January 21, 2012

Somehow I misread the clock/watch in my house and went to the American Corner at 8:45am instead of 9:45. Alarmed at finding the place closed and no one around, I called Bakhtyor, who ignored my call, and then Caroline who set me straight. She invited me to her apartment, but I declined preferring to use the extra hour to get some materials laminated. The door was locked and when they finally open it and I asked for the service, the guy let out a stream of Russian of which I understood nothing. Was it that the machine was broken? The guy who does it wasn’t there yet? They no longer provide that service? Who knows, but it was clear no lamination was going to take place today.

On my way back, Shoira, from Operation Mercy, caught up with me and told me all the teachers from her NGO had signed up for the workshops. I was really glad to see her and we chatted along the way with my finding out that more snow was expected for Sunday and Monday. Upon entering the workshop space at the American Corner, we found it mobbed with people and all three tables already occupied with at least four people. I started to open folding chairs and asking the stream of people still arriving to just arrange themselves at best they could.

Corrie came in then and we realized that the few cookies/biscuits Caroline had brought, she had eaten some for breakfast, would not do, so she offered to go get more along with juices and more tea bags. I had brought my electric teakettle, tea and instant coffee. Caroline seemed unnerved by the amount of people as she could barely move around and declared it a fire hazard. The topic was how to work with pairs/groups in the classroom and a spirited discussion ensued which Caroline kept track of on a flip chart. She had planned to use a jigsaw puzzle to demonstrate how groups could share information after becoming experts on a particular subject, in this case the Chinese New Year, but didn’t have  enough copies for everyone and decided to end the workshop earlier. Attendees appeared to be truly disappointed.

We sat around kind of stunned and looked at each other for answers. Bakhtyor had no idea as to how all those teachers and students had heard about the workshop. We don’t know whether it could have been that Tahmina did a better job of disseminating the news or whether previous teachers had told others. We did know that not all of those presents were teachers, just students eager to improve their English. I’m presenting next week and don’t know how we can screen the attendees to make sure they are teachers and not students.

We went to lunch at a nearby government cafeteria to have the usual soup and bread as the rest of the dishes looked so unappetizing: steamed buckwheat, mashed potatoes, spaghetti with no sauce, and what looked like ground beef patties. Corrie ordered a pot of lemon tea and shared it with us. We must have spent at least two hours digesting the particulars of the workshops and gossiping about people at the embassy and other ex-pats in Dushanbe. Corrie suggested going to the Botanical Gardens, but Caroline and I declined as it was still very cold. We ordered another pot of tea while Corrie complained of getting cabin fever and looking for any opportunity to get out of her apartment. I’m so glad I feel so at home in mine where I don’t seem to lack for anything and can spend endless days cooking, reading, watching TV, surfing the Internet, preparing materials, sleeping and so on.