October 31, 2011

As adage goes: “Careful what you wish for. You might get it.” My wish for a lot of rain that would remove the tons of layers of dust has become a reality or maybe a nightmare as I encountered another day of rain, packed trolleys and muddy streets. Took a taxi to make it to work on time and found out I’ve been assigned to another class. A student kept staring out the window and refused to make eye contact with me. When given the assignment, she didn’t take out her notebook or pen. The student in front of me kept lowering his eyes and wrote nothing or answered any questions. This is the class of third year students about to begin their practicum in two weeks and they can’t utter a complete sentence in English. A 90 minute class can seem to last an eternity under these conditions. I thought I had another class immediately thereafter, but was informed the class had already left. Had my usual soup and salad combination at the Russian restaurant and ran into Zainura, who seems to be a regular there, and discussed possibly getting together next Saturday.

                                                   Tajik couple

Following Peter’s suggestion that I try to get funding to buy my students a regular English grammar textbook, printed in either the United States or England, and do away with stilted Russian one they do have, I walked to the only bookstore in town that stocks this type of material. I settled for the Headway student workbook for beginners as it contains lots of colorful illustrations and comes with a CD for listening activities. It only costs 36.00 somonis or about $13.00 each and they could have the entire order ready for me to pick up in 2-3 days. While there, I was approached by a young woman who wanted to practice her English. She gave me her business card and promised to help find someone to design and print one for me.

The seamstress finally had my outfit ready and a skirt I had given her to shorten. It had only taken her three weeks to complete the task.

Desperate for the use of a bathroom, called Caroline and found out she was just reaching home at that moment. We both had received a call that morning from Tahmina inviting us to a Halloween party at one of the embassy employee’s home who was hosting the children participating in the MultiKids program. I had declined thinking I’d be teaching at the time, but also because I was not familiar with the location and didn’t feel like venturing out there in the rain. Caroline had the same feelings and so we went back to my apartment so she could have some of the plov and apple pie Mariam had made the day before. It was the perfect afternoon to spend it chatting over apple pie and coffee. Although Peter had promised to join us, he called saying he had to work late.

Spent the rest of the evening secluded in the living room, the warmest part of the apartment, until it was time for bed. I’ve been unable to watch the news, the only program I can find, since the rain started on Friday. I only have access to it through the satellite system and it plain does not like rain.

October 30, 2011

It was raining once again when I woke up. That will make it three days in a row. Almost felt as if I were back in Seattle. I’d have loved to stay in bed another day, but had arranged with my neighbor Mariam to have a plov cooking lesson at her place and the EFLs had a meeting scheduled at 2:15pm with someone coming in from Washington, D. C. Mariam and I took a new detour behind our apartment complex and walked through alleys where the private residences were hidden behind some very fancy gates. We came out to the main road between the wedding registry place and the maternity hospital where Ryan works. Some unfortunate bride was walking from the car to the steps of the wedding registry building in her gown under the rain and with not even a shawl over her shoulders. The poor woman must have been freezing to death as her party was not even holding an umbrella over her. Took a marshrutka from there to the bazaar expecting that the rain and cold weather might have made the place less crowded, but I could swear it was even more so. Mariam had her particular spots where to get the ingredients for our plov and I gave up on buying anything for my own kitchen so as not to slow her down. Back to the apartment where she lit her gas stove, yes, some people I’ve discovered can buy propane gas here, and Mariam is one of them. She is going to put me in touch with the company that comes every two months to replace her tank. I’m extremely concerned about being without electricity for long spells and not being able to make my coffee. I do realize that I need to obtain the cooperation of my landlord, but fail to see why I can’t have access to a propane tank when Mariam has been living in the same building since 1993 and hasn’t had any problems.

Making plov, the national dish of Tajikistan, seems like an easy affair. Buy two kilos of beef, don’t bother trimming the fat or gristle, add two huge ladles of oil to a cast iron pot and when it starts to smoke, add the meat and cook it until it’s brown on all sides. Meanwhile, slice an onion and add it to the meat cooking it until it caramelizes. Add a cup of chickpeas that have been soaking overnight and a kilo of shredded carrots. Cook until both are soft. Add a packet of the seasoning designated for plov, add the rice and enough water to cover everything. Add some kind of aromatic seed, the name of which I could not pronounce nor remember now, and cover the mixture tightly so the steam will continue to cook the rice. The whole thing took about two hours while Mariam also prepared a delicious salad with only sweet tomatoes, their seedless cucumber and a bunch of cilantro leaves chopped very, very fine. An apple pie was also prepared using a simple dough on a pan, similar to cookie sheet, layering it with sliced apples and walnuts. I hardly had time to enjoy the meal as I needed to be at the American corner at 215pm and it was already five minutes to two. Mariam gave me some plov and apple pie so I could share with Caroline and back into the wet streets I went, watching my breath trail behind me as I worried about being the last one to arrive.  My fears were unfounded, as usual, as no one was there but the coordinator. When everybody got there, we sat in a circle and went around introducing ourselves and talking a bit about our projects or post. I made it a point to complain about the lack of technology at my post and how allergic I was to chalk. I saw the Public Affairs Officer make a note of it. Let’s hope it means I’ll be able to buy a whiteboard at some point soon.

One of the women in the group is participating in very different type of research as she is looking at Tajik dancers in their full spectrum from village traditional dancers, to professional ones and even the ones that might call themselves dancers, but might be involved in prostitution. She commented on need to pay bribes in order to have access to people in the Ministry of Culture who could provide information about the state of dance education in the country. Emily invited us to a performance of “Don Quixote” taking place at 4:00 and our guest had a special invite to visit the Antiquities Museum. We trooped to the Opera Ballet Theater nearby, but found the production so dull that we sneaked out during the first intermission. Although I had read the book gazillion years ago, I could not remember the plot. Seeing the ornate interior of the building was worth the ten somonis we paid for the admission fee as it has the grand scale favored by the Soviet architect that built it and the chandeliers by themselves must have cost a fortune. Bathroom though were disappointing as they were the squat type and quite smelly. 

I declined to use them and waited until we got back to Caroline’s place where we sat to discuss our upcoming series of teacher training workshops making all dates tentative as we do not know if our venue is available, what the best date/time will be for local teachers, how to contact these teachers, when the actual holidays fall or even more important, what they would like for us to present. Information seems to be at a premium here and whoever has it is sure not sharing.

                                     
                                          Dinner at Ryan's

Ryan had been nice enough to invite all of those who had not turned up the night before to come over and enjoy his leftovers. Caroline and Peter declined and Corrie had dinner plans with some Tajik family. Only Yoomie and I showed up. I had purchased a cake and apple juice and could not believe the amount of food Ryan had prepared: fish in two different types of sauce, plov, mung soup (my favorite among all his dishes), flat bread, salad, pickled vegetables, shredded smoked cheese, soft drinks and even Georgian wines he had brought from there recently. I wish my stomach was not in such poor state so I could have eaten a lot more, but cramps were still rumbling through it and decided to play it safe. Ryan and Yoomie indicated they’d be willing to travel with me to Istanbul during the winter break. That’s great news as they are both seasoned travelers and could serve as my guides.

October 29, 2011

Not much to report as I woke up with the runs, felt feverish and sluggish and had no choice but to cancel all plans for the day. And I had such a full agenda: lunch with Peter and Caroline and then visit to his place to see the kitten he had so gallantly taken off Caroline’s hands about a week after she had found it on my staircase. Then I was to meet with Dariush to find out where I could blow up my handouts into posters so I don’t have to make individual copies. Later on, meeting with Nigina, who had just returned from Washington, D. C., and finally dinner at Ryan’s house.

I tried to make a soup from one the envelopes I had bought recently and which purported to convert into a some kind of noodle soup, but even after adding chicken bouillon, it was plain vile. Back to bread and cheese and apple juice. Watched the movie “Casino”, the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and saw my first episode of “Glee” from the selection of movies, TV shows and documentaries Yoomie had shared with us. It rained all day long once again. I could see slender ribbons of water coursing through the alleyway and the temperature never got above 48 degrees. It was a good day to be sick in bed.

October 28, 2011

I got up at 5:30am and it was already pouring rain and it didn’t stop all day. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees and I could see my breath when I poked my head through the kitchen window to check out the scene. Wish I could have stayed home until it was time to go the PedInst, but I needed to add money to my cell phone and see the dean at the Russian University at 11:00. Typical Tajik behavior, he wasn’t in his office and his assistant tried to cajole me into teaching a class, as apparently a teacher was missing. I told her I wasn’t prepared to teach and needed to run some errands before going to my actual classes. She seemed miffed, but asked me to return in an hour when the dean would, for sure, be available. Went to Formula I Café for lunch and a helpful young guy there helped add money to my cell and get the receipt. The offerings were paltry and I settled for a rice pilau, Afghanistan style, with raisins and cashews. I then saw something with beans and added it to my tray. It was quite tasty as it had pieces of pumpkin and potatoes. Back to the university trying to avoid the ever-widening puddles and up to the fifth floor once again to find out that the dean was partaking in the celebration of some colleague’s birthday and had not returned yet. I left message for him to call me if he was still interested.

The trolley was completely packed with wet people carrying umbrellas and packages. All windows were closed and the heater on, so it was a bit suffocating. Pariso was waiting for me in her office and I saw a couple of students hand her in some money. I asked if she was collecting money for a special event, and she replied that was money the students were paying for extra lessons she had given them. The rate is ten somonis, or about 2.50 an hour. We proceeded to building #7 where the Halloween celebration was going to take place. I still didn’t understand exactly what the students were going to present, but was told they had been rehearsing for week. To sum it up, all I can said is that except for the two carved pumpkins and the candy distributed to the audience at the end, I have no idea how this could be related to said holiday. There were some skits, some students sang and at the end they all danced. End of story.

                             Halloween celebration at the PedInst

Although I was told that afternoon classes would most likely be cancelled after the performance, my students were waiting for me and Pariso said I had to teach them then. It was a long afternoon.

                              Two of my colleagues at the English Language Faculty

Shared many cups of tea with Caroline while relating our respective experiences and then more soup and bread at your usual place. Miserable walk home under the rain, the fog and the cold. Happy to get home and get into my pajamas and turn on the portable heater full blast.

October 27, 2011

Most of my laundry was dried this morning and I now had a bigger selection of pieces to choose from. The owner of the apartment across the landing from mine, and who had previously given me a ride to work, wanted to know how much I was paying for rent. She wanted for me to tell other ex-pats that her apartment will be ready for occupancy in about a week. I thought of Elisabeth, our fifth ELF, who’s still waiting for her visa. Got to the institute earlier than needed and searched for an empty classroom where I could do paperwork and had just sat down when one of the teachers came in to ask me to look after his class for five minutes. He must have been gone for at least twenty as I had a chance to sit down and read with three different students until they notified me they needed to move on to their next class. They were filing out when the teacher returned. He did not apologize or explained his absence. I asked him if he had a few minutes so we could talk in private about one of his students who is also in one of my classes. From the beginning I thought there was something wrong with him as he insists on shouting his requests, gets up from his seat constantly, talks out of turn and so on. When I sat down to read with him, he could not decode the words and had a terrible time with pronunciation. He might even have an eyesight problem. The teacher confirmed the student has a very low level of English, but he is doubly cursed with the fact that he’s an only child and the son of another faculty member, so it seems as if he’s being treated with kid gloves. As for the vision problem, he tried to tell me that all students get their eyesight checked when they exit their high school. As if getting a fake certificate is beyond people with money. Pariso informed me that the Halloween celebration had been switched to Friday and that they might not hold classes after that.

                                          More signs of fall

I tried to get my students in the first class to come up with a list of adjectives to describe a place and gave them as an example “noisy”. They didn’t recognize the spoken form and I wrote it on the board. I now know that when everyone reaches for his/her dictionary is because they have never seen the word before. When I asked a student to justify her response that Dushanbe was a beautiful place, she was taken aback and looked at me as if saying: “Everybody knows this a fact. How dare you question my statement?” When we tallied the responses from the students, no one had come up with single negative adjective about the place and I gave them as homework to think of aspects of their city they did not like. We will see how that goes.

                                               Peace sign

My bladder was protesting at this point and I decided to walk to the Morning Star Café, under the pretext of having a real cup of coffee, just so I could use their always spotless bathroom. A cup of coffee here will set you back 8 somonis, or about $2.00, so you don’t see any Tajiks here, but mainly Americans and Europeans. I flipped through a fitness magazine while periodically admiring the views of the nearby mountains covered in snow. I tried calling the dean at the Slavic Russian University, but the call would not go through.

During my second class, the disruptive student I had discussed before let me know through one of his classmates that his father would beat him to a pulp if he found out that he was misbehaving in class. Maybe I now have some leverage with this student.  I also learned that I now have an Iranian woman in this class who speaks no English, but was allowed to enroll in it because her husband is teaching computer science at the institute. The dean happened to walk into my classroom at this point and I mentioned it to him. His reply: “Oh yes, we have many problems.”

Ran into Dariush while walking home and he told he had tried calling when he passed by my apartment. My phone had not rung. I asked him if he would do me a favor and find out where I could get my handout blown up and laminated so I’d not have to make multiples copies for the students. He’ll find out and call me on Saturday. Tried texting Caroline and got a message about the network not being available. When I emailed her, she came up with the answer immediately: My phone was out of money. Duh!

                         Distinctive fence around the corner from my apartment

I had a chunk of flat bread, some cheese, a banana and apple juice for dinner as for the first time in my adult life I cannot find familiar ingredients with which to prepare my favorite dishes. I’ve been making do by eating soup and bread either at lunch or dinner while having muesli or eggs for breakfast. I continue to peruse the shelves of the local supermarkets, but I’m still unable to read Cyrillic, except for a few letters, and packaging here is completely opaque so I can’t really see what’s inside. I’ll have to recruit one of my students to come with me to the supermarket and read every label. Extra credit will be granted. LOL.

October 26, 2011

Beautiful morning with brilliant sunshine and a slight breeze. Made my way to the Slavic Russian University where an attractive Jurisprudence (law) student escorted me to the English Language faculty with much difficulty as he spoke little English, but was willing to practice the few words he did know. I met the chairman of the faculty and current chairman of the English Language Teachers Association of Tajikistan. When I stated the fact that I wanted to offer a weekly conversation class at his institution, he took it to mean I wanted to carry a regular schedule of classes for his advanced students. I reiterated that I was already teaching a full load at the Pedagogical Institute and only wanted a class on Wednesdays when I load is the lightest. He gave me his business card, printed in English on one side and Russian on the other, and asked me to call him tomorrow.

                         Tree outside my kitchen window

I made my way to the bazaar to go to the second hand store again in the hope of finding a couple of sweaters or a short coat as I was unable to find these items in Florida prior to my departure as they weren’t in stock yet. I found the door open to what looked like a day care center or kindergarten and the workers there allowed me to go in and take photos. No luck at the second hand shop, but found a felt robe to wear at home and a couple of tops. Ran into Camilla, a young woman we met at the town hall and who works for a local NGO. She was trying to get her groceries into her car, but the young boy carrying them in a cart was going in a different direction. She had to run after him and we couldn’t talk.

                                         Children playing at a day care center

                                                   Day care center worker

                          Well-kept playground at the day care center

I managed to get a cobbler to replace the noisy plastic heels on my clogs so we students don’t feel like there’s an elephant approaching in the hallway when I walk in. He spoke Russian and a few words of English, but told me to wait ten minutes and he would charge me seven somonis. He kindly placed a piece of plastic under my feet and took the shoes away. In a few minutes I had my clogs back and walked as silent as a mouse. I missed the #1 trolley and took a taxi the PedInst. I then had enough time for a cup of coffee, instant and with some diluted milk, that did nothing to keep me awake.

While waiting for my class to begin, I was approached by two other students and learned that the institute is having a Halloween celebration on Saturday, but they were unable to tell what it entailed. Pariso informed me that a decision to give me a particular classroom, where I could store my stuff and have a key to, would not be made until all my documents were in order. Apparently, the Halloween event consists of a play. No invitation was extended to me though.

                                         

                                  Students at the PedInst

I asked the students to finish interviewing their classmates so we could summarize their findings on the board. We only got to do two categories, food and drinks, but the students seemed to have relaxed a bit and even enjoyed themselves. I let them keep the handout and asked them to practice the different categories with the friends and relatives. One student pull out a camera and asked for permission to have her picture taken with me and when I said yes, ten other cameras came out and I almost went blind from posing with everyone of them.

                                             
                                                              My 112 group

                                             Same group

Had dinner with Caroline and then got a call from my landlord, but we could not communicate. After buying a few grocery items, I made my way back home and found my landlord still waiting for me by his car. The poor guy had brought not one, but two radiators, and had been waiting for two hours. He placed one in the miniscule bathroom and other I placed in the bedroom. A pack of ten hangers was handed to me also. I motioned to the kitchen and showed him I had been unable to do laundry as apparently the water had been shut off after the flooding in my bedroom. He turned a knob behind the washer, and voila, water was flowing. I did four loads of laundry as Caroline was able to show me how to set up the contraption where I can dry my laundry.

                                                 Laundry day

October 25, 2011

The yellow leaves on the tree outside my kitchen are placidly falling to the ground, fluttering on their way to creating a carpet over the alleyway down below. The pomegranate tree is sporting some red globes and someone has carved a vegetable garden next to the concrete fence with a few rows of peppers already bearing fruit.  The temperature has dropped to 43 degrees and I kept the heating on all night with the bedroom door open in the hope of catching some warmth. There’s been no word from my landlady about getting me a portable radiator.

Went to get copies made of the handout I had previously printed and the place wanted to overcharge me for them. Instead of the 35-40 dirams per page the dean told was the current rate, the cashier quoted me one somoni per page or more than double. When I protested, they lowered the rate to 50 dirams. Proceeded to the PedInst as Pariso had called to ask me to come in earlier to complete some paperwork. When we sat down, here’s the list she gave me (literally):

1. Application
2. Personal form (leaf)
3. The copy of all kind of diplomas
4. Autobiography
5. Medical reference
6. Characteristics/reference description
7. Copy of passport
8. Working book
9. Two photos 3 X 4
10. CIN (absolute number of worker)
11. Reference from place of residence
12. Black folder (file) for documents

All documents were to be submitted by the following day. I laughed really hard and told her the request was simply hilarious, neither Pariso nor her colleague present had ever heard this word and had to look it up in their dictionary, as I didn’t even understand what exactly the administration wanted and except for my curriculum, passport and photos, I had no access to any other document. Pariso took offense to my lightheartedness and insisted this was a serious matter if I wanted to continue teaching at the PedInst. To appease her, I told her I’d contact Tahmina by email with the list of documents and let her handle the situation. Pariso wanted to call Tahmina on the spot, but I reminded her that Tahmina had left for Garm that morning and might not be available.

Pariso also informed me that my 1:25pm class was having their grammar exam and I agreed to observe. After about five minutes of waiting with the students, she came back to tell me that their professor could not be found and to please proceed with my lecture. This class had never seen the word “handout” and more outstanding yet, the word “hate”. They couldn’t believe that I had sprung for my pocketbook and paid for the copies instead of collecting money from them as other teachers do when they have an exam. I talked to the students first about the activity from the previous week and the fact that they lacked sufficient vocabulary to participate in speaking activities. I tried to impress on them that without vocabulary their knowledge of grammar was simply useless as they could not tell me what their thoughts or feelings were about anything. We proceeded with the activity of interviewing each other about their likes and dislikes while talking about food, drinks, movies, sports, hobbies, vacations, and so. It went much better than I had expected and even the surly student who had refused to participate last week by loudly stating that he spoke no English told me through his classmate that the activity was interesting and he wanted to learn to speak English fluently.

I had a break after my second class and req1uested the key to the Resource Room donated by the British Council so I could peruse the contents of the materials left behind by Beth. He handed it to me and said a copy would be made later on and I proceeded to ask numerous students and administrators where the room was as I couldn’t quite remember. No one, not even the Rector’s secretary, knew where this room was located. Back to the English Language faculty where one of the male teachers agreed to accompany me there after telling it was located in Building #7. I hadn’t even noticed that the buildings had numbers on them. While walking there, I related my decision to focus on vocabulary building with the students instead of grammar points and his reply was that the students needed to learn the material necessary for them to pass the exam they’d take every six weeks. To think that I had come half way around the word to teach interactive lessons and  to then be told I’m to teach to the test felt like a slap in the face. Where am I? Back in Florida? FCAT time perhaps?

The Resource Room in question is located off a dingy hallway, dark as usual, and unless you have been taken there, you’d not find it as there is no sign on the outside. Once inside, I was looking at a large, bright room with two computers, both unplugged, one large printer, three CD players, two of them new and still in their respective boxes, an entire wall of bookshelves groaning with books on teacher training, leveled readers, dictionaries, grammar books, novels and magazines. I’m going to venture that since Beth left in June or thereabouts, no one has set foot in this room. I found a large whiteboard and even an overhead projector, something I desperately need. Most of the materials had a label indicating it had been donated by the British Council. I found a copy of the book “Zero Prep”, which Beth had indicated had been very helpful for her lessons. In addition, I found another titled “Lessons from your Rucksack”, written by a British author who has taught TEFL for years and decided not ask for permission and just take those home to peruse their contents for as the saying goes: “It’s better to apologize than to ask permission.”

My last class of the day seems to be the one with the least fluency. They struggle to read even simple instructions and cannot understand spoken English. When asked why they were learning a foreign language, some answered they were doing it  so they could go to America. No one mentioned gaining the ability to communicate with people from around the world. Prior to the beginning of this class, Pariso lectured me about not laughing in class as the students were talking about it in the hallways and specially not to laugh when I was talking to the professors in front of the students for it made them look bad.

Trolley #1 was packed and I was surrounded by some riders who had chosen not to use deodorant. It seems to be a choice made mostly by young men. Will have to look into it at some point. The staircase was already chilly and I allowed a young girl to go ahead of me as she was running to get to the third floor. Her mother had opened the door and this was the woman who almost knocked my door down the day of the flooding in my bathroom. I tried to ask her if the damage to her ceiling had been fixed, but when I looked into her hallway, I couldn’t see any damage. She asked her daughter to interpret for her, but she spoke little English. I did find out that she teaches Tajik history at the Slavic/Russian University around the corner and had studied English in the past. I told her I was interested in offering a conversation class there and she asked me to stop by tomorrow.

Mariam had completed one of my outfits and I went to retrieve it. The other one will be ready tomorrow and she asked50.00 somonis for each or about $10.00. It’s indeed too cold now for me to wear them unless I can find a turtleneck sweater to wear under the tunic.

October 24, 2011

Tahmina notified me that she had not been able to arrange a specific time to meet with the deputy dean, but asked me to meet her at the PedInst at 11:00am nonetheless and she agreed to try and bring me the box of books sent by the State Department to help us teach abroad. When I boarded the trolley, one of the class monitors saw me and invited me to take his seat. He’s the same one that has invited me to his village for the upcoming Little Eid festival taking place the first weekend of November. I’m hoping to convince Caroline to go with me so we can explore at least one region outside of the capital. I had foregone breakfast thinking there was plenty of time to grab lunch across the street before the meeting, but just as I got the cafeteria, Tahmina called to say she was at the corner waiting for me.

                         Old man sweeping leaves in a courtyard

 We proceeded to the dean’s office at about 10:40 and his office was mobbed by students and English professors who had been notified I’d coming in that morning to teach a conversation class. I had not agreed to such thing and felt blindsided when the dean, instead of answering the list of questions I had carefully prepared, tried to shoo me into a classroom by telling me how eager the students were to meet me and have an opportunity to speak to a native English speaker. I was only able to get confirmation that the bathroom with the key belongs to the rector only and not even Tahmina, when she taught there, had access to it. My predecessor didn’t have an office space and I’d have to use the resource room donated by the British Council, and which sits unused by anybody else, as my office. The fact that this room is two buildings away from the English classroom didn’t seem to bother him. There is no listening lab as the equipment included in the Resource Room is old and doesn’t work anymore. I didn’t even have a chance to ask for a whiteboard so I won’t have to deal with the dust from the chalk. Instead, I was escorted to a classroom by the corresponding English professor, who looked like a student himself, and told that the dean himself had chosen the topic for the day: “Money in Our society Today.”

I apologize to the class for my lack of preparation and after a short introduction, had them work as pairs on the topic of what made a good teacher. Their professor didn’t want the students toto spend time writing their answers and wanted me to just ask them questions orally. I persisted by explaining that students needed to use all four skills in order to achieve fluency. Writing is not taught as a formal subject here and thus students can barely put together a cohesive sentence. When they stood up to give me their responses, which I summarize on the board, using a wet sponge to erase, the teacher kept interrupting them and completing their sentences. I asked him to please give them a chance to talk. By noon, I was famished and told the professor he could continue the class, which lasted for 80 minutes, for the next twenty minutes as I had not even had lunch and needed to get something to eat. He seemed none too happy and said that if the students had no questions, class would be over. He didn’t understand when I asked him if the class could be “dismissed”.

I made my way to the Russian cafeteria and found a line stretching to the door. I realized then there was no way I could have lunch and return in time for the 12:30pm class the dean had also arranged. Too bad because I had to eat and find a bathroom quickly. While having my usual soup, salad, bread and some boiled cabbage, the young woman I had met the previous Friday, and who volunteered at the Ismaili Center, came in with a friend and sat at my table. I related what had happened and she offered to try and get a key to the bathroom from the restaurant staff. When we went downstairs and she opened the door, my stomach lurched at the smell and the sight of a filthy squat toilet and an overflowing basket of toilet paper. I sincerely apologized to her, but said I could not set foot in that place. She offered to take me to her office so I could use their bathroom.

Tahmina had brought the box of books and offered to get a student to bring it in and then I could take it to the Resource Room. I decided instead that I wanted the books at home to plan my lessons there and figure I could take a taxi back. Firuza was so nice as to come back into the institute with me and negotiate with the taxi driver, who charged me 15 somonis, so I could get the box home. I started to carry out the box myself and the dean was appalled, begging me to allow him to find another student to carry it to the taxi stand. I told him I was used to moving boxes in all the years of living as a gypsy, but he took off and sent a very tall student to relieve me of the box. When I got home and perused the contents, I found, to my dismay that almost all of the materials require some kind of audio visual equipment to be presented to the class, something I lack completely. The institute doesn’t have an overhead projector, LCD projector, CD player, TV set or DVD player. It feels like being back in Nepal in 2000 where I only had access to chalk. Sometimes at the institute, the students can’t find even that.

Caroline called to inform me she had managed to buy a brand new printer, but had no cable to attach it to her computer as the store was out. I needed to print a few pages for my classes tomorrow and agreed to take my cable and JumpDrive to her house do so. I also needed to stop by the seamstress’ place in the hope that my outfit would be finished this time. When we got there, she was at her sewing machine working on it and seemed sheepish to have to apologize once again for not having it ready. She wanted to show me that she had taken the tunic apart and removed all the pleats in the front that made me look as if I were pregnant. She wanted for me to go back the next day, but I declined. Who knows when it’ll be readied?

                           Pensive girl at the seamstress shop

Corrie had called me to ask me to bring her the winter coat she had left at my house as Tahmina had invited her to go to Gharam with her and present a workshop on celebrating Halloween in the U. S. for the local teachers. All three of us went out to dinner at the nearby cafeteria and I found out, to my delight, that they had liver, and not my favorite soup. The liver was tender and they served it with plenty of sauce to go over the wheat germ I selected to go with it. When we stepped outside, I asked Corrie to please call my landlord, as she speaks Russian, to inform him that I needed a portable radiator to move between the kitchen and the bedroom before the weather turns even colder. It was 48 degrees this morning. He indicated he’d let his wife know and informed me of her decision shortly. I had only brought my heavy shawl with me and felt almost chilled. Caroline offered to lend me one of her heavy sweaters, but I preferred to walk quickly back to my house.

Stopped at Mariam’s apartment before getting to mine and she mimed she had been knocking on my door earlier. The two outfits were almost ready and she had wanted to have me try them on before finishing them. I felt somewhat awkward stripping to my panties and camisole in her kitchen, but she seemed fine with it. She insisted on giving me a pair of warm pink socks to wear around the house, a piece of flat bread decorated with poppy seeds and a generous portion of plov, as I could not eat it at that point. We agreed to go to the bazaar on Sunday morning to buy the ingredients for plov and she’ll teach me how to cook it. I hope Caroline can join us.

October 23, 2011

It rained all night and practically all day. It seemed like the answer to my prayers as I hope that all dust is removed from the streets, houses and trees so my allergies diminish somehow. I chose the perfect day to stay home in my pajamas as it was cold and dreary outside. Caroline ventured to come here and bring me her portable hard drive containing some of the teaching materials she got to use while working in Oman. I repaid her the favor by improvising a pasta dish with olive oil, tomatoes, peppers, garlic and shallots. I grated some of the cheese I had purchased earlier in the absence of Parmesan cheese. It wasn’t too bad.

By mid-afternoon, the apartment felt frigid and we played with the remote control to the AC/heating unit, but couldn’t get any heat to come from it. Finding the manual helped and in a few minutes we felt some warmth, but not enough to heat up the entire apartment, as I had suspected from the beginning, and Caroline suggested we simply close the door to the living room and stay there. We had pastry and tea and felt much better.

Yoomie had called to pick up the portable hard drive with tons of movies and TV shows she had loaned us and Caroline had offered to meet her at the corner. It was already dark when Corrie came back to take her bags and it was still raining. I begged her to just take what she needed for the night and come back the next day in better weather.

After both of them left, I had my privacy back. I hope I don’t have to sleep in the living room couch during the winter as my bedroom was pretty chilly tonight.

October 22, 2011

Up at the crack of dawn to make it to the Ismaili Center by 6:30a.m. The temperature is definitely dropping slightly every day and I chose to wear a sweater with a camisole underneath just in case. When we approached the security personnel, Corrie, who is white, has light brown hair and green eyes, was not asked to provide ID. I had to show my embassy badge before I was allowed to proceed. The nerve! We were immediately corralled and told our function would be to collect press members at the entrance and, in groups of ten, bring them through the garage to their assigned location. It didn’t quite work out that way as most journalists were late and straggled in at different times.

We had been told there would be refreshments available and I was thinking breakfast, of course. Caroline and I sneaked to the tables only to find Danish cookies, tea and coffee, and instant at that! I can drink the Nescafe stuff as long as there is milk to make it palatable. When Ilana and Lauren went to get refreshments, they’re both white; they were shooed away by the embassy staff after being told the food was only for visitors. I felt some kind of revenge.

                   Corralling the press: Ilana, Lauren and Caroline

The program started at 9:45 with the local moderators calling on outstanding students in the area and given them some sort of present. This part of the program was entirely in Russian and I quickly got bored. I even relinquished the spot I had staked out to better see Hillary and went to sit next to my friends. I noticed about ten women sitting ahead of me all wearing a scarf tied in a completely different fashion. Need to find out if that is a regional or personal preference.  Clinton started her presentation right on cue at 10:45 and spoke for 15 minutes before handing the microphone to the audience to ask her questions.  Her responses stuck to the party line of supporting the local struggle for human rights, women’s rights, freedom of religion, the rights to exploit its national resources, the influence of Afghanistan due to the long border shared by that country and so on. At 11:30, the town hall part of her visit was over and she was moved into another room for an interview with the local press. We then escorted the public out of the auditorium, collected the press badges and, thankfully, were allowed to leave and get some lunch.

                                Hillary Clinton during the town hall

The group decided on F1 Café and we took taxis there. Even at 12:30p.m., the food was still cold and had to be placed in the microwave before being handed to us. At least plov was available and I had Russian salad on the side. The skies had turned dark and we felt a few drops of rain falling on us as we walked home. Corrie went to run some errands and I decided to stay put.

     Clinton with Tajikistan's president, Imomalii Rahmon

When she got back, we spent the evening snacking and talking about her background and mine and how dissimilar our ESL experiences had been.  Curiously enough, she had been at the 2005 International TESOL conference in Tampa which I had also attended. She plans to move out tomorrow to stay with friends as she hasn’t been able to make up her mind about a place to rent yet. It had been raining continuously and we even got to see lightning and hear thunder for the first time since I've been in the country.

October 21, 2011

At long last, water was available this morning. Not much time to deal with the mountain of dishes and other chores as we needed to head to the Ismaili Center to do a dry run for the Hillary Clinton’s visit scheduled for tomorrow, for which we are expected to be present and help out with logistics. I got the Hyatt Hotel, across which the Ismaili Center is located, confused with the Tajikistan Hotel and we were late. Not much was happening though. Tahmina was present and a few other people I recognized from the embassy. The technical crew was testing the microphones and AV equipment while others were setting out folding chairs. After a long wait, we were taken out to the main entrance to simulate the way all local Tajiks were going to be processed for the security screening. No one without a proper ID would be admitted to the town hall. Back inside the magnificent building, more discussions on moving people from one area to another.

 Main entrance to the splendid Ismaili Center of Dushanbe

By noon, not much progress had been made and I made my out to find a mini-van that would take me to my classes. Crossing the busy street alongside me was a young woman who had also come out of the center and who confirmed I could catch the #22 to the PedInst and she was heading in the same direction. I ended up having lunch with Firuza, who is from the Pamir region, and dresses like any western young woman in tight jeans and slouchy top. We went back to the same Russian restaurant I had visited two days ago with Pariso. My choice of soup and salad was excellent and she let taste what she had chosen. Firuza is studying for the TOEFL exam as she would like to qualify for a scholarship and obtain a masters in the States. I offered to help her on the weekends while helps me with my Tajik and takes me shopping.

My first class of the day was just as unruly and noisy as the day before as the students could not complete the simple introduction assignment given to them the day before and insisted on passing their papers to the most advanced students to do it for them or obtaining their papers and copying it verbatim. When presentations were due, one could easily identify the cheaters as they gave the wrong answers or used the wrong gender. This was supposed to be a back-to-back class, but then the class monitor informed me that the following hour was scheduled for them to take their grammar exam or “grammatik”, as he insisted on calling it. I told him that was fine and that I would just sit and observe the testing process. I gave them the same homework assignment of coming up with a list of the essential qualities a good teacher must have to serve as a discussion starter for our class on Saturday. They had no idea how to get started, so I gave them an example sentence: a good teacher should be patient. No one had ever seen the word “patient” and could not find it in the miniscule Russian/English dictionaries a few of them carry. I demonstrated the quality until the monitor was able to shout the translation into Tajik.

 Typical blackboard at the institute - Rags on the right are used to erase it

Dilapidated classroom with broken chairs and leftover posters

A few minutes after that, I was informed that the test had been cancelled because the teacher had left the institute. I had students get into groups of four to work on the homework assignment and then faced a minor insurrection as certain students insisted on being included in the group where their best friend was sitting. I remained firm and said groups were to remain as I had formed them. As I walked around monitoring the list formation, I noticed quite a few student including statements such as: Ms. Delancer is a kind and jolly teacher. I made it clear that they were not to include any particular examples, but qualities in general. No brownie points for buttering up the teacher!

At the end of the period, only one group had come up with six qualities, some of which didn’t even apply to teaching. There was same mad grab of papers from other students trying to copy what they had been successful at producing or asking for them to mime the sentences to the others so it could be copied down. I went on to my next class in an even smaller classroom with the same pitted blackboard and rickety furniture as the other ones. Students straggled in and even the class monitor, responsible for taking attendance, was more than twenty minutes late. This group had forgotten about the homework assignment and didn’t even bring the list of questions. When asked to improvise and do the introductions, most of them refused. Three female students were busily texting while hiding their cell phones in their large handbags. I took the handbags and placed them on my desk. It was like pulling teeth to get them to interview their partners and many of them flat out refused to come to the front and perform the dialogue. It was a most dispiriting scenario.

While leaving the building, the one male English teacher approached me to find out how things were going. I told him how disappointed I was at the low level of the students and the fact that many of them simply spoke no English at all. By coincidence, one of the students who refused to participate in the activity just walked by and he took the student by the shoulder and informed me that the state selects a certain number of students from all the regions to become English teachers regardless of whether they have studied English previously or not. This student in particular had had no previous English learning whatsoever and thus was doing very poorly compared to those who had attended school in the capital. He personally teaches in Russian and Tajik as the students do not understand him when he speaks English

.

I went to Caroline’s place where we waited for the Peter and the vet who was coming to give her kitten some shots. It seems as if the poor cat has all possible diseases a cat could acquire and it might be the reason he was left out there in the cold. The vet gave him three shots, provided a special shampoo and prescribed other medication. Corrie came along later and we went to the Georgia Café for dinner, a restaurant I had not visited yet. The place was small with only about six tables, three of which were already occupied. After we placed our order, I noticed the table on the left was already lighting their cigarettes. There were no windows open and the door was closed. My soup was the color of dish water and the other dishes didn’t fare any better. Even the bottled water was served room temperature. Peter and Corrie carried on a conversation about their respective service in Armenia and Georgia and Caroline and I were left out of the picture. I had had it with the smoke and begged to wait outside until the bill was settled and Caroline offered to wait with me. A place not to be visited again.

October 20, 2011

Found out that at least the scanner portion of the all-in-one printer is working and devoted several hours to scan the Tajik language textbook Corrie brought with her. I still need to figure out how to compile the pages into an actual book. I got so distracted that I failed to check the time and at 1:30 realized I had a class at 2:20. I still have no water so a sponge bath was in order and I decided to just bite the bullet and take a taxi to the PedInst so as to make in time. When I opened the door to leave my apartment, the young man across the landing, who seems to be remodeling that unit to then rent it like my own, was closing his door and was accompanied by a young woman and little boy. I told him I was late for class and needed to take taxi and could he so kind as to tell me how much I should pay the driver. His wife spoke more English than he did and she offered to take me to work in their car and even gave me a couple of apples from the Pamir region where they are from. She used to teach German she indicated and they live far from here, but would love to invite me to their place at some point. We were at the Institute in less than ten minutes when it takes me about 40 minutes between my walk and the trolley!

                              The number 1 trolley that takes me to work.

My first class was cancelled as the students had not been able to take their scheduled exam due to a power outage. Their teacher asked me keep them busy while she went around finding the copies of the exam and doing other paperwork. The students could use their notes, dictionaries and their classmates to find out the answers. Their teacher never lifted her eyes from the paperwork she was doing and instead consulted with her colleague about their tutoring duties. The exam consisted of ten multiple choice questions regarding prepositions and definite/indefinite articles. The students had an entire hour to finish. My counterpart explained that if students fail their exams, they have to pay the university 100.00 somonis, but I could not find out what the money was intended for.

My subsequent class was a new group and also very rowdy once they realized I was not going to bark commands at them as their regular teachers do. I guess the noise level go the attention of the deputy dean who popped his head into classroom to make sure there wasn’t a complete subversion of the class. At the end of it, the class monitor stayed behind to sermon me about the way the class had been conducted and he admonished about joking with the students or laughing with them as that would lead to misconduct and he would be held responsible.

As I got to my building, my landlord arrived with the dry carpet his son had removed yesterday. 

October 19, 2011

My landlord showed up at 8:00am to repair the broken pipe and looked none too happy. Evidently, he felt that I should have known where the main water knob was so it could have been turned off and avoid more damage from happening to the apartment down below. As if talking to me in Russian or Tajik would have done any good. When he plugged the pump back in, only a trickle of water came in and he advised us to place a bucket under the shower faucet to catch some of it for now. Later on I got a text message from the embassy indicating we’d have no water in Dushanbe for two consecutive days. I have no way of storing water in the apartment, so I’ll have to buy some.

Corrie and I headed to the Green Bazaar so she could see what was available as the real estate canceled their appointment to see some apartments today. I got to peruse the house wares section where most stalls were completely dark and the merchandise dusty and forlorn. I wasn’t able to find any cast iron cookware, bake ware or a blender. Caroline met us for lunch and we tried one of the makeshift restaurants in the bazaar that looked relatively clean. We ordered shorbot to be on the safe side and green tea. The woman served us the soup and flat bread and came back with two big mugs of fruit compote (a drink). Corrie told her we had ordered green tea and she replied there was no water to make green tea. The soup had the usual piece of tough mutton, pieces of potatoes, carrots and a few garbanzo beans.

I needed to price the ink cartridges for the printer I had inherited from Beth, and so did Caroline for the one Rich had left behind. We headed to the stores that sell appliances on one end and computer supplies on the other. No cartridges were available to my model printer and I might have to use my allowance for teaching materials to buy another one. Printers can be purchased from $50.00 on. I asked to use the bathroom at this upscale shop and was told they were closed due to the lack of water. I did manage to find a mouse pad for under a dollar here. Blenders were way too expensive, but they offered a little one similar to the bullet one we can find in the States for about $25.00.

Another trip to the seamstress only to find out she had not been able to finish the items I had given her a week ago for alteration and the skirt she did manage had not been done as requested. I’ll never go back to her once I get my things back!

Met with my 111 group and managed to get all but one pair to do their presentations for the rest of the class. Gave them an assignment to list the qualities every good teacher should have for homework so we can have a discussion on Thursday. Caroline and Corrie were nearby and we accompanied her to get her OVIR registration and left her there as she had friends picking her up for dinner. We went on to have dinner at the F1.

Stopped at my neighbor’s apartment as she had called two nights in a row inviting me to visit. When I took off my sandals at the entrance, she offered me a pair of slippers to wear. Her daughter, Nilufar, has a 5 months old baby and apparently has trouble finding housing for herself and her husband, so she lives with her mother while he stays with his. I was offered grapes and a cut-up apple and my choice of coffee or tea. I turned down the latter as I didn’t need any caffeine so late in the day. Nilufar speaks a smattering of English and had access to an English-Russian phrase book, so we managed to carry on a halting conversation. Her father came in later on and embarrassingly told her what a beautiful woman I was. He is a musical conductor and started to hum a piece by Mozart, which, of course, I didn’t recognize. I also learned that my neighbor, Mariam, is a clothing designer and sews from her home. I asked her if she’d willing to make a couple of outfits for me and I brought down the fabric I had purchased and my Nepali outfit so she’d have a better idea. She found the fabric to be too thin and asked me if I’d not be cold for the winter wearing just that. I realize I need to buy some much thicker fabric for the upcoming months, but want to try her first.