January 16, 2012

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day. The snow seemed to have stayed on the top of all the tree branches and hardly any of it stayed on the ground. The entire city looked like a Hollywood set ready for the cameras to start rolling as they filmed a Christmas movie. I had run out of batteries for my camera once again and thus was unable to take any photos. As unlikely as it might sound coming from me, I hope this kind of snowstorm is repeated so I can take lots of photos with the new camera my sister is sending me.

When I arrived at the Teachers’ Training Center and was getting ready to set out my materials, Zhulejo came in to tell us we were moving to Secondary School #1 where a bigger classroom was available. And it was a good thing she did for we had 28 teachers show up. I had prepared a group of cards with common collocations for them to set up in pairs, but it was obvious they had never been taught collocations and didn’t know how to find the other half. Since this was a new group, we did an introductory activity that took forever given the size of the group and their lack of practice with any activity that doesn’t require memorizing. I brought a reading activity based on Martin Luther king, Jr.’s life and concluded with a comprehension activity.

Caroline and I went to the F1 cafeteria where I ordered something with garbanzo beans, chunks of tripe (I was surprised) and almost no flavor. Corrie joined us along with her friend from Khujand who invited us to visit her whenever we make it into her city. After eating, Corrie and I went back to the post office where someone had mentioned a printing service was located where we could get business cards printed. No one spoke English there, so Corrie got me the information using her Russian. It’s customary here to print business cards on both sides, one in English and the other in Russian. I’m going against the current and having them printed on one side only.

                             This is how the PedInst keeps its banana trees alive during the winter.

We then stopped at a store that sells ink cartridges for printers and also refills them. I got a quote for 25 somoni to refill mine as opposed to buying a new one for 363.00 somoni. On to my class at Caritas International where Corrie discussed with Takmina the possibility of offering weekly English classes to a group of young people who had been raised in an orphanage and now occupy a half-way house as they didn’t feel the classes being offered at the American Corner met their needs. I couldn’t take on any more commitments.