natalia has asked me to join her and Jennifer for lunch, but I felt bad about excluding Willoughby and asked if she could be included to which she reluctantly agreed. We walked to the Host restaurant where service was as slow as usual and my mutton vindaloo tasted neither like lamb nor like it had any of the spices associated with the vindaloo sauce from the south of India. Jennifer insisted on paying the tab using her credit card despite my reservations about it.

We went to Lingua to hold yet another meeting regarding the CATEC conference and its logistics. We first poured over an Excel sheet showing how the conference’s initial budget of $106,000.00 had gone over by 9K as the hotel had doubled its prices for the rooms since Jennifer had obtained a quote last September. Jennifer found some expenses that could be deleted and promised to cover the difference from her own budget.

Then the bomb was dropped that Forum wouldn’t have anything to do with the academic portion of the pre-conference since Jennifer had hired the former president of TESOL, Christine Combe, to fly in from Dubai to conduct that portion of the conference as well as to be the keynote speaker. I could see Gulnara, Elvira and Asel roll their eyes at the news and then much whispering took place among them.

When the meeting was adjourned, Jennifer approached me wanting to know if she had sounded “too bossy” about the whole conference. I demurred not willing to talk in front of everyone. She picked up on it and since she had agreed to join Willoughby and I for the ballet tomorrow, she suggested we talk privately either before or after the event.

At that moment, Elvira approached me to suggest we go back to the American Corner and hold yet another meeting to digest what had been said at Lingua. I had had it with meetings for the day and declined suggesting instead that we tabled it until next Saturday when we would meet after the regular session. The group stood outside still talking when my trolley came around and I jumped on it.

I came home to find out that my landlady, once again, had failed to show up with the chairs or the plumber to repair the irritating sound of water leaking from the toilet. I checked my phone, but I had no missed calls or text messages from her and once I logged on to my computer, there were no emails either. I was beyond furious and had to restrain myself not to call her right at that moment and give her a piece of my mind.

I cooked some dumpling soup to stave my hunger later on, made more tea and spent another miserable evening sniffling away.

February 1, 2013

Although I knew I couldn’t fully take part in the Zumba session Layra had invited me to, I decided to join her since it took place across the street from my apartment and the weather was relatively warm. The Zumba instructor, Naoe, is of Japanese descendent and married to an American working for the Manas Transit Center. They live in a spacious apartment with their four children and pay $1200.00 a month. They plan to relocate to the States, Florida specifically, come June.

Two women, one from Bulgaria and the other from Mongolia, were there also. Naoe provided the usual mix of reggaeton, salsa, cumbia, merengue and bachata, but added an expected twist in the form of a tango number. She only charges 100 soms per class and I thought I’d be willing to double that if she could do private lessons with me when my schedule allows it. We exchanged numbers and agreed to discuss it.

I made it to Lingua just in time for our meeting with Jennifer, Natalia, Emma and Gulnara. The gist of it was the new proposal Lingua has submitted to the Ministry of Education to provide the required courses teachers need to take for re-certification in the form of four modules that can be taken individually, but in a cycle, and when the teacher completes the cycle, he/she receives her certificate.

Jennifer seemed impressed with the idea, but when I asked Gulnara what part Forum was going to play in it, the answer was very vague, something along the lines of providing contacts in the different regions. I’m sure the people at Forum won’t be happy if this proposal is endorsed by the U.S. embassy and they lose their funding because Lingua will be providing that service already.

I went to have a cup of coffee with a young woman I’d met at the American Corner and insisted on trying out a coffeehouse I had seen nearby called Masal. The place was tastefully decorated, suitable dark and more importantly, quiet. The place allows smoking but there was only one other table occupied and they weren’t smoking, so I agreed to stay.

Marhabat lives in a village one hour outside Bishkek and comes to the American Corner faithfully to improve her English so she can compete for entrance to the American University of Central Asia where Elvira works. I promised to visit her village when the spring comes as she insisted the place is really ugly right now unless I was interested in skiing or skating, neither of which interest me in the least.

I took a marshrutka to get to the American Councils, right across the street from where I used to live, as Munara and Rebecca had invited to have some margaritas, chips, and salsa at five. I didn’t know that a staff member, the one who goes Latin dancing twice a week, was leaving the organization and thus the party. She invited me to join the group tomorrow, but I told her I had little energy for that right now.

The margaritas were great as the woman making them used to be a bartender. I had two of them before Nona, from Osh, joined us. Rebecca, Nona and I shared a taxi and I made sure and stop at the pharmacy to buy some kind of allergy medication Gulnara had recommended. The pharmacy insisted that was for the flu and not allergies and sold me something entirely different.

When it came time for me to take the medication, I discovered the package was empty as it only contained the little brochure with the information about it. I hated to have to put on my clothes again, but it was only ten to nine and there was a good chance the pharmacy was still open. The door was close, but when I tapped on the little window, the same young woman came to help me.

Somehow I conveyed to her that I had received an empty package and she promptly walked behind the counter and fetched another box. I contrasted that response to what I could have possibly heard in the States. Most likely something along the lines of “Are you crazy?” The medication did succeed in temporarily drying my sinuses, but sleep was still elusive.