November 11, 2011

Although we were entitled to claim this day as a holiday, I decided to go to work as I had already skipped two days of teaching. Stopped at the bookstore and picked another 21 textbooks and the young clerk took the bundle, walked with me across the street and hailed a taxi. I asked the dean for permission to leave the books and CDs in his office until the start of my classes, and since he was free for the first time, asked him for advice on the repetitive notion the other English teachers have that I must be failing in my duties since I am not teaching strictly grammar in my classes. In his fractured English, he told me that point had been discussed in the faculty meeting the previous day and he felt the best way to handle the situation was to transfer me to a higher level class where the students could actually benefit from speaking activities. I countered by telling my teaching philosophy was that students learned a language, including its grammar, in the process of speaking it and not by dissecting the grammar by bits and pieces.

He seemed to agree with this logic; however, his hands were tied as he needed to follow the working plan submitted to the Ministry of Education. I was firm in making the point that I was not about to change classes just a few weeks prior to the end of the semester and now that I had made the investment of getting new textbooks for the students. He reiterated that the faculty had been made aware they needed to be present during my classes to help explain anything that was not clear to the students in Tajik or Russian. I think we both knew this was just a pretense since no faculty member has ever attended one of my classes.

Caroline had taken the day off and met me at the PedInst so we could go in search of the American Council, a place nearby I was told had numerous resources for teachers of English. I showed her the resource center and she was quite impressed as it as it was much larger, better equipped and cleaner than hers. While we were there, a crowd of students gathered at the door and one of them informed me that his teacher, whoever he was, had sent them to the resource center to watch a movie. I told him that unless he had his own key, I couldn’t let him in as I would be responsible for any damaged equipment or missing books. The teacher, presumably as I had no way of knowing this, came in then and insisted I allow his class into the room by telling me he had permission from someone named Shahlo to do so and called her on the phone. I stood firm and said she needed to provide the teacher with her own key and I locked the room and left. The guy just looked at me speechless.

Tahmina ran into us at the gate of the PedInst and indicated she had come in to deliver the final, corrected version of the MoU. She was as somber as usual and when asked for directions to the American Council was as vague as she has been about everything else. It’s hard to believe that she is a local person, who studied at the institute and then became a faculty member for she is very stingy with information and not forthcoming with any insights as to how to navigate the city or the system.

We attempted to follow her directions, but quickly got lost in what seemed like a residential area with one gate following another and no signs of commercial buildings. We had lunch at the Morning Star Café and then I went to my classes. I got three back to back classes on Fridays and it can be plain exhausting. The last class had hired what appeared to be a professional photographer for a class picture and insisted I go to the courtyard to be included in it.

While packing my bag to go home, I received a text message from Corrie asking us to stop at her house that evening. I had no energy left for social activities and instead had to walk back to the bookstore to see if I had left my handheld fan there as it really has helped with my hot flashes. The young clerk had it on top of his computer waiting for me. Walking home seemed like a struggle and didn’t even bother stopping at the supermarket for eggs and milk as I had originally planned. Caroline emailed to let me know she was meeting a group of ex-pats at the Merve Café in case I wanted to join them, but I declined and after eating leftovers for dinner went to bed very early.