November 4, 2011

The tree outside my kitchen is totally denuded and now different birds are flitting among its branches, smaller ones and not as loquacious as the tenants of just a week ago. More rain splashes on the roof as people make their way through the muddy alleyway, carefully skirting the rivulets forcing their way down the slope. Took half the melon I bought at the market and brought it down to Mariam along with her dishes. She was babysitting her grandson while Nilufar ran some errands

                                     
                                                  Student wearing the Tajik flag

Met at the dean’s office with Tahmina and Sandy, who had never visited the institute before. As usual, he was affable and agreed to make one of the teachers accessible to which one of my classes so they could explain any point that was unclear to the students. When asked for a key to the classroom with the whiteboard, he immediately handed it to me. He did not apologize for not having made an attempt to introduce me to the rest of the faculty or providing a simple tour of the place so I’d know what was available. Sandy tried to sound upbeat about the possibility of teaching in the Resource Room even when I showed it to her in all its desolate splendor and felt that the students could be entice to come over after class to clean and repair the place. The students attend classes six days a week and I’m not sure they would want to spend their only day off cleaning a classroom.

                                             
                                                   Another brilliant display of color

Had lunch at the Morning Star Café where I had to return the corn chowder to the server by pointing out it looked more like split pea soup. She returned with another soup of the same consistency, but this time it was yellow in color. The poor server probably has never seen a corn chowder in her life.

Asked the students to help me rearrange the furniture in the tiny classroom to see if I could accommodate all the tables in a U-shape format facing the whiteboard after they let me know in no uncertain form that they did not want to walk to the Resource Center for their classes. When a female student wouldn't listen to me and continued shouting to other students, I asked her to leave the classroom. She did so after much fussing and I could hear muttering something and then "chorni" or Russian for black.

Stopped at the Megaphon office to find out what was wrong with my Internet connection and was told the money I had paid through the ATM did not go to that account. From now on, I need to come in person to their offices to make my payment. After some waiting, and talking to the manager on the telephone a couple of times, they were able to switch the payment to the right ledger and reassured my connection was as good as gold. What a relief!