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

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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.