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