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.